It’s Time to Run an Audit of All the Cloud Storage Links You’ve Shared

Cloud storage certainly has a lot going for it. For a start, if you drop your laptop into the sink, it's likely that a lot of your important work will be backed up somewhere in the cloud, as long as you’re using services such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud.

The Details

Then there's file sharing: Not too many years ago, swapping large amounts of data with other people meant dragging and dropping and running around with USB drives (and perhaps even mailing them). Now, via a couple of clicks and a link, you can share just about anything with just about anyone, anywhere in the world.

However, this comes with security risks attached. You don't want those links making their way to anyone they weren't intended for, otherwise they've got access to your files and folders. They could potentially see what's in them, and maybe even make changes or delete files, depending on the permissions you've set.

It's worth emphasizing that sharing files through these cloud storage services isn't inherently insecure—these shared links are actually very well protected, by default. However, the longer they stick around, the bigger the risk gets. Your links could get mistakenly forwarded in an email, or one of your contacts could have their email account hacked.

With that in mind it's prudent to run a regular audit on the cloud sharing links you've got active. It shouldn't take long: The apps involved usually make this pretty straightforward. Once you've closed a link down, no one else can get to it.

If you head to the

Microsoft OneDrive portal on the web, you'll see a Shared link in the navigation pane on the left: Click this, then select By you up at the top of the file list to see everything you've shared with other people. Use the Modified header if you want to sort the files and folders by the oldest or most recent.

Click the three dots next to any file or folder, then Manage access to control who can get to it. If you've shared the file with specific people, you can remove some or all of them; if the file or folder is shared more widely with just a link, clicking the trash can gets rid of it. You can also open up Office files to manage access there.

It's worth knowing that when you opt to share a file in OneDrive on the web (via the three dots and), if you click the cog icon on the Share panel you can set an expiration date for the sharing—which saves you the trouble of having to tidy it up afterwards.

Apple iCloud

If iCloud Drive is your cloud storage service of choice, once you've got the main interface up on the web, you can click Shared on the navigation pane on the left to go straight to the files and folders you're sharing with other people. There's no easy way to sort them, but you can use the search box up in the top right corner.

Turning off sharing for a file in iCloud.

Courtesy of David Nield

Click the three dots next to a file and folder, then Managed Shared File, to make changes. The next screen lets you block access for specific contacts, and to change permissions (from editing to just viewing, for example). If you want to cancel the sharing altogether, click Stop sharing.

Unlike OneDrive, iCloud doesn't give you any way of putting expiration periods on shared links, so you have to clear them up manually.

Dropbox is one of the more aggressive services when it comes to tidying up shared links, and if you use the Dropbox apps you might see reminders to review the files and folders you've shared with others. From Dropbox on the web, click Shared in the left-hand navigation pane to see files and folders you're currently sharing.

You can get quite a detailed breakdown here, including by Files or by Folders. Click the three dots next to any entry, then, to see the current sharing options: You can remove access for contacts one by one, or click the cog icon (top left) to find the Unshare button that ends all sharing completely.

Dropbox does have link expiry features built in: If you open up the share settings whenever you're sharing a file or folder, you'll see Link expiry is one of the options. It's an easy way to tidy up after yourself, provided the people you're sharing the file or folder with get around to viewing it in time.

Google Drive

Google Drive, surprisingly, isn't quite as on top of shared links as other cloud storage services. If you open up the web portal, there's no easy to access list of everything you've shared: The closest thing to it is clicking the People filter, and then choosing contacts to see files and folders you've shared with them specifically. If you pick Anyone with the link from the drop-down list, you'll see everything shared with a simple link.

To change the sharing settings for a file or folder, click on the three dots, then. Click the cog icon on the panel that pops up, then you can remove contacts as needed and turn the visible link off.

As with iCloud, there's no link expiry feature you can rely on here, so shared files and folders can't be set to become unshared after a certain time has elapsed. It has to be done manually, so it's a shame Google doesn't make it as easy as it could be.