Share Documents Securely Outside Your Organization

Share Documents Securely Outside Your Organization

DocuShare Go provides controlled ways to share a document or folder with customers, suppliers, outside counsel, auditors, and other people who are not members of your organization. External recipients receive access only to the items you share, without receiving access to the rest of your repository.

Overview

You can share a single document or an entire folder without sending an email attachment. When you share a folder, everything in the folder is included automatically. Removing the folder share removes external access to all of its contents at once.

Choose a Sharing Method

Choose a Permission Level

• Viewer - Can open and read the shared content.
• Editor - Can open the shared content and make changes.

Shareable links always provide Viewer access. For an email invitation, you can change the recipient's permission level later or revoke that person's access entirely. Removing a shareable link ends access for everyone who has that link.

Set an Expiration Date

You can assign an expiration date to an external share. Access stops automatically after that date. Shareable links expire by default, and you can adjust the expiration date when creating the link.

A collection can also have a retention policy based on a fixed end date or a number of days. Retention policies can place an additional limit on how long shared content remains available.

Understand Guest Access

External recipients become guest users. Guest access is deliberately limited:

• Guests can access only the documents and folders that have been shared with them and the document viewer.
• Guests cannot browse or search the rest of your repository.
• Guests cannot view your users, groups, or organization settings.
• Guests cannot add users or change organization settings.
• Guests receive only the Viewer or Editor permission granted on the shared items.

If a person later needs broader access, an administrator can add that person to the organization as a full DocuShare Go user.

Guest Allowances

The guest allowance depends on your subscription type and the number of users purchased:

For example, a Concurrent User subscription for 10 users permits up to 50 guest users. Guests are tracked against this separate allowance rather than the licensed user count.

• Each shareable link uses one guest slot because the link is backed by its own guest identity. Removing links you no longer need releases that capacity.
• After someone is already a guest, you can continue sharing with that person even if the guest allowance has been reached. The limit applies when adding a new external person.

Review External Sharing Activity

DocuShare Go keeps a history of external sharing activity, including:

• Documents and folders shared or unshared, including the recipient's email address for email invitations.
• Permission levels granted and later changes to those permissions.
• Expiration dates that were set or changed.
• Shareable links that were created, changed, or removed.
• Documents viewed, downloaded, or printed, and folders downloaded.

A collection administrator can download an audit report for a selected date range. The report shows how each item was shared, who received access, the permission level, and the expiration date.

How DocuShare Go Protects Shared Content

• Content is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption at the storage layer.
• Connections are encrypted in transit using TLS, and non-secure access is refused.
• File downloads use short-lived, secure links generated for each request rather than permanent file URLs.
• Regional environments are available in the United States, Europe (Frankfurt), and Canada. Documents, user accounts, and activity history remain in the region where the organization is provisioned.
• Uploaded files are scanned for malware before entering the repository.

Notifications

External recipients receive an email when content is shared with them. Licensed DocuShare Go users can also receive notifications when content in a shared folder changes, such as when a document is added or renamed.

Each licensed user controls which notifications they receive and how often. These notification preferences apply to your organization's users, not to guests.

Recommended Practices

1. Use an email invitation when access must be associated with a specific person.

2. Use Viewer permission unless the recipient needs to modify the content.

3. Set an expiration date that matches the business need.

4. Remove expired or unnecessary shareable links to end access and release guest capacity.

5. Review collection audit reports when you need a record of external access and activity.

6. Use collection retention policies when content should be retired automatically after a defined period.

Summary

DocuShare Go offers a controlled alternative to sending sensitive documents as email attachments. You can share by named email invitation or secure link, limit recipients to Viewer or Editor access, set expiration dates, revoke access, and review an audit history of external sharing and recipient activity.