Best Practices for Sharing Documents with Clients in ShareFile

Progress ShareFile software has been known for the granular permissions it provides its customers with respect to how they want to handle the sharing of documents. It gives the liberty to keep the sharing very restrictive and also to be flexible with permissions when required.

ShareFile software has always been about maintaining the security requirements for the customer and giving them the option to choose regarding what and how they want to handle the documents.

I am going to cover best practices for sharing documents with external clients in this blog and hope that might help with how to plan the sharing process in your ShareFile environment.

Add People to the Folder

Adding people to the folder works best when you and your clients are working on multiple files over a long period of time. You get to decide whether you want them to view/download/upload files and also let them administer the folder if required.

This feature helps you reduce sharing files repeatedly and track activities of the folder using the “View activity log” within the folder. You also get to assign permissions for upload/download notification permission from the folder itself. You can put a retention policy on the folder level if needed, and ShareFile software will keep the folder but expire the files after the mentioned retention days.

Overall, you should go for this option whenever a long-term collaboration is required. You don’t have to share the files separately and do the repeated tasks. It will save you time and help you collaborate with your clients seamlessly.

Share the File via a Link

There might be scenarios where you only need to share specific files with the client and don’t want them to have visibility to everything that is there in the folder. In that case, sharing the specific files using share links will help you maintain the integrity of the folder items. You will get options like viewing, downloading and editing with this mode of sharing. You can also enable watermark with the view-only mode.

As an additional layer of security, you get to decide whether you want the files to be accessed anonymously or only by employee/client users who are already a part of your ShareFile environment. ShareFile software has AI features now which detect any PII being shared using anonymous methods and warn you regarding the same. The choice still remains with you, whether you want to add additional security or ignore it.

Another great option you get in this mode is to set an expiry date after which the link will stop working. In short, you can use a share link when you want to share specific files and decide what level of security you want to implement in the link.

Share the File via Email

With the same features that you are sharing a link like view/download/watermark etc., you can share the same files via email. How is it any different, you may think. The main difference would be if you are sending the files this way and you send them to someone who does not exist in your ShareFile environment as an employee or client user already, then ShareFile will auto create a client user. The client will need to set up the account; however, this is going to save you time manually creating that client user.

You will also get an option to encrypt the email which lets the contents be shared only via a browser. This will encrypt the body of the email along with already encrypted files.

You can choose to use the sharing option directly from Outlook app as well. Once logged in, you will be able to share files directly from the Outlook app itself and get the same features as when you send them from the web app. You can or cannot choose to encrypt your email as well. All the files being shared this way can be tracked from the outlook app itself.

Now that I have already written a lot about all the options you get with ShareFile software, let me list out a few pointers that I keep in mind as a regular ShareFile user who collaborates internally and externally:

1. Try avoiding sharing files anonymously. I personally share files anonymously which I am sure do not contain any sensitive data. It is best to uncheck anonymous option to check off from the file settings.
2. Try doing a regular review of folder access using ShareFile reporting. Doing this once every couple of months will help you verify that anyone who might not be involved in your projects anymore can no longer access the files.
3. We all know how easy it is to screenshot anything nowadays. Enable the watermark for view-only files so that it shows on such screenshots.
4. Review permissions on the folder level and keep the notifications enabled for people actively working on the files.
5. If you go to Admin Settings > Advanced Preferences > Permissions, you will find two of the best options that ShareFile provides. Disable client contact shares to restrict clients from sharing the files further. And disable the folder access list to restrict them from knowing who else has access to the same folder.
6. Enable the “Share Recommender” option from Admin Settings. We all have time when we slip up and send files which we might not intend to. This option will not stop it from being shared, but the heads-up will be lifesaver when we may use the wrong access levels to the links.
7. Set a default expiry date for the links which will keep the files accessible within the specified time, but inaccessible after the links expire.

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