Cloud Storage

Over the past few months, most of us have probably seen a drastic increase in our use of cloud storage solutions. We're being asked more and more to collaborate at a distance, even when it's with people who we have worked side by side with for years.

Our personal lives also frequently involved cloud storage solutions to share documents, images and other files for any number of reasons which have nothing to do with Harvard or HBS.

It's important to consider whether you are using these tools in a healthy manner.

How Did You Share?

Many cloud storage tools allow you to invite people in one of two ways. Most will allow you to invite people directly, by providing the individual's email address or other ID. While both methods have pros and cons, it is considered best practice to send invitations directly.

Why Could Link Sharing Be Dangerous?

When you send links, you have no control over who uses these links. If the link is shared (intentionally or otherwise), you lose the ability to see who has access to files and who is making changes. If you have shared a file or folder using a direct link, consider deactivating that link and reinviting them using email addresses.

Do You Still Need to Share those Files?

Not all of the shares you create need to last indefinitely. When a project or effort comes to an end, you should consider:

• Do some or all of the people you invited to share still need access to these files?

• Should the files be moved to a more permanent home, such as a departmental share on the HBS Fileserver?

Modifying Existing Permissions

If you would like to view and modify how you shared information:

• Google Help: Stop, limit, or change sharing

• Microsoft Help: See who a file is shared with in OneDrive or SharePoint

• Dropbox Help: How do I see who's viewing my files?

• Sharepoint/Teams Help: Sharing files in Microsoft Teams

Stay tuned—more functionality for Teams and Sharepoint (such as Guest Revocation) is coming soon!