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Can we stop someone with access to a shared link from sharing it with other people?

Hi all,

I have a problem with a specific Dropbox setting. I know that what I want to do should be possible, but unfortunately, I can't figure it out. That's why I need your help. It's about the following: I want to share files with clients using Dropbox. I don't want these clients to have to install Dropbox themselves, because we don't want to drive up extra costs for the clients. But I want to prevent the folder links from being made public or shared with people who aren't supposed to have access.

How did I set this up?

Inside Dropbox, I created a client folder
Within this client folder are several subfolders
In the LINK FOR VIEWING settings of the client folder and in the subfolders, I selected 'ANYONE WITH LINK' under 'Who can access', because the clients are not added as members in Dropbox.

We don't send the links directly to the client, but we copy and paste the shared link into Webflow, where we have created a client page. The link refers to a specific folder on the client page

The client has access to the client page. Logins are handled via Memberstack.

Using the above, clients can log in to the client page and have access to their files. But what is the issue now? The client can copy the link from the folder and forward this link to someone who is not logged in to the client page.

This other person can then use the link to gain access to the Dropbox folder. And that last part is exactly what we want to prevent. How can I prevent this?

I have a Dropbox Business Plan and I am the admin.

I hope anyone can help me out.

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Comments

Hannah

Hey @Lennard1, thanks for posting your question to our Community.

To get to the point, when it comes to sharing files with non-Dropbox users through shared links, we do offer ways for you to protect your links, such as password protection, disabling downloads for the links and adding an expiration date on them.

However, there's no way for us to stop someone who already has access to the link from passing it on to someone else.

I will pass your feedback along to the team, though, and you can read more about the shared link permissions and how to enable them here.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Lennard1

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for your quick reply. I know there is password protection, but when you enter a password you will be redirected from the client-page to an online-dropbox environment and that is ideally not what we want to happen. Disabling downloads is not something we want, as we need our clients to be able to download the files that are save din the folders. Same applies to adding an expiration date to a link (thus to a folder) as we want our clients to have access to the folder any time.

Would it be possible to remove the COPY LINK and OPEN IN DROPBOX icons from this screen? That would also help.

Kind regards,

Lennard

Hannah

Thanks for the clarifications, Lennard!

Does this window appear within Webflow?

Rich

Lennard1 wrote:
Disabling downloads is not something we want, as we need our clients to be able to download the files that are save din the folders.

Keep in mind that if you're allowing your clients to download the files, then, ultimately, you can't prevent them from re-sharing the files. They can easily upload the files to their own Dropbox account, or any other platform, and create their own link.

Simply put, once you put a file anywhere on the Internet for a person to access, there's nothing you can do to prevent them from re-sharing it. Even with disabling downloads, a person can just screenshot the page or copy/paste the content if it's text, etc.

Lennard1

Yes, this appears when selecting a folder on our client page that was created in Webflow.

Hannah

Since it's on a third-party website/service, there's no way to hide it from our end.

I'd suggest reaching out to Webflow for more info, in this case, Lennard.