When sharing files from MediaLab, we provide several different methods to help you share these securely.
One of the things we recommend is to prefer personal links over general links. It is often much safer to share a unique link per person, as it will allow you to see whether the recipient viewed your email and how many times they opened it. If the unique link is leaked for whatever reason, it can also be traced back to the person who received it.
While you will be able to trace the source of the leak, it won't magically resolve the leak. To reduce the impact of a leaked share link, you can set a maximum number of views. When the number of views has been reached, the link will be marked as expired and can no longer be used. It is also possible for administrators to set a default maximum, which will be used for all share links unless changed by the user.
This provides a good way to avoid share links being shared on a public forum or group when used in a sensible manner. For most personal share links created, we notice they are usually opened a handful of times by each recipient. While you don't want to restrict the original recipient, by setting a sensible limit of 50 maximum views for example, the moment the link is leaked on a public website it will be invalidated in no-time and the damage caused will be limited.
Depending on the type of media and recipients, you can set a higher maximum or disable it altogether (i.e. unlimited views).
The maximum views option is available in the general share form and when sharing files through our API. It is accessible for all users that have permissions to share media.
Please note that, to provide a good viewing experience for recipients, once a user has opened a link, they will be able to keep viewing it for a short period even if it has exceeded the maximum number of views.
In addition to setting a maximum number of views, there are other good practices that we recommend like disabling the download option when not necessary.
Have more questions? Feel free to get in touch with us.