DATE:
April 30, 2026
TO:
All District Administrators
FROM:
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services
SUBJECT:
“Anyone with the Link” Files in Google Drive (April 2026)
Throughout the District’s Google Drive system, there are numerous files that are set to be visible or editable by “anyone with the link.” There are a number of use cases where having publicly accessible files in Drive can be a benefit; however, these files often contain student or employee data that should not be publicly shared. Making this data publicly accessible can result in a data incident or breach.
Changes may be implemented in the future to reduce the possible risks of files shared to “anyone with the link.” At this time, however, all employees are requested to review their own Drive for files that may be shared incorrectly and to either delete the files or make the necessary adjustments to sharing.
The steps to accomplish this review are below, as well as the text of the directions which will be shared with employees in JEM. Principals are asked to remind faculty of this JEM item and/or to make time available for digital coaches to demonstrate how to search for files. No monitoring or reporting of completion is requested or required at this time.
Steps to Review Sharing:
- Sign in to Google Drive using your jordandistrict.org credentials.
- Near the top of the page, look for a button/menu labeled “People”.
- Click on this button and select “Anyone with the link.” This will filter files to only those that are publicly shared.
- Review the files. Old files that are no longer needed can be deleted. Files that should not be publicly shared should have their settings changed by right-clicking the file and selecting the “Share” item.
These steps will show publicly shared files in a personal Drive only. Many files, particularly those with student data, are in Shared Drives. These steps will need to be repeated inside a Shared Drive to identify files that need review.
Lock Your Drive!
You wouldn’t leave your front door open when no one was home, or leave a car unlocked in a full parking lot, so why leave your files open and accessible? Across the District, a significant number of files in Google Drive have a sharing status where “anyone with the link” can view or edit. While this might be appropriate for certain situations, any file with student or employee data should only be shared with Jordandistrict.org - or better yet, only with those who have a legitimate need to access the file.
Checking your files is easy! Just do the following:
- Sign in to your jordandistrict.org Google Drive using the “waffle” or by opening http://drive.google.com.
- Under the “People” menu at the top of the page, select “Anyone with the link” (your menu may be slightly different - that’s okay!).
- That’s it! You should see a list of all the files in your personal Drive that are set to be publicly accessible. If you manage or are a member of a Shared Drive, you will need to open the Shared Drive and follow these same steps.
Once you have identified the files that are shared publicly, you should go through and ensure that any files containing student or employee data are no longer shared publicly. You can do this by right-clicking on a file and selecting the “Share” menu.
BONUS TIP! You may have files that are set to be publicly shared that are located all throughout your Drive. If these files need to be kept publicly accessible, consider making a folder in your Drive called “Public Files” and moving the files here. To add another layer of monitoring, you can add an indicator to the file name, such as “[PUBLIC]”, to make sure you remember these files are public and should not contain student or employee data.
