How to manage external sharing settings in SharePoint

 

How to manage external sharing settings in SharePoint

SharePoint has external sharing settings at both the organization level and the site level. These settings control who can access shared content from outside your organization.

Organization-level settings

The organization-level settings control the default external sharing settings for all sites in your organization. These settings can be configured in the SharePoint admin center.

The organization-level settings include:

• Allow external sharing: This setting determines whether users can share content with people outside your organization.
• Who can be invited to collaborate: This setting determines who can be invited to collaborate on shared content. You can choose to allow guests, who don't have a Microsoft 365 account, to be invited, or you can restrict sharing to internal users only.
• Who can view shared links: This setting determines who can view shared links. You can choose to allow anyone with the link to view shared content, or you can restrict viewing to internal users only.

Site-level settings

The site-level settings override the organization-level settings for the specific site. These settings can be configured in the site settings.

The site-level settings include:

• Allow external sharing: This setting determines whether users can share content with people outside your organization from this site.
• Who can be invited to collaborate: This setting determines who can be invited to collaborate on shared content from this site. You can choose to allow guests, who don't have a Microsoft 365 account, to be invited, or you can restrict sharing to internal users only.
• Who can view shared links: This setting determines who can view shared links from this site. You can choose to allow anyone with the link to view shared content, or you can restrict viewing to internal users only.

Best practices for managing external sharing settings

Here are some best practices for managing external sharing settings in SharePoint:

• Allow external sharing only when necessary: Only allow external sharing when you need to share content with people outside your organization. This will help you to protect sensitive information.
• Restrict who can be invited to collaborate: By default, anyone with the link can view shared content, even if they are not a guest user. To prevent unauthorized access, you can restrict who can be invited to collaborate on shared content.
• Use caution when sharing links: When you share a link to a shared document or site, the recipient will be able to view the content without having to sign in to SharePoint. Be sure to share links only with people you trust.
• Review your external sharing settings regularly: It's a good idea to review your external sharing settings regularly to make sure they are still appropriate for your organization.

By following these best practices, you can help to protect your organization's sensitive information and ensure that external sharing is used safely and securely.

Here are some additional tips for managing external sharing settings:

• Use the SharePoint audit log to track external sharing activity. This can help you to identify any unauthorized external sharing.
• Set up alerts to notify you when external sharing is enabled or disabled. This can help you to keep track of changes to your external sharing settings.
• Use a third-party tool to manage your external sharing settings. There are a number of third-party tools that can help you to manage your external sharing settings more easily.

By following these tips, you can help to ensure that your external sharing settings are secure and compliant.