How do I share documents securely?

Penn offers these services that allow faculty and staff to securely share documents.

Google Drive

These are the main features of Google Drive for Google@SEAS accounts:

• Available to the Google@SEAS accounts of all SEAS faculty, staff, and students
• Sharing and collaboration with Google@SEAS users, other Google accounts, with some limited sharing with non-Google accounts
• Google Shared Drives (formerly Team Drive) for longterm storage resilient to changes in membership
• FERPA-compliance for storing student information [Please note that HIPAA protected information cannot be stored or transmitted on this or any SEAS facility.]
• Desktop sync and offline access with Google Drive for Desktop (formerly Google Drive File Stream)
• Linux supported via Rclone, a cloud storage sync client for Linux that supports Google Drive
• Generous storage

For instructions, see Google's Share files from Google Drive article.

You can find more information about Google@SEAS in the Google@SEAS FAQ.

Secure Share

Secure Share is a web-based application for secure file exchange available to Penn faculty, staff, and students that ensures the safety and privacy of University data.

These are the main features of Secure Share:

• Available to most (but not all) Penn faculty, students and staff with an eligible Penn affiliation (PennKey required)
• Sharing is restricted to other Penn users with an eligible Penn affiliation (PennKey required)
• Users may upload and download files via Secure Share and the application ensures that files reach only the intended recipients.
• Files are encrypted when they are uploaded, downloaded, and while being stored, and the system sends e-mail notifications to designated recipients when files are available for retrieval.
• Files are automatically deleted after they are retrieved by a designated recipient; files that are not retrieved within 30 days are deleted from the system.
• Secure Share is not designed to be a document storage facility.

For instructions, see Penn ISC's Secure Share documentation.

Log into Secure Share

Penn+Box

NOTE: Due to usability issues, CETS strongly discourages the use of Penn+Box when Google@SEAS can be used instead.

Which Service Should I Use?

Use Google@SEAS when all users have SEAS accounts. While you can use a Google@SEAS account to collaborate with any other Google accounts, protections for University data are not applicable when shared outside the organization. Keep this in mind when collaborating on University data, such as research results or student information.

Use Secure Share to securely send a single document to one or more colleagues who have PennKeys.