How do I share documents securely?

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

Google Drive

Google Drive is included with all Google@SEAS accounts, available to Penn Engineering faculty, staff, students and sponsored accounts:

• Share files and collaborate with Google@SEAS or external Google accounts, with limited sharing with non-Google accounts.
• Create Google Shared Drives for project storage that is resilient to changes in membership.
• When appropriate security measures are taken, Google@SEAS may be used to store student information that is protected under FERPA (but should never be used to store information protected under HIPAA).
• Desktop sync and offline access on Windows and MacOS is supported via Google Drive for Desktop. Linux is supported via Rclone, a cloud storage sync client that supports Google Drive.

How do I avoid publicly sharing documents?

Only share Google Drive resources directly with the people who need to see them. Avoid selecting Anyone with the link or University of Pennsylvania SEAS when sharing, especially when sensitive information is involved. These links are public and can easily be leaked to people who should not have access. When an unauthorized user visits a restricted resource, they will have an opportunity to submit an access request for you to review.

If you must share a resource publicly, grant the Viewer permission instead of Editor to prevent unauthorized changes or deletions.

To audit your Google Drive for files and folders that were publicly shared:

1. Visit https://drive.google.com/ while logged into your Google@SEAS account.
2. Click on My Drive, a Shared Drive, Shared with me, or any folder.
3. Click on the People button that appears above the listing and select Anyone with the link and/or University of Pennsylvania SEAS to find unrestricted files or folders.
4. If you want the resource to be public, be sure to change the Editor permission to Viewer where appropriate. This is especially important for folders.
5. Use the other filter buttons to narrow your search, if needed.

Owners and Shared Drive managers tend to have greater visibility and should also perform these steps.

For more information on sharing, see Google's Share files from Google Drive article.

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.