I'm looking for advice on how to effectively handle external file sharing in Google Workspace. Our small company of 50 has a good number of external partners, and I want to maintain a clear overview of shares without breaking the bank. We know about the DLP option, but upgrading to the Business Plan at an extra cost of $7 per user per month seems too expensive for us.
The built-in DLP tool doesn't offer a great solution either, especially since it appears to require manual approval for each domain which could get really time-consuming. I want to empower our users to specify why they share files externally, and also have a way to export that information for audits. Plus, a comprehensive dashboard to monitor our Google Drive health would be super beneficial.
Has anyone else faced similar issues? What solutions or workarounds have you found that might work for a small team like ours?
3 Answers
Honestly, DLP in Google Workspace isn't great even on the higher tiers. The built-in reporting features are lacking, so many small businesses end up relying on third-party DLP tools, which can be quite pricey and complex to set up. If you're looking to do this without spending a ton, I wouldn't hold my breath for a good solution on the standard plan. It's often more about ticking boxes for audits than actually preventing data loss effectively.
I get where you're coming from. Google Workspace is fine for basic tasks, but if you need visibility, you might have to get creative. Lots of people resort to scripts or admin reports to gain some insight, though it won't be as tidy as a full dashboard. If you're handy with coding, building some internal tools for tracking and audit purposes isn't a bad route to take, just be careful not to end up reinventing a compliance product!
There are ways to harness GAM to create a script that can export all your file access controls into a CSV. This will help you identify who files are shared with and any unique domains. While this doesn't prevent sharing, it gives you the detection capability to monitor what’s going on and can help you encourage using shared drives where you can limit access for external orgs.
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