*Warning*Google Workspace (Suite) "Target audience" feature

[Jaan]

We just noticed our default share settings for Google drive has changed his morning.

 

Looking into this, Google seems to have added a new "Target audience" feature where it will select the default sharing permission for any files/doc you want to share.

 

In its wisdom, Google decided that our whole domain would benefit as being the default target audience as default share group and these new files.

 

This could mean that if a staff member didn't change (or read) the share permission before saving, student could has been given access to confidential files.

 

Lucky we use team/shared drives here, and we can check who's read or accessed files.

 

Just thought i'd mention it in case somebody else has been affected by it.

 

Not sure i missed a bulletin about this new feature...... seems to be "beta" also

 

Apps---Google Workspace---Settings for Drive and Docs---Sharing settings---Sharing options---Access Checker--- "recipients only" (check this for each of your OUs)

 

 

Apps---Google Workspace---Settings for Drive and Docs---Sharing settings---Target audiences

 

https://admin.google.com/ac/targetaudiences (this seems to be beta)

 

any ideas where i can opt out of beta features?

[Ditto]

That's not good.

 

See https://support.google.com/a/answer/172177?hl=enhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/172177?hl=enhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/172177?hl=en - I thin this would help you to get of early release (I'm not 100% sure this is 'BETA', but others here will know).

 

I'd report it though as it could be reviewed for main release.

[Jaan]

We're on rapid release, but didn't know that included beta

[Ditto]

We're on rapid release, but didn't know that included beta

It might not - calling on @paulkerton and @rogerdnixon for expert input.

[Arthur]

We're on rapid release, but didn't know that included beta

Switching to 'Scheduled Release' doesn't look like it would have made any difference.

 

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2020/08/target-audience-share-to-group-google-drive.html

 

Rollout pace

• Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on 25 August 2020
  

Availability

• Available to G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, and G Suite Enterprise for Education
  
• Not available to G Suite Basic, G Suite for Education, G Suite Essentials, G Suite Enterprise Essentials, and G Suite for Nonprofits customers
  

[rogerdnixon]

This is a really neat feature and you can define different sharing suggestions for different teams - so you can build custom "Target Audiences" per OU. I use this feature with our central Trust Team and it helps streamlining sharing to appropriate groups.

 

It does nothing to default sharing settings at all - so nothing to fret about. It just gives people sharing pointers when embedding docs into things like Mail. The default "Target Audience" is the whole domain - but thats was the default anyways. It also only does anything if you have the access checker set to one of the top two options.

 

So its a really useful feature and if you ignore it, it won't actually change anything as far as end users are concerned.