Content and sharing settings for your enterprise

The Content & Sharing tab in Enterprise Settings allows you to enable or disable various permission types that are available to managed user when collaborating and sharing files.

Shared Links

You can customize settings for everyone's shared links and defaults by navigating to Admin Console > Enterprise Settings > Content & Sharing tab. More information on customizing shared link settings.

Collaboration Restrictions

Watermarking

When your Box users choose to add a watermark to shared files, you can determine whether the watermarks on all files will be rasterized, or whether watermarks will be vector-based or rasterized, depending on the file type. 

Select:

• Vector-based and rasterized watermarking (recommended) - Provides infinite resolution, inclusion in search, clickable links, and a very small sized file overhead, but can and will be used on document-based files only. Rasterized watermarking will be used on all image and video files.

  "Document-based files" are also known as files that have PDF support. Those file types are listed in the Supported File Types topic with a Yes in the PDF Support? column. 

  Note

  Watermark types will be applied automatically based on file type when users add watermarks to files or folders.

• Rasterized watermarking only - Provides increased security, but no resolution scaling, no searchability, no clickable links, a moderate file size overhead, and reduced usability. This watermark type can't be removed without damaging the underlying content.

Watermarking Differences

The different types of watermarking have differences that may affect your decision about which one to use. Vector

Watermarking Use Cases

Use the Vector-based and rasterized watermarking option:

• When dealing with large files that need to maintain readability, documents such as blueprints, diagrams, or files containing a lot of small print.
• When dealing with text-based files where text needs to be copied and searched for or when hyperlinks need to be clickable.
• When you have storage or bandwidth concerns with the size of watermarked files being shared.

Use the Rasterized watermarking only option:

• When you want to lock down the watermarked file by not allowing any text to be copied.
• When the content in question is of the highest sensitivity level. Note that while watermarking is a security deterrent, a very motivated and technically adept hacker can remove a vector watermark. Doing this will impact the original formatting of the underlying document. This is slightly different from a Rasterized watermark where you cannot remove the watermark without destroying the underlying content as well.

Content Creation

• Restrict content creation: Prevents all non-admin managed users from creating, deleting, and moving folders in their "All Files" section.  Check this box if you would like to create the folder structure for the entire account and then invite users into this structure.  Note: If Restrict content creation is enabled, admins can transfer ownership of folders to managed users, but managed users cannot transfer ownership to others.
• Restrict tag creation: Enables you to control who can create tags for files in your account. Check this box to limit tag creation either to Folder owners/co-owners and admins/co-admins, or to Admins and co-admins only.
• Email Uploads: Enables you to allow people to upload file attachments to a specific Box folder via email.

Folder Level Metadata and Cascade

In this section, you enable your account holders to cascade metadata templates in folders and resolve conflicting metadata templates.

You can:

• Disable for all managed users
• Enable for all managed users
• Enable for selected users based on a allowlist
• Enable for selected users based on a denylist

Auto Expiration Settings

You can set shared links across your enterprise to expire a certain number of days after they have been created. After that period the link stops working. Setting default expiration periods helps keep data secure. For example, if a link to sensitive information is expired, you don't have to track it or worry about it if months later it is inadvertently shared with someone not entitled to access it. The setting is not retroactive; it applies only to links created after you establish or modify the expiration period.

You can set an expiration period on links to files, to folders, or to both.

You can also set one time period (or no time period at all) for all shared links, and a shorter time period that applies only to public links. In this way you can:

• avoid a broad auto-expiration policy that forces people in your company to re-set links shared internally (or to specific external collaborators), which can impede collaboration, while preserving the ability to expire links that could be shared with anyone outside the four walls of your enterprise.
• reduce the risk that results from relying on individual vigilance for manually adding auto-expiration policies for certain types of links at creation.

In addition, you can quickly review risk exposure by generating a report that lists all public shared links and their auto-expiration date (if any). (Do this by navigating to Admin Console > Reports > Shared Links.)

Finally, you can configure whether and when the system should notify people when links they've shared, or that have been shared with them, are about to expire.

To set default expiration dates for shared links for your enterprise:

1. Open the Admin Console.
2. Navigate to Enterprise Settings > Content & Sharing tab.
3. When the Content & Sharing page displays, scroll down to the Auto-Expiration section.

    

   
4. To expire all shared links, check Disable all shared links after a specified time of link creation.
   • Type in the number of days for which you want shared links to be valid.
5. To expire only public shared links, check Disable public shared links after a specified time of link creation.
   • Type in the number of days for which you want shared links to be valid.

Links with expiration periods display throughout the Box UI with a small red clock icon (). Hover over the clock icon for details about the expiration policy.

The expiration periods you set are not retroactive; all pre-existing links still behave according to their pre-existing expiry settings, including if no expiry has been set at all. For example, prior links with no expiration date do not expire even after you set a 30-day expiration policy. Likewise, links set to expire one week after you set a period of 30 days still expire in one week. Or, if you change your an expiration period from 60 days to 30, new links created from that time forward expire in 30 days, while pre-existing links continue to expire 60 days after they were created.

6. Select whether to apply your expiration policy to links to file, folders, or both. To do this, click the Apply these settings to down arrow and select the item you want.
   
   • This setting is unavailable if you do not set at least one link expiration policy
7. To notify content owners by email that links to the files they own are about to expire, check Notify item owners a specified time before expiration.
   • In the box below, type the number of days in advance you want content owners to be notified of impending expired links.
   • Box sends link expiration emails regardless of whether the expiration is dictated here via an enterprise-wide policy, or by each individual link creator. Also, if an individual modifies a link expiration period, Box automatically adjusts the notification period to keep it consistent with the link's revised date of expiration.
   • These settings are unavailable if you do not set at least one link expiration policy.
8. To enable people to set or modify expiration periods on links they create, check Allow item owners and editors to modify the expiration date.
   • By checking this box, you enable people throughout your organization to easily and quickly set their own expiration periods whenever they create their own links.
   • If you do not set any auto-expiration period, Box automatically enables this setting AND applies it to all existing links. That means item owners and editors have full freedom to create, modify, or end expiration periods on a per-link basis.

Invited collaborators expiration settings

You can set invited collaborators to be removed from shared folders or files automatically after a certain number of days.  

To set enable and set expiration dates for invited collaborators:

1. Open the Admin Console.
2. Navigate to Enterprise Settings > Content & Sharing tab. 
3. When the Content & Sharing page displays, scroll down to the Auto-Expiration section and find Invited collaborators expiration settings.
   
   
   
4.     Check Automatically remove invited collaborators.
   • Type in the number of days for the expiration period. 
5. To allow folder owners to extend the expiration date beyond the default period you have specified, check Allow folder owners to extend the expiration date. 
6. To have email notifications sent to users warning them of expiration, check Notify affected users: 
   • Type in the number of days before the expiration to configure when they will be notified.
     
     
     Note
     Box sends email notifications to the owner and any co-owners of the corresponding folder. Box only notifies co-owners who are directly collaborating on items with a pending expiration. Box does not notify co-owners who are collaborating via inherited permissions.
     
     
7. Click Apply these settings to: and, from the dropdown menu that displays, click an option to specify whether the setting applies only to All Collaborators or only to External Collaborators. 
8. Click Save.

After you enable this setting, by default all subsequent collaborations created follow the enterprise setting.  The creator of individual collaborations then is able to extend the expiration date beyond the default value.

Trash

You can also customize your enterprise's trash settings to best fit your company's requirements.

When you're done, click Save.