Secure view – Prevent your shared files from getting downloaded

Sometimes you want to share a file, but you don’t want the recipient to actually download it. Since Nextcloud 15, secure view (or ‘Hide download’) allows you to remove the download button so that confidential files can’t be downloaded so easily anymore.

Collabora online introducing support today

Collabora Online lets you view, edit and download documents. Our update of the Collabora Online integration app from last week combined with at least version 4.0 will hide the download option also from Collabora’s menu items. It also disables printing and copy/pasting out of the document, leaving screenshots and the ‘read and type in another document’ as the only possible ways of copying.

Collabora Online’s document model ensures that the document is retained on the server, under your control, while providing the pixels you see to the browser. Short of scripting your own Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on screenshots – Secure view makes it extremely hard to automatically extract data from documents.

If you want the viewer to still be able to edit a document you shared, it is up to you to combine ‘Hide download’ with the ‘Allow editing’ option.

Note that ONLYOFFICE also added support for this feature last March!

This is an example of how we’re always working with our partners to enable you more control over your data and give you more ways to protect the confidentiality of your documents! A good reason to stay tuned, discover our newest features and always update to the latest release!