A lot of old Google Drive links may become inaccessible by mid-September, announced the tech giant as it is rolling out an update that would make sharing Drive files more secure. The tech giant also mentioned that it would also make the old YouTube links inaccessible if users had chosen the option to hide the links.
After this move comes into effect, links and embeds of uploads for 2017 will no longer be accessible from next year. However, if the user decides to access the content, they need to fill out a form. If the user decides not to do anything with it Google will make the files private, and only the user who has uploaded the files and who the user has selected for sharing the file will be able to access it.
The new update will go out on September 13th. For workspace admins they have to wait until July 23rd to decide upon how the security update will be applied to their respective organization. Admins can choose to either limit the content or opt-out of the security updates altogether. For personal users, the change will become effective on July 26th and they will have time until September 13th to decide. Moreover, Google has issued a notice advising its users, not to opt out of applying the new security updates.
Google said in a statement that this move is necessary as the links for files and videos that are hidden before January 1, 2017, are made using an older system which makes it vulnerable to cyber-attacks and consequently, makes it less secure. Videos and files uploaded in 2017 or later will remain available as it is available now.
For YouTube, all unlisted videos uploaded before 2017 will be made private unless the user chooses to opt-out. For YouTube, the movie will take place on July 23.
