Share a file or folder using anyone link, will any user who have the link will be able to see the file, or only the users who got the link

Question

We have the following requirement:-

1) we have uploaded some videos and files

2) we want to share these videos and files with external users >> where the users can access the videos and file without requiring them to login or to register as guest accounts.

so i found that inside the sharing policy we can achieve this by changing the sharing level to the most permissive as follow:-

but i have the following question/concern:- let say we generate anyone link and we share it to userA & userB >> then will anyone who have access to the internet and has the file link be able to see the files and videos? or the anyone link will only work for the users who receive the anyone files links?

Thanks

Answer 1

Anyone links can be freely forwarded by the original recipient to anyone else and the link will work for them.

You can use the Azure B2B Preview w/ OTP to prevent the need to create MSAs.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-azureb2b-integration-preview

Answer 2

Hi @john john ,

Anyone who has access to the internet and owns the file link is able to see the files and videos, not only users who get the link from email.

Quote from Microsoft article:

“Anyone with the link (inside or outside your organization) can access files and folders without having to sign in or provide a code. These links can be freely passed around and are valid until the link is deleted or expires (if you've set an expiration date). You cannot verify the identity of the people using these links, but their IP address is recorded in audit logs when they access or edit shared content.”

As @trevorseward said, Anyone link is anonymous, we couldn’t allow it to only work for the users who get the invitation.

For more information, please refer to the following articles:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/external-sharing-overview#what-happens-when-users-share

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