The public links for many items stored in Google Drive and YouTube will not work soon. Google has changed the way both services handle link sharing, allowing active users to opt-out of the switch. But either not using it or being dumped into an invalid account. Files and videos may not be visible forever.
Google Drive
The tech giant has announced the release of an update that will allow you to share files on your drive more securely. After the update is complete on September 13, add the resource key to the link created for sharing from the drive.
What does that mean to old links that are already distributed at work or online? Anyone who can see the link before it is changed will still have access to the link. However, you need a resource key to access the file.
Workspace administrators must decide how to apply security updates to their organization by July 23. It can be applied in a limited way or opt out completely.
Individual users, on the other hand, must be notified of the change from July 26th and make a decision by September 13th. You can choose not to apply the update, but Google specifies a notification that this option is not recommended. The company suggests that it does not apply updates only to publicly available files.
YouTube
YouTube is obviously difficult for anyone to guess and access a new link unless explicitly granted permission. The new link also has the effect of requiring viewers to log in, linking more activity to a specific account. This allows access to be tracked and part of each user’s profile.
Changes on YouTube apply to all videos that have been published but are labeled as “unlisted.” All unlisted videos uploaded before 2017 will be changed to private status from July 23rd. The way private videos currently work is to end the previous link or insert and limit sharing to a maximum of 50 people. All users need a Google account to view this.
If you would like to continue sharing your previous private videos using comments with public links, you can opt-out of your account by filling out this form next month. The only other option is to re-upload that video and leave it marked as private.
