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Use cases → Documents and Drive

Automatically expire shared Drive links on a schedule

Remove or restrict public and external links on Drive files after a set period using a delegated service account.

Who it is forIT admins and security teams enforcing limited-time file sharing.
APIsDrive API
Typical scopesdrive

The problem

Drive links are often shared to external users for a temporary need, but are rarely revoked. This leaves sensitive files accessible long after the intended window, violating policy and exposing data.

How it works

  1. List all files with external or public permissions using the Drive API as a delegated service account.
  2. Identify which links are past their allowed sharing window based on metadata or audit logs.
  3. Remove or restrict expired permissions by calling permissions.delete or permissions.update.
  4. Log all actions and optionally notify file owners of revoked access.

What changes

External access to Drive files is revoked promptly without relying on users to remember, reducing accidental long-term exposure.

The trap in this one. Drive API's permissions.list is eventually consistent: recently granted or revoked permissions can take minutes to appear or disappear. If you run expiry jobs too frequently, you may miss new links or think a revoked link still exists, leading to inconsistent enforcement. Always design with this propagation delay in mind and avoid assuming a single run will catch every case.

Questions people ask

Can I set an expiry at the time of sharing?

No, Drive does not natively support link expiry. You must track the permission grant time and enforce expiry by scheduled revocation.

Do users get notified when a link is revoked?

Not by default. If notification is required, your automation must explicitly email the affected users after revoking access.

Want this built?

This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.

Talk to us Or read the setup guide

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