What's with this Security Update Notice in Drive?

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 Have you seen the little banner in your Google Drive that says, "On September 13, 2021, a security update will be applied to some of your files"? If so, do you know what it means for your Drive? If not, I am going to try to simplify it for you. It might matter; it might not. But it's still worth understanding :-)

On September 13, 2021, Google will be adding what is called a resource key to some shared links. Basically, this is going to change the shareable links so they are different. The whole idea behind this is to make the links more secure/less hackable. 

So here's some good news: Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms are NOT impacted by this security update. So that's good news since most of what we share tends to be in those file formats. 

Other file types and folders that have been shared MIGHT be impacted, though, so be aware of that.

So, how should you proceed? Keep using Google Drive as normal. If you run into a situation where a file or folder isn't accessible by someone because of the security update, let me know. I can walk you though removing the security update if necessary.

Hopefully, that little security warning at the top of your Google Drive isn't so scary sounding anymore.