What’s changing
Earlier this year, we introduced a beta for policy visualization across Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. Today, we’re excited to announce this is now generally available, and as a result, users who are interacting with policy-protected content, such as those with data loss prevention (DLP) rules or trust rules, will now be informed about what actions are prevented by those policies.
For example, if a user is interacting with a document affected by DLP-enforced information rights management (IRM) and a trust rule, they will see a shield icon and side panel that informs them of the restricted actions.
Who’s impacted
End users
Why it matters
With this update, users will be made aware of which actions they are taking that are disabled on a document, spreadsheet, slides or file due to data protection controls.
Getting started
- Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
- End users:
- Any user will be able to see policy visualization if relevant restrictions apply to them. Security limitations can be applied by owners of a document, shared drive policies, or admin policies.
- A shield icon will automatically appear when security controls are present. Users can open the side panel to view all restrictions, either using the shield icon or by going to File > Security limitations.
- Visit the Help Center to learn more about Policy Visualization and the policies themselves:
Rollout pace
- Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on December 2, 2024
- Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility) starting on January 8, 2025
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts