Currently, when there are security policies applied to documents, spreadsheets, presentations or files, users are given no central explanation of which actions, like downloading, making a copy, or external sharing are restricted. 

To improve upon this experience, users who are interacting with policy-protected content, such as those with data loss prevention (DLP) rules or trust rules, will now be proactively 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, banner, and side panel that informs them of the restricted actions.

End users 

With this update, users will be made aware of which actions they are taking that are disabled on a document, spreadsheet, slide or file due to data protection controls.

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. End users: Any user will be able to see policy visualization if it’s active on a document, but the owner of the document is used to determine if it’s turned ON. A shield icon, banner, and side panel will automatically appear when security controls are present. Visit the Help Center to learn more about the policies that enable Policy Visualization: Drive DLPDrive Sharing Settings Trust Rules Shared Drives 

During the Open Beta period, this feature will be opt-in only. Customers who fill out this form will see the feature enabled in their specified domains within 7 days of sign-up. Customers may submit feedback here or email it to policy-visualization-open-beta@google.com. 

Policy visualization is enabled when the document, spreadsheet, slides or file owner belongs to the following Google Workspace editions: 

Business Starter, Standard, Plus Enterprise Starter, Standard, Plus Essentials Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Essentials Enterprise Plus Frontline Starter, Standard Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade Workspace Individual Subscribers 

Resources