Data classification in Google Drive: best practices

30/10/2024

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Create labels for your organization

First of all, you’ll need to create Drive labels that can be used in your organization.
You can do so in your Google Admin Console. Go to Menu > Security > Access and data control > Label manager.

Which labels you create will depend on your organizations’ needs and security policies. We’ve put together some best practices below that can serve as inspiration.

Badged label

Create a Badged label, name it “File Confidentiality”.
Add the following label options:

Public

These files contain non-sensitive information that does not pose a risk to the organization if disclosed.Examples of files:

• press

• releasesmarketing brochures

• job postings

Suggestions:

• create a policy to automatically unshare files if not modified longer than 3 years

• review access periodically and update permissions as necessary

Internal

These files are intended for use within the organization only and should not be shared with external parties.
Examples of files:

• employee handbooks

• training materials

• working instructions

Suggestions:

• create a policy to automatically remove all external sharing periodically

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with “Anyone with the link” periodically

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with personal accounts periodically

• review access periodically and update permissions as necessary

Confidential

These files contain sensitive information that, if disclosed, could harm the organization, its employees, clients, or partners. Access is restricted to specific individuals or teams who need the information to perform their job functions.
Examples of files:

• financial reports

• customer and vendor contracts

• business plans and strategies

• employee performance reviews

• salaries

Suggestions:

• create a policy to automatically apply the label “Confidential” to files in specific shared drives (e.g. HR, Sales)

• create a policy to automatically apply the label “Confidential” to files with specific keywords in the title (e.g. “CV”, “financial report”, “earnings”)

• create a policy to automatically remove external sharing if not modified longer than 6 months

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with personal accounts periodically

• create a policy to automatically remove domain-wide sharing periodically

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with “Anyone with the link” periodically

• review access periodically and update permissions as necessary

Restricted

These files contain highly sensitive information that, if disclosed, could cause severe damage to the organization, its reputation, or its stakeholders. Access is strictly controlled and monitored.
Examples of files:

• trade secrets

• legal documents

• sensitive client data

Suggested policies:

• create a policy to automatically apply the label “Restricted” to files in specific shared drives (e.g. Management, Finance, Legal)

• create a policy to automatically apply the label “Restricted” to files in specific folders (e.g. Project Alpha folder)

• create a policy to automatically remove external sharing if not modified longer than 6 months

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with personal accounts

• create a policy to automatically remove domain-wide sharing

• create a policy to automatically remove sharing with “Anyone with the link”

• review access periodically and update permissions as necessary

Standard labels

You can create up to 149 standard labels to organize your files.
Examples:

Project name
Add a text field where end-users can enter a project’s name. This will allow you to quickly locate all documents related to a certain project.

Department
A drop-down options field could require end users to choose their department, for instance, “Marketing”, “Legal”, “Sales”. This can be helpful in large organizations.

Country
For cross-team collaboration between teams operating in multiple countries, consider adding a field for end-users to specify the document’s associated country or region. This makes it easier to locate all documents relevant to one specific country. 

Florbs helps you to get started with file labeling in Google Drive. Label files in bulk, keep track of the data classification process, quickly detect data leak threat (for example, Confidential files shared with “Anyone with the link”), and report on compliance. 

More inspiration and tips:

Google Drive labels for file organization (with examples)
Google Drive labels: your key to data classification, security and compliance