Manage public links across Confluence Cloud

If your Confluence instance allows public links, we know it’s critical that you have visibility into and control over how public links are used. To that end, Confluence has a table where you can see which spaces allow public links and which specific content items have active public links, and make changes as needed.

View which spaces allow public links

In the Public links tab of Global permissions, Confluence admins will find a list of all the spaces on the instance and whether a space allows or doesn’t allow public links. This doesn’t indicate whether anything is public — it simply indicates whether it’s possible to make anything public. A space could allow public links but have 0 active public links. As a reminder, public links are allowed in all spaces by default.

On the Standard plan, you’ll see two statuses:

• ALLOWED = people can turn on the public link for any page or whiteboard in that space

• NOT ALLOWED = no one can turn on the public link for any page or whiteboard in that space

If you’re on the Premium or Enterprise plan, you’ll see 3 statuses. The ability to block gives Confluence admins a higher level of control:

• ALLOWED = people can turn on the public link for any page or whiteboard in that space

• NOT ALLOWED= no one can turn on the public link for any page or whiteboard in that space but space admins in the space are free to change that to allow public links at any time

• BLOCKED FROM ALLOWING = no one can turn on the public link for any page or whiteboard in that space and space admins are blocked from allowing public links

To see which spaces allow public links or not:

1. Select the wheel icon () in the top-right corner to open Confluence administration.

2. Find Settings > Security in the left-hand navigation.

3. Select Global permissions.

4. Select the Public links tab.

5. Scroll and page through the table of spaces and their statuses.

   1. Or you can use the search and filter functions to arrive at different views.

Manage which spaces allow public links

To allow public links in a specific space:

1. Select the wheel icon () in the top-right corner to open Confluence administration..

2. Find Settings > Security in the left-hand navigation.

3. Select Global permissions.

4. Select the Public links tab.

5. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to allow public links in.

6. Open the more actions menu (•••).

7. Select Allow.

To stop allowing public links in a specific space:

1. Select the wheel icon () in the top-right corner to open Confluence administration.

2. Find Settings > Security in the left-hand navigation.

3. Select Global permissions.

4. Select the Public links tab.

5. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to stop allowing public links in.

6. Open the more actions menu (•••).

7. Select Stop allowing.

When you stop allowing public links in a specific space, all active public links in that space will change from an ON state to an OFF state. If public links are ever allowed in that space again, all public links will remain in an OFF state until manually turned back ON.

To block a specific space from allowing public links:

1. Go to Global permissions > Public links.

2. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to allow public links in.

3. Open the more actions menu (•••).

4. Select Block.

Only Confluence admins can block spaces from allowing public links.

When you block public links from being allowed in a space that has active public links, all active public links will be changed from an ON state to an OFF state. If public links are ever allowed in that space again, all public links will remain in an OFF state until manually turned back ON.

To unblock a specific space from allowing public links:

1. Go to Global permissions > Public links.

2. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to allow public links in.

3. Open the more actions menu (•••).

4. Select Unblock and allow.

Unblocking a space returns it to the default state, which is ALLOWED. The table doesn’t support unblocking directly into NOT ALLOWED.

To preemptively block a space from allowing public links:

1. Go to Global permissions > Public links.

2. Make sure the global toggle to Allow public links on this site is in an off position.

3. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to allow public links in.

4. Open the more actions menu (•••).

5. Select Block.

Basically, this lets you set up which spaces on your instance should never be allowed to have public links before you enable the global toggle that allows the use of public links on your instance.

Remember, as soon as the global toggle is moved to an on position, all spaces not blocked from allowing will by default switch from NOT ALLOWED to ALLOWED.

View and manage which spaces allow public links in bulk

If you’re on the Premium plan, you also have powerful bulk actions at your disposal.

To make bulk changes to which spaces allow public links:

1. Go to Global permissions > Public links.

2. Scroll, search, and/or filter the table of spaces to find the space you want to allow public links in.

3. Select multiple spaces or select the top checkbox to bulk select all spaces currently loaded on the page.

4. Select one of the bulk actions:

   1. Stop allowing

   2. Block

   3. Allow (in the ••• more bulk actions menu)

   4. Unblock (in the ••• more bulk actions menu)

Manage individual public links from global permissions

From within Global permissions > Public links, you can drill down into any space to get more details about the active public links in that space without leaving global permissions. Simply select the number value in the Public content column of the table or open the more actions menu (•••) and select View public link details.

In the space’s public links drilldown view, you’ll find a table that shows the individual public links in a space. It will only show pages that are ON or BLOCKED. It won’t show content items that don’t have active public links and aren’t blocked.

• ON = anyone with access to the content item can copy the public link and share it with anyone on the internet

• BLOCKED = the content item’s public link is off and no one can turn it on until the page is unblocked

You can search and filter this list of content items and turn off or block active public links. On the Premium plan, you can multi-select content items and turn off or block them in bulk.

To turn off a public link from the content view in global permissions:

1. Find the content item in the list you want to turn off.

2. Open the actions menu (•••).

3. Select Turn off.

To block a public link from the content view in global permissions:

1. Find the content item in the list you want to block.

2. Open the actions menu (•••).

3. Select Block.

To view the public version of the content:

1. Find the content item in the list.

2. Open the actions menu (•••).

3. Select View public link.

Public links that are blocked are in an off state and so don’t have a public link to view.

Manage public links with automation rules

When admins create and enable automation rules, Confluence automation works behind the scenes to complete routine functions that would otherwise have to be done manually.

Admins can use an automation trigger to disable or block existing public links on one or more content items or block public links in a space.

For example, an admin could create a rule that automatically disables the public link for a content item any time a user labels the content item “private.”

Get notified about key public link activity

To learn more about what notifications you get from Confluence to help you maintain awareness and control over how public links are used on your instance and in your space, go to How secure are public links?