Shared Link Terms

Last updated: 8 September 2026

Someone at {{COMPANY_LEGAL_NAME}} has sent you a link to project material. You do not need an account to open it. These terms explain what you may do with what you find there, and what we record about your visit. They apply from the moment you open the link.

Contents

1. What the link gives you

The link opens a view of specific project content — usually drawings and documents, sometimes a single folder, sometimes a whole project. It shows you what the sender chose to share and nothing else.

Three things are worth knowing straight away:

It will expire. Every link has an end date, and none can last longer than twelve months. Many are set to thirty days.
It can be switched off at any time. The sender can revoke it, and it also stops working if the project closes or the sender's own access ends.
It may be read-only. Depending on what was shared, downloading may not be available to you.

2. Do not forward the link

The link is the key. It does not check who is opening it. Anyone who has the web address can see the same material you can — a colleague you forward the email to, someone who is later sent that email in a chain, or anyone who finds it in a message thread. We have no way to tell them apart from you.

Some links are also password protected. If yours is, you were asked for a password before the material appeared, and that password was sent to you separately from the link. Treat it the same way: do not forward it, and do not store it alongside the web address. The sender can change the password at any time, which signs out everyone who opened the link with the old one.

So, please:

Do not forward the email or the web address to anyone.
Do not paste it into a group chat, a shared inbox, an issue tracker or a project management tool.
Do not publish it anywhere, including anywhere internal to your organisation.
If a colleague needs access, ask the sender for a separate link for them. It takes them under a minute, and it means the right people can be identified later.

If you think the link has already reached someone it should not have, tell the sender immediately. It can be revoked in seconds, and telling us early limits the consequences.

3. What you may use the material for

You may view, and where the link allows it download and print, the shared material for the purpose of the project it relates to — reviewing a design, pricing a package, coordinating your own work, or complying with an obligation you have on that project.

You may share it within your own organisation only with people who need it for that same purpose, and only by sending them the file — not the link. Everyone you pass it to is bound by the same restrictions.

4. What you may not do

Use the material for anything other than the project it was shared for.
Pass it to a third party — including another client, a competitor, or a supplier not working on this project — without written permission from the sender.
Publish it, post it online, or include it in marketing, tender submissions or public planning material without permission.
Remove, obscure or alter any title block, revision marking, ownership notice or watermark.
Present the material as your own work, or reuse the design on another project.
Attempt to reach content beyond what the link shows you — by altering the web address, guessing identifiers, or any similar means.
Probe, scan or interfere with the security or availability of the portal.

5. Confidentiality

Treat everything you can see through the link as confidential, unless you are told otherwise in writing. This applies whether or not the documents are individually marked.

If you are already under a confidentiality agreement or an appointment with us covering this project, that agreement continues to apply and takes precedence where it is stricter than these terms. These terms do not reduce any obligation you already have.

Your confidentiality obligations continue after the link expires.

6. Ownership

The material remains the property of its owners — the design team, the client, or {{COMPANY_LEGAL_NAME}}, depending on the document. Being given access does not transfer any intellectual property, and does not give you a licence to reuse the material beyond the purpose described in section 3.

7. Accuracy and reliance

Shared material is provided for the purpose stated by the sender and is correct only as at the revision shown. Drawings are superseded frequently. Always check that you are working from the current revision, and do not rely on a downloaded copy without confirming it is still current.

The material is provided without warranty as to its accuracy or fitness for any particular purpose beyond that stated. If you need to rely on a document formally, ask the sender to issue it to you properly rather than relying on a shared link.

8. What we record about your visit

We keep a record of access to shared links. This is for security and for the project record — not to track you personally.

What	Why	Kept for
The email address the link was sent to, and who sent it	To know who was given access and by whom	Until the link expires or is revoked — maximum twelve months
Your IP address and browser user-agent, with the time, each time the link is opened	To detect misuse, and to establish what was accessed if there is a dispute	90 days, then deleted automatically
A record of files downloaded through the link	Project record and security	12 months, then deleted automatically

Our lawful basis for this is legitimate interests — protecting confidential project material and keeping a reliable record of what was issued to whom. {{COMPANY_LEGAL_NAME}} is the data controller.

You have the right to ask for a copy of this data, to have it corrected or erased, to object to it, and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. The full explanation is in our Privacy Notice; requests go to {{DP_EMAIL}}.

9. Cookies

Viewing a shared link does not require you to sign in and does not set any tracking cookie. If the link is password protected, one strictly necessary session cookie is set once you enter the password, so that you are not asked for it again on every page of that link. See the Cookie Policy.

10. If the link stops working

A link stops working when it expires, when it is revoked, when the project is closed or archived, or when the sender's own access ends. In every case the page will tell you the link is no longer available rather than showing you an error.

Contact the person who sent it to you and ask for a new one. For your security, we do not restore expired links.

11. General

We may change these terms; the version in force is the one published here when you open the link. We may withdraw access at any time and without notice. These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

12. Contact

Questions about the material itself should go to the person who sent you the link — they know the project. For anything about these terms, contact {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}}; for anything about your personal data, contact {{DP_EMAIL}}.