Most "secure sharing" still gives the other person a file.
They click. The browser downloads. Now there are two copies. Then twenty, if they forward it.
View-only sharing is the opposite idea: the document renders in the browser. The original stays with you.
What view-only actually does
On TiniDrop, view-only means we hide the download control on the shared link (Solo and above). The recipient reads the PDF in the viewer. They do not get a one-click .pdf.
What it does not do:
- stop a screenshot
- stop someone photographing the screen
- stop a determined person with developer tools
Anyone who claims otherwise is selling you a feeling. We would rather be precise.
View-only is for the common case: a founder, a lawyer, an agency client, a hiring manager. People who will not reverse-engineer your viewer. People who will hit Download if you put the button there.
Why the viewer has to be the product
If the fallback is "download to open," view-only is fake.
The link has to open a real reading experience:
- PDFs in the browser
- HTML and ZIP sites as a live page
- images without a save prompt as the first action
Then the share is a session, not a file transfer. Analytics attach to that session. Password and expiry attach to that session. You can kill the link without asking anyone to delete an attachment they already have.
When I turn it on
- fundraising decks
- unreleased product specs
- contractor briefs
- anything I would regret seeing in a Slack screenshot tomorrow with my filename on it
When I want a signature, I do not use view-only as the close. I send an agreement on the same file. Read, then sign. Still one link.
Try the difference
Upload a PDF you would normally attach. Share the link. Turn download off.
They can read it. They don't get the original.
Top comments (0)