Let's discuss in detail Drive labels and their types, and how to turn on Labels.
As one of its core responsibilities, Google always makes sure to fully understand the value of data protection, especially in this modern era. Drive with Google Workspace has been at the forefront of data sharing, storage, and work collaboration for many years now. And with its current and new features, it’s evident that Google provides much importance on protecting its users’ data. As it stands today, Google Drive already provides a great cloud storage service. With the addition of Drive Labels, it has catapulted itself to become the best, if not the better. With Drive Labels, you can implement targeted data governance, allowing you to keep company files organized and well-protected.
What are Drive Labels?
Labels are metadata, allowing users to easily organized, find, and apply regulations to items in Google Drive such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This specific feature can be used for record management, data classification, structured data finding, workflow, reporting, auditing, and so much more.
What can Drive Labels do?
Labels are very suitable for business organizations, especially when it comes to collaboration.
Give users the ability to classify files based on their sensitivity level
Allow admins or managers to create, manage, and easily set rules for each label
Files can be automatically classified based on admin-defined data loss prevention (DLP) rules
Integrates with Google Workspace DLP to prevent external sharing of sensitive files
Increase file search ability by allowing users to find content based on labels and set fields
As teams collaborate on files, they may work on restricted documents containing personally identifiable information, top-secret files, intellectual property, and any other sensitive data. Labels add a layer of data governance to ensure that each file is handled appropriately to its unique content and needs.
With Labels, users can classify the files that they are working on based on sensitivity levels. For example, a policy in your business states that any documents deemed as confidential should not be and cannot be shared externally. Then all users must add the Drive Label, “Confidential.” From that, you would have a DLP rule in place, preventing any documents with this particular label from being shared externally. This is a big step in keeping all your data safe. Additionally, admins can configure data protection rules that can automatically label files. Rules such as the restriction of external sharing of the files can be added to a particular label among other things.
Drive Label Types
Google Drive has two different kinds of labels: badge and standard.
Badge Label
A badge label lets users apply an indicator that emphasizes the most critical metadata of the file. This can be set and tailored to your organization. A very common example of the use of a badge label would be a label named File Sensitivity. This label can have field options that better explain the importance or sensitivity of the data that is contained in that file. Field options could range from Top Secret, Internal, Public, Private, or whatever fits your organization. Each field option can be set to have its own unique badge color, making it a lot easier to identify.
Standard Label
A standard label is a simple label that you can apply to files of the same project or type. It lets you find files in a much quicker and more organized manner. For example, you can create a standard label called Project 1 and apply it to all of the files that are associated with that project. Similarly, you can also apply a label called Contract to all of your contracts so you can easily find them. After applying the Contract label to all the contracts, you can be even more specific and assign the Contract’s status. You can label it as Draft, Awaiting Signature, Rejected, Signed, Expired, or whatever fits the description.
How to turn on Labels
Go to the Admin console home page
Go to Apps
Click Google Workspace
Click Drive and Docs
Under Labels, click Turn Labels On
Click Save
