In a recent announcement, as part of a broader company shift, Google announced that a “security update” for Drive will be released to “make file sharing more secure.”
The technical explanation for the update states: “This security update is being applied to some files in Google Drive to make sharing links more secure. The update will add a resource key to sharing links. Once the update has been applied to a file, users who haven’t viewed the file before will have to use a URL containing the resource key to gain access, and those who have viewed the file before or have direct access will not need the resource key to access the file.”
It should be noted that while users with free accounts may “remove” the security update from Google Drive, the company warns against such an idea, saying that it “should only be considered for files that are posted publicly.”
For more information, read the original story in 9to5Google.