Oversharing
Also called overshared content, excessive access, over-permissioning
When more people can open a file, folder or site than need to, through wide groups, company-wide links or access nobody removed.
Oversharing is access that is wider than the work needs. A site opened to the whole company so that one link would work, a folder shared with a department that has since been reorganised, a group nobody pruned: each leaves files open to people who have no use for them.
For years it stayed hidden, because a person had to know a file existed and where it was before they could open it. A workplace AI assistant removes that cover. It searches everything a person can open, in answer to an ordinary question.
The fix is in the sharing, since switching the assistant off leaves every file as open as before. Organisations find the widest and most sensitive places first, keep those out of the assistant's reach while owners correct the access, and then tighten the defaults that new sites and links start from.
For example
A pay spreadsheet is saved in a site that was opened to the whole company years ago. A new starter asks the AI assistant about pay bands and is answered from it.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet oversharing in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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