HyperPrivacy Mode

SmartFile supports a site-wide configuration option called HyperPrivacy Mode that, once set, cannot be changed without completely rebuilding your entire site.

Differences Between HyperPrivacy Mode and Normal SmartFile

In a normal SmartFile installation, there is one root file system, and Users are provisioned access to that file system using Permissions. This allows easy ability to grant permissions to various folders.

In HyperPrivacy Mode, each user gets their own file system, completely to themselves. The only way for one user to access the files of another user is for that user to share those files or folders explicitly.

This creates an extremely private environment for each user. Files owned by a user cannot even be seen by site administrators!

History of HyperPrivacy Mode

This setting was formerly called "NextGen", "DatabaseFs", and "Contemporary platform" at various times and in various places.

For a period of time, HyperPrivacy Mode was enabled by default on all SmartFile sites.

Due to challenges associated with administering sites which use HyperPrivacy Mode, we no longer recommend that customers enable HyperPrivacy Mode.

We expect to release tools later in 2024 to allow customers to revert from HyperPrivacy Mode back to the normal configuration without completely rebuilding their entire site.

Determining HyperPrivacy Mode Status

If you have a left menu for both "Files" and "Shares", your SmartFile site has HyperPrivacy Mode enabled.

Most on-premise (FileHub) customers also have HyperPrivacy Mode enabled.