For several years now, there has been much discussion surrounding data privacy. Data is information, and information is power, so it’s crucial to know how to manage who has access to ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. This is particularly true if the data we are working with is sensitive, such as personal customer information or our business sales figures.
This post focuses on the access levels for our reports in Looker Studio, how to manage them, and how to share a report.
1. The 3 Access Levels
Looker Studio employs a permissions model similar to that found in other Google services like Google Drive. If you’ve ever shared a document on Drive, this will be quite familiar to you.
There are three access levels:
- Viewer: The user can view the report and interact with the controls. They can even view the data source schema, but they cannot edit it. They are also unable to modify the report or share it.
- Editor: In addition to the same capabilities as the viewer, they can modify and share both the report and the data source.
- Owner: They have the same privileges as the editor, as well as the ability to delete the report or data source, and to make another user an owner.
2. How to Share the Report
In the top right corner, above the canvas, there is a button that says Share. When you select it, a window opens where you can add people and groups to the report.
To start granting access, click on where it says Share with people and groups. Once you do this, the window will change so you can enter the email address of the person or group and select the type of role (Viewer or Editor). If you leave the box next to Notify enabled, the person or group will receive an email informing them of their access to the report.

Groups can be created in Google Workspace. Each member will have access with the role you have assigned to the group. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with Google Workspace; it’s not essential for using Looker Studio. It can be beneficial if you work in a large organisation where you need to grant access to many people, but if this doesn’t apply to you, I wouldn’t be concerned about learning this platform just for this specific case.
3. Changing Report Access Settings
Continuing in the window where you can enter the emails of those you want to invite, there is an icon at the top right that gives you three options to modify the default privileges of viewers and editors:
- The first option prevents editors from making modifications to who has access to the report.
- The second prevents viewers from downloading, printing, or copying the dashboard.
- The third stops viewers from seeing or creating alerts.

4. Sharing Links to Your Report
You can generate links and share them for other users to access the report. The configuration of these links is crucial, as two of the options allow access to anyone with the link.
The configuration options are:
- Restricted: Only the people and groups you’ve added by entering their email addresses, as mentioned earlier, have access.

- Unlisted: Any internet user with the link can view the report as a viewer or editor (depending on what you choose from the dropdown on the right). However, the report is hidden, so no one can find it on the internet.

- Public: Any internet user with the link can find and view it (as a viewer or editor). In this case, the report is NOT hidden, so it can be found on the internet.

Be very careful if you change the link settings to Unlisted or Public, as this takes precedence over any access granted on a person-by-person basis by adding their email.
5. How to Know Who Has Access
In the window that opened when you clicked on Share within the report, you will see a list of people and groups who can access it. You will also see the role they have on the right of their name.
To add an email, it must be from a Google account. Not ideal, is it? Many organisations have their own email accounts, and these are not from Google.
If this is the case, there is a simple solution. First, the person must create a Google account and then associate their business or organisational email with it. This is completely free and is explained in detail in this link.
6. Restricting Access
If you want to revoke access for someone who has left your organisation or simply because they are no longer relevant to the data in your report, you can do this on the same screen mentioned above.
On the right side of the user’s email, there is a dropdown with the role. If you open it, you will see the option to Remove access.
7. Making Someone an Owner
When you open the dropdown where you can modify the role or remove access, you will see the option to Make owner. There can only be one owner, and only the report owner can transfer ownership.

If you do this, the new owner will receive a notification that they must accept, and you will become an editor.
Be aware that making someone the report owner does not mean they will also be the owner of the data sources. If any of the sources were added with your credentials, the new owner will continue to use them to connect to it. This will remain the case until they are revoked manually, at which point they will have to change the data source credentials to viewer and then back to owner for the source to function properly.
You can see that managing access is of vital importance. Data is information, and information is power!