✓ Independent creative professionals
✓ Small studio client handovers
✓ Bounded final-file releases
— Regulated-data suitability certification
— Legal acceptance or retention advice
— Specialist video proofing
— Household photo archives
Explain the availability promise
A download window tells the client how long you intend to make a route available. It is not the same as the project’s retention policy or the period in which the client may use the work. Keep those concepts separate in the delivery note. If the time is important, give a clear date, time and time zone rather than saying the link lasts a while.
Understand the copy boundary
Once a file has been downloaded or copied elsewhere, changing the original link does not reliably remove that copy. A recipient may also have forwarded information or made screenshots. Do not use expiry as a promise of recall or confidentiality after disclosure. Decide whether the material is appropriate for that distribution model before sending it.
Check the exact control
Different link types can have different controls. pCloud’s Public Folder direct links are not the same as ordinary shared links and cannot be password-protected through the documented direct-link mechanism. Avoid moving private client releases into a public location merely to obtain a cleaner URL. Match the mechanism to the information and the agreed access requirements.
A fictional correction
A studio accidentally includes an internal note in a release. Revoking the link can stop further access through that route, but it does not establish that nobody saw or copied the note. Preserve the facts, follow the appropriate incident process and issue a corrected package when authorized. Do not announce that the problem is fully reversed simply because the old URL now fails to open.
Put the decision into practice
Include a plain reminder that recipients should retain their authorized copy within the agreed window where that is the arrangement. Keep any request to delete received material in the appropriate project process. A technical link setting cannot itself establish that the recipient complied with a downstream deletion request.
Where the safety evidence stops
This guide draws on pCloud shared links, pCloud Public Folder limitations. Merchant-controlled records describe the provider’s own capabilities, terms or standards; they do not independently validate those claims. These records do not establish independent confirmation of the product claims.
Verify any current price, plan limit, label direction, compatibility rule, or commercial term that would materially change the decision. The dated source ledger shows the underlying records so this conclusion can be checked and updated.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- pCloud shared links — Merchant documentation · help.pcloud.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-29
- pCloud Public Folder limitations — Merchant documentation · help.pcloud.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-29