Share Google Sheets Anonymously

Is there a way to share Google Sheets(programmatically or otherwise) without revealing the Owner's name/Email address to the public/link receivers?

45.9k 18 18 gold badges 96 96 silver badges 296 296 bronze badges asked Feb 27, 2018 at 21:17 3,342 13 13 silver badges 32 32 bronze badges

2 Answers 2

If you want to give the permission of viewer and editor to users for the shared spreadsheet, you are required to share the endpoint like https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/### fileId ###/edit?usp=sharing . In this case, users can retrieve your information including name and email from file ID using GET https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/### fileId ###?key= of Drive API. Namely, it means that the method using the file ID gives the owner information to others. So how about this workaround?

  1. When the spreadsheet is published to web, the URL is like https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/### Not fileId ###/pubhtml . In this case, users cannot retrieve the file ID. So users cannot know the owner information.
  2. Display the spreadsheet using Web Apps. In this case, users cannot retrieve file ID, because the owner information cannot be retrieved from the Web Apps URL.
  3. Display the spreadsheet using Google Visualization API and API key. In this case, users cannot retrieve file ID, because the owner information of the API key cannot be retrieved.

I also think that there are other methods other than that mentioned in my answer.

3,342 13 13 silver badges 32 32 bronze badges answered Feb 28, 2018 at 2:30 1,081 7 7 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges

@I'-'I I had tried to convert from it to file ID before. But I couldn't do it. So I thought that this can be used for the situation you need. If you want to publish a special sheet, you can do it by selecting the sheet when it publishes. If you want to select from the published whole sheet, the file ID is required to be used. The URL is like https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/cells/[file ID]/[sheetId]/public/values?alt=json .

Commented Feb 28, 2018 at 22:20

@I'-'I And if you don't want to be cached by search bot, how about using Web Apps? In this case, you can use googlebot and robots of meta tag. Is my understanding for your comment correct?

Commented Feb 28, 2018 at 22:20

@I'-'I Yes. When the spreadsheet is published to web, you can access to it using the file ID of spreadsheet. But the URL which is retrieved by publishing spreadsheet doesn't include file ID. So only users who know file ID can use it using the URL with file ID.

Commented Feb 28, 2018 at 22:33

@I'-'I I could know it from ref1 and ref2. Although I might see other site, I forgot about them. I'm sorry. I also think that Google's manuals are a bit difficult for me. There might be some users who feel the same with me.