How do I ensure that a user cannot copy a gated PDF URL and send it off? | Community
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A
Anonymous
May 28, 2015
Question

How do I ensure that a user cannot copy a gated PDF URL and send it off?

  • May 28, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 2001 views

Scenario is as follows: After the user completes the Marketo form, they will be presented with the PDF.  Can the user copy the URL and forward it so that recipients would be able to click on the link thereby bypassing the Marketo form.  We want to ensure that if someone receives the URL but did not complete the form, they will be automatically directed to the form.

Thanks

Jason

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2 replies

Josh_Hill13
Josh_Hill13
Level 10
May 28, 2015

Yes, they can do this.

Depends where you put the PDF though:

  • Marketo - cannot control what happens once someone has the URL.
  • Your Site - you may be able to block some people using certain permissions or a password.
Josh_Hill13
Josh_Hill13
Level 10
May 28, 2015

The thing is - how many people actually do this?

Sometimes I do keep the direct URL after the form fill out, but I don't publish it to the free web. I suspect your real loss is very small compared to the benefit of someone sharing your content and having their colleagues come back to your site for other stuff.

    A
    Anonymous
    May 29, 2015

    Josh's response is my go-to response to this as well...I know we live in a world of leads and data, but don't we want our company's message to get out there? Isn't that really our job as marketers?

    A
    Anonymous
    May 29, 2015

    You won't be able to completely prevent this. If someone can load a PDF there are a wide variety of tools available for saving copies of PDFs or printing them directly to another PDF.

    For example... Every year the State of Oregon releases a PDF of their income tax form. The form is rigged so that once you enter your data you cannot save it. They do allow you to print it however.

    So I installed a free piece of software called doPDF which prints any document straight to the PDF format. I took the tax form, filled out my information, and printed it straight to a brand new PDF with all of their form information and all of my data intact. This is how I keep my tax records from year to year.

    The only way to 100% prevent someone from saving a local copy of a PDF is to block them from ever opening the PDF in the first place.

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