When it comes to life in general, convenience and security are almost always on the opposite ends of the same spectrum.
For example, if you wanted your home to be highly secure, you could add a third or fourth lock to all the doors; this would undoubtedly increase security, but it would be very inconvenient to enter the house.
The same quandary presents itself when we are dealing with technology systems. A short and easy password, such as "1234", is convenient; however, it is also very easy to guess. We are therefore advised to use long and complex passwords as well as multi-factor authentication. We trade convenience for security because, in this case, it is worth it.
When it comes to securing intellectual property in our PDF documents, two options come to mind.
More convenience, less security.
The first option is to protect the document using PDF permissions and an Owner password. With these permissions, you can limit the PDF file from being printed, edited, having contents copied, and a few other options. You can also add PDF expiry by adding PDF JavaScript into the mix.
As you would expect, it is very convenient to view PDF files that have been protected with this method because any PDF viewer can open them. The downside to PDF permissions is that it is wholly dependent on the PDF reader whether it will obey the permissions or not. If a user were to use a non-compliant reader, it would automatically bypass all the security you have placed on the document. Users can also take screencaps of the PDF reader to capture the document’s contents.
Adobe Acrobat's warning regarding permissions and third-party products
More security, less convenience.
The second option for securing PDF documents is to use Digital Right Management (DRM) technology such as All-About-PDF's PDFe files. In this scenario, the document is wrapped in an encrypted security layer that can hold a virtually unlimited number of permissions and can introduce features such as expiry dates, printing limitations, sharing limitations, screen capture blocking, and so much more. To guarantee the security of the intellectual property, DRM-protected PDF files can however only be viewed using proprietary readers.
As a user, it is then up to you to examine what you are trying to protect, its value and determine which side of the spectrum you will be on. Are you going to lean towards providing more convenience to your users while sacrificing the security of your intellectual property? Or are you going to introduce some inconvenience to consuming your content while ensuring that it is secure and protected?
Best of Both Worlds?
Fortunately, we at All-About-PDF like a good challenge and have been wrestling with this very issue. We have come up with a few options to reduce the inconvenience caused by using proprietary DRM technology without sacrificing any of the security benefits. These include:
Our PDFe Reader (used to read DRM protected PDF files) is free for everyone to download
Our PDFe Reader is available on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, iPad, Android, and the Web.
With the ability to "DRM and Share" in our apps, you can protect your PDF file with our leading-edge DRM technology and share the resulting URL that the user can open in any web browser on any device.
With All-About-PDF’s DRM protection, we are continuously striving to strike a balance between excellent security for your intellectual property and convenience for your end users. Get started today by downloading our free 14-day trial.