Data credentials

Control access to your data.

Credentials determine who can see the data provided by a data source. The 2 types of data credentials are owner's credentials and viewer's credentials. Owner's credentials relies on the credential owner's authorization to the data set. Viewers credentials relies on each individual report viewer's credentials.

In this article:

Set data credentials for a data source

  1. Edit the data source.
  2. At the top, click the current data credentials
  3. Select the new credential type.
  4. To become the new credential owner, click Make me the owner.

Owner's credentials access

Select this option if you want to let other people view or create reports that use this data without requiring them to have their own access to the data set. Owner's credentials uses the credentials of a specific person to authorize access to the data set. By default, you are the credential owner if you created the data source, but other editors of the data source can become the credential owner.

Using the owner's credentials option does not grant other people the right to access the data set directly. The owner's credentials are never displayed or transmitted "in the clear."

Example

You've created a Google Analytics data source connecting to your company's All Website Traffic view. You selected owner's credentials in the data source Configuration tab. You've shared this data source with Nikhil and Betsy. Nikhil has his own Google Analytics login and permission to access the All Website Traffic view. Betsy does not have access to this view. However, both Nikhil and Betsy can view reports based on this data source, because it uses your credentials, not theirs.

Viewer's credentials access

This option requires each user of the data source (or reports built using the data source) to provide their own credentials to access the data set. If they do not have access to the data set, they won't be able view the data in reports, or edit the data source fields.

Example

It's the same scenario as above, only this time you've selected the viewer's credential option. You've shared a report built using this data source with the same people, but only Nikhil, who has his own credentials to the All Website Traffic view in Google Analytics will be able to see the data. When Betsy views the report, she will see not see this data.

Update credentials

Editors of a data source can update the credentials:

  • Editors can change the credentials from Owner's to Viewer's or from Viewer's to Owner's.
  • Editors can become the new credential owner.
Changing data source credentials may cause people who don't have access to the underlying data set to see errors in reports.

Revoke data credentials

Data sources that use your credentials continue to retrieve data, even if you can no longer edit the data source. Revoking your credentials stops the data source from accessing the data "as you."

For example, if you create a data source for your company and then leave that company, you can stop that data source from retrieving data. You can do this for an individual data source, or you can revoke your credentials from all data sources to which you no longer have access.

Revoke credentials from a single data source

  1. Sign in to Data Studio.
  2. At the top, select Data Sources.
  3. Browse or search for the file you want to stop sharing, then on the right, click More More menu.
  4. Click Revoke data source.

Revoke credentials from all data sources you no longer own

  1. Sign in to Data Studio.
  2. At the top right, click Settings Settings.
  3. Select Revoke Data Source.
  4. A list of all data sources you created but no longer own appears.
  5. Click Revoke all.

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