Get started as a classification labels admin

As an administrator, you can create classification labels to apply to files stored in Drive and Gmail messages written by your users (Note: Gmail classification labels are in Beta). Classification labels are metadata that can help your organization organize, find, and apply policies to files in Drive and Gmail messages. Drive labels can be simple, like a tag. Or, they can have many structured metadata fields such as selection fields, dates, numbers, or people.

• Example use cases
• What you can apply classification labels to
• Where classification labels appear
• Who can see labels
• Label limits
• Ways to apply classification labels to Drive items
• Next steps
• FAQ

Example use cases

Classification labels are useful for many common workplace scenarios, including records management, classification, structured finding, workflow, reporting, auditing, and more.

• Classify files and messages to follow an information governance strategy
  Use a label to identify sensitive content or content that requires special handling. For example, with a “Sensitivity” label, you could restrict access to files marked as “Confidential” or “Highly Sensitive”, or prevent users from sending “Highly Sensitive” messages to external users.
• Apply policy to items in Drive and Gmail messages
  Use a label as a condition or action in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules to meet compliance requirements. For example, if a file or a message contains PII, with DLP you can automatically apply a “Confidential” label and block external sharing of a file or sending the message. When you use a label in a rule, the label is locked from destructive editing–it can’t be disabled or deleted.
• Find files in Drive faster
  People in your organization can find content based on labels and fields. For example, with “Contract Status” and “Due Date” label fields, you could search in Drive for all contracts awaiting signature and due by Friday. Search based on classification labels in Gmail isn’t supported.

Additional sample label taxonomies:

• Export Control: EAR, ITAR, OFAC
• Compliance: FINRA, HIPAA
• Privacy: PII, SPII, No PII
• Status: Draft, In Review, Final
• Content type: Contract, Design Doc, Mockup
• Drug trial: experiment ID, patient ID

What you can apply classification labels to

• Any file in Drive owned by your organization
• Any Gmail message as it’s written by a user in your organization in Gmail
• Email messages written in non-Gmail email clients, however these messages can be labeled only by DLP rules, not by the user

You can’t apply classification labels to the following:

• Folders, shortcuts, shared drives, or files owned by another organization
• Email messages sent by people outside your organization
• Email messages that were already sent or received

Who can see labels

When you create a label, you can set who can see and use the label: your entire organization (the default) or only certain users and groups. If a user isn’t allowed to apply or see the label, they don’t see it in Drive or Gmail.

Super administrators and administrators with the Manage Labels privilege can see all labels in the labels manager. Administrators with the Reports privilege can see labels applied to files listed in reports and audits, even when they don’t have the Manage Labels privilege.

When a label is enabled for Drive:

• Users with view and edit permission for the label and edit access to a file can apply labels and edit the field values. If they only have view access to the file, they can view labels but not apply labels or edit field values.
• Users view access to labels and with any access to a file can search Drive by labels or fields.

When a label is enabled for Gmail:

• Users with view and edit permission for the label can apply it and edit the field values when they compose a new message.
• Users with view-only permission for a label see the following:
  • Labels inherited by their draft when they reply to a message or forward a message with the label
  • Labels applied to messages they receive
• Users who are delegates on another user’s account have the same label permissions in that inbox as the account owner, even if the delegated user doesn’t have those permissions.

Where classification labels appear

Drive labels:

Users can see all labels applied to an unopened file in My Drive, where they’re listed in the file’s Details pane. Label activity is shown in the file’s Activity pane.

For open files, users can click Files Labels to open the label editing pane. Learn more about how users work with labels.

Gmail labels:

Users can see badge labels in Gmail’s mailbox view. When they open a message, labels appear next to the internal sender’s name for each message they apply to. Gmail classification labels exist alongside with the user’s personal Gmail labels. When a conversation is open, any personal labels apply to the entire conversation, and are listed next to the subject at the top.

Labels aren’t shown for:

• Files downloaded from Drive
• Files previewed in Gmail, Calendar, Chat, or Meet

Classification label limits

• You can create up to 150 labels for your organization.
• Drive classification labels:
  • Files can have up to 5 user-applied labels. You can apply up to 20 labels total between user-applied and rule-applied labels.
  • Labels can be applied to any file in Drive, but not to folders, shortcuts, shared drives, or files owned by another organization.
• Gmail classification labels:
  • Messages can have up to 20 classification labels total applied by users and by rules. Users see a warning if they exceed that limit. If the labels are applied by rules, only the top 20 ranked labels apply.

Ways to apply classification labels

Drive classification labels:

You have several options and can use more than one:

• Users with edit access to files can apply labels to files in Google Drive.
• You can use the Labels API to create, edit, apply, and remove labels programmatically. For details, see the Google Drive Labels API documentation.
• You can automatically apply default classification labels to files when they’re created or transferred to a new owner.
• If your Google Workspace edition supports data loss prevention (DLP) for Drive, you can set up DLP rules to automatically apply labels to content.  DLP rules apply labels to both new and existing files that match rule conditions.
• You can set up AI data classification to apply labels to both new and existing files.

Gmail classification labels:

• Users can apply labels that they have permission to use to messages as they compose them in the Gmail web app.
• If your Google Workspace edition supports data loss prevention (DLP) for Gmail, you can set up DLP rules to automatically apply labels to messages.  DLP rules apply labels to new messages that match rule conditions.
• During beta, labels can’t be applied using the Labels API, Default classification, DLP, or AI data classification.

Next steps

Create classification labels for your organization

FAQ

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What types of files and messages can labels be applied to? Can I make labels or fields required? Can I import labels and fields from other systems or organizations? Who can create labels? Who can see labels? Are labels and fields localized to the user's default language?