Sharing and access

Everything in Waafir is private by default. No one outside your organisation can see a document until you deliberately grant access, and then only what their permission level allows. This page covers the two ways people enter a data room, the permission tiers that determine what they can do, and how access is gated and revoked.

Two ways to grant access

Direct invitation

The most common path. Enter an investor's email address for a specific data room and choose what they are allowed to do. They receive a secure email link, complete any required steps such as accepting an NDA, and reach exactly the documents you intended. Use direct invitations when you know who the audience is.

Secure share links

For controlled external sharing outside the formal invite flow, generate a share link for a data room. Share links are not "anyone with the link sees everything"; they are configurable:

• Mode. An open link lets a recipient enter any email, accept the NDA, and reach the room. A restricted link admits only email addresses you have added to an allow-list; anyone else is offered a "Request Access" button that notifies your team for review instead of granting entry.
• Password. A link can require a password in addition to the email and NDA steps.
• Domain allow-list. A link can be restricted to specific email domains, so only addresses at a particular firm can use it.
• Expiry. A link can be set to stop working after a date.
• Soft-disable. A link can be deactivated at any time without deleting it, cutting off new access immediately.

Both link modes use the same URL. The platform enforces the mode server-side when someone tries to use the link, so changing the mode does not require reissuing the link.

The four permission tiers

Access to a data room is not all-or-nothing. Each person is granted one of four permission tiers for that room:

A viewer can read documents in the secure viewer but cannot download them — the right default for sensitive materials you want seen but not taken. Downloaders can take files away. Contributors can also add and edit. Managers additionally control the room itself. Organisation owners and admins implicitly have manager rights on every room in their organisation, so you do not need to grant yourself access to your own rooms.

Where you need control finer than the room level, individual files and folders can carry their own permission overrides that take precedence over the room-level tier for that specific item.

NDA gating

By default, access through a share link requires the recipient to accept an NDA and your terms before any document is shown. The platform records each acceptance — who, when, from what IP and browser — as a durable consent record, giving you a compliance trail of exactly who agreed to what. A returning investor who has already accepted is not asked again; the check is made against the stored consent record, not a cookie, so it survives across devices and sessions.

Revocation is permanent until reinstated

Revoking a person's access to a data room is durable. The investor is blocked from re-entering through any share link, open or restricted, regardless of how they originally got in. Re-clicking a link does not restore access; the only way back in is for your team to explicitly reinstate them. This is deliberate: without it, an open share link would quietly defeat a revocation. A revoked party stays off until you decide otherwise.

Where to go next

• Data rooms — why access is scoped per room in the first place.
• Identity verification (KYC/KYB) — the optional identity check some organisations require before an investor reaches documents.
• File versioning and auditability — the audit trail behind every view and download.