How to stop a pitch deck or confidential document from leaking

Updated November 6, 2026. By Vela Partners.

You cannot stop every copy of a document you share, but you can make every copy name its reader and know when someone tries. Share one link per person behind an email code, keep downloads off, put each reader's email on every page as a watermark, and turn on screenshot alerts.

The short answer

Once a deck is on someone's screen, they can photograph it. So the goal is not a lock nobody can pick. The goal is that a leak is traceable to one person, that you hear about a likely copy when it happens, and that you can end access the moment you want.

An attachment fails all three. A link that opens in the browser can do all of them.

Eight steps, strongest first

1. Never attach the file. Send a link. An attachment can be forwarded forever, and you never know.
2. Ask for a proven email. An email code at the door means every view belongs to a real inbox, not a typed name.
3. One link per person. Then a leaked link points to one recipient, and you can turn off just that one.
4. Keep downloads off. ArtifactSend has them off by default, with no download button in the viewer.
5. Put each reader's email on every page. A watermark makes a screenshot or a phone photo name its source.
6. Know when someone likely takes a screenshot. ArtifactSend emails you who, which page and which device, and does not tell the reader.
7. Add an NDA for anything sensitive. Readers accept it before the first page, and you keep a record of who agreed and when.
8. Set an expiry, and turn the link off when the conversation ends. The next open shows nothing.

Only alerts beyond the first 10 have a price, $10 a month. Everything else in this list is free in ArtifactSend.

Know if it was forwarded

When a reader passes your link to a colleague, the colleague has to prove their own email at the door. You see a new name at the same company in the link report, and the Analytics page groups them under Teams reading. With an allow list, people outside the companies you chose cannot open it at all.

Compared with other tools

Rival facts from each vendor's public pricing and feature pages, November 2026, prices billed yearly. Not listed means the vendor's pages do not say. Prices change, so check theirs before you decide.