---
title: What's visible on your brand portal by default? Controlling portal exposure
slug: public-private-and-portal-defaults
category: account-admin
tags: permissions, public-private, protected, brand-portal, access-control
summary: Control what appears on your brand portal by publishing items to portals — set each asset, folder, or Collage to Available or Restricted, and avoid accidental oversharing.
updated: 2026-07-07
url: https://support.collage.inc/articles/public-private-and-portal-defaults
---

# What's visible on your brand portal by default? Controlling portal exposure

Your brand portal only shows what you allow. Every asset, folder, and Collage carries a visibility setting that decides whether it appears on the portal. Getting these right — before you share your portal — is the best way to prevent sensitive material from slipping out. For step-by-step permission changes, see [Using permissions to power your brand portal](https://support.collage.inc/articles/using-permissions-brand-portal).

## Set visibility with portal toggles

Visibility isn't a single switch you flip — it's set by publishing an item to one or more portals. Every asset, folder, and Collage has a **Portals** control listing each brand portal in your workspace with its own toggle:

- **Available** — published to at least one portal. Anyone with access to that portal can see it. Best for marketing materials and campaigns.
- **Restricted** — every portal toggle is off. The item shows a lock icon and stays visible only to internal, authorized Members. Best for sensitive or internal assets.

> Note: You may occasionally see a lock icon on a folder that holds a mix of published and unpublished items. Internally this mixed state is called *Protected*, but you won't see that word anywhere in the product — just the lock icon on the restricted items. It's set automatically; there's nothing you need to manage.

## Understand how visibility inherits

A folder's publishing state cascades to everything inside it: turning a folder's portal toggle off hides all its subfolders and assets from that portal, and turning it on publishes its contents to that portal — overriding any settings previously made on individual items inside. Changing a single asset's portal toggles can also change its folder's overall state — publishing one asset inside an otherwise-unpublished folder puts that folder into the mixed, lock-icon state.

Collages are managed independently. A Collage's own publishing state acts as a gatekeeper: if a Collage isn't published to a portal, nothing beneath it appears there; if it is, visibility is then controlled by the folder and asset toggles inside it.

## Check exposure before you share a portal

Because visibility cascades in these ways, review your Portals settings before publishing or sharing a portal:

1. Set anything sensitive or internal to unpublished (all portal toggles off).
2. Confirm that folders you expect to stay hidden aren't showing the mixed lock-icon state because a stray asset was published.
3. Spot-check the portal itself to confirm only intended assets appear.