> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.box.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About Smart Access

<div className="article_labels_list" style={{display: 'none'}} dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{__html: "Overview , Collaboration , Admin , Access , Concept , Security Compliance , Box Shield , Article , New , Product Utilization"}} />

To prevent your sensitive content from being accidentally leaked, Smart Access enables you to configure access policies that Shield automatically enforces. With Smart Access, you can use automated controls to restrict sharing, viewing, downloading and printing, and requesting signatures based on content classification.

To learn more, watch the following videos:

* [How Box enforces an access policy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgE_YM1JDS0\&feature=youtu.be) from a user's perspective
* [How to create an access policy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBPEtUw02E0\&feature=youtu.be)

## Access Policy limits

The following table describes the limits in access policies.

|                    |                                                                               |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Item**           | **Limit**                                                                     |
| Name               | 80 characters                                                                 |
| Description        | 255 characters                                                                |
| Number of policies | 26 (25 for each of the no of classifications plus 1 for unclassified content) |

## Access Policy enforcement and monitoring

Access policies affect how your users access content in Box. When you **enforce** a policy, the access becomes restricted right away. When you choose to **monitor** policy restrictions, you can monitor if and how users violate policies without imposing any actual restrictions. The [Event API](https://developer.box.com/reference/resources/event/) allows you to check the violations.

The following access policies support the monitoring mode:

* External Collaboration Restriction
* Download and Print Restriction
* Integration Restriction
* FTP Restriction

## Security Control types

Box Shield has several security control types that you can add to access policies:

* External collaboration restriction
* Shared link restriction
* Download and print restriction
* Integration restriction
* FTP restriction
* Watermarking
* Box Sign request restriction

For details on security control types, see [Security Control Types](/en/box-shield/shield-smart-access-policies/security-control-types).
