Abstract: A system is provided for automatically designating access and permission settings for documents in a collaborative authoring environment. The system may automatically configure the access and permission settings based on an email message with a link to a document for collaborative editing. The system may determine that certain recipient users in the “CC:” line of the email message be granted read only access while other recipient users in the “To:” line of the email message be granted editing access. Designating the access and privilege settings for the linked document in the email may be transparent to the sender and the recipients of the email. The system may automatically designate the access and privilege settings to the linked document for the recipients of the email without requiring any external input by the sender of the email.