Is there a more secure way to prevent users from viewing content than signed URLs? What if I just want a single user to be able to view a video?
No, signed URLs is the mechanism.
If you only want a single user to view a video, only provide the URL to that user – Might the user share the URL? Sure, but they could share anything you provide them, adding more pieces of information won’t make much difference.
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I’m curious how Google Drive does it. They seem to have signed URLs and in addition to that, another layer of security. What I’m trying to make is a video website with paywalls.
Google designed their system differently. What is the problem that you’re trying to solve?
I want to host videos that only certain people can view; let’s call these people premium members. How do I host videos that only premium members can view so that even if they share the URL where the video is being hosted, non-premium members can’t view it? For example, if I go to the src of a video tag in my Google Drive in an incognito tag where I’m not signed into my Google account, I’ll get “Access to r4—sn-n4v7sney.c.drive.google.com was denied”.
What you’re looking for is Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. If want something basic, there is probably some CMS membership plugins out there. But if you need something similar to Netflix for example, you’ll need an engineer.
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