Why You Cannot Restrict Sensitive Data in an Airtable Base and What to Do Insteads

You want to isolate or hide sensitive data in an Airtable base.

Specifically, you want users to see high level metrics or reports, without giving them access to the underlying case level data.

This often comes up with legal, finance, or HR workflows. For example, a reporting dashboard shows the status of legal work.

Managers need the numbers and progress. They do not need access to individual case records.

So the question is simple.

And is there any way to hide data using permissions or access controls?

Base Access Cannot Be Restricted

You cannot truly hide data from someone who has base access.

If a user has access to the base, they can see all tables and records they are permitted to view.

Data can only be hidden at the Interface level. This means users must have Interface only access, not base access.

To do this, you need to remove users from the base entirely.

Go to the Data layer. Click the Share button and unshare the base with those users.

Once they no longer have base access, they cannot see the underlying tables or records.

Next, go to the Interface layer.

Click Share Interface. Invite the same users to the specific Interfaces they should see.

They will only see what the Interface exposes. Nothing more.

This is the only supported way to safely show metrics while protecting sensitive backend data.