What is a Guest User?

Guest Users represent anonymous, unauthenticated visitors to Salesforce sites.

Why is Guest User security important?

Guest User misconfiguration is a major source of data leaks because anonymous visitors gain access to whatever the Guest profile permits.

What's a best practice for Guest User configuration?

Least privilege and regular audits are the right approach to prevent accidental data exposure through Guest User access.

Guest User

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Definition

A Salesforce user profile associated with unauthenticated visitors to Experience Cloud sites or Sites.com pages, with highly restricted permissions that control what data and features anonymous visitors can access.

Real-World Example

Consider a scenario where a business analyst at Clearwater Inc. is working with Guest User to improve how the organization tracks relationships and interactions. By setting up Guest User properly, the team gains better visibility into their customer base, which leads to more informed decisions and stronger customer relationships across the board.

Why Guest User Matters

A Guest User in Salesforce is the user profile associated with unauthenticated visitors to Experience Cloud sites or Sites.com pages. When someone visits a public page on an Experience Cloud site without logging in, they're operating as the Guest User, with the permissions defined on the Guest User profile for that site. These permissions are typically highly restricted to prevent anonymous visitors from seeing or modifying sensitive data.

Guest User security is one of the most important configuration considerations for any Experience Cloud deployment because misconfigured Guest User access can expose customer data publicly. Salesforce has tightened Guest User security significantly over recent releases, requiring explicit grants for most data access and removing many default permissions that Guest Users used to have. Mature organizations audit Guest User access carefully, follow the principle of least privilege, and test sites regularly to verify that anonymous visitors can't see anything they shouldn't.

How Organizations Use Guest User

•Skyline Consulting — Audits Guest User permissions on every Experience Cloud site they build, applying least privilege and testing for accidental data exposure.
•NovaScale — Built a public knowledge base using Guest User access for unauthenticated visitors, with carefully scoped sharing rules ensuring only public articles are accessible.
•Coastal Health — Treats Guest User configuration with extreme caution because of HIPAA compliance; any misconfiguration could expose PHI publicly.