Aspects of the present disclosure include a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a method for managing access permissions associated with data resources. Example embodiments involve evaluating user access permissions with respect to shared data resources of a group of network applications. The method includes receiving a request to access a data resource. The method further includes accessing a policy object linked to the data resource that includes an effective policy for the data resource. The method further includes evaluating a user's access permissions with respect to the data resource based on the policy object and communicating a response to the network application that includes the access permission of the user.