A management apparatus comprising memory to store owner information, dependence relationship information, and authorized user information are associated with file information identifying the secret file, an authorized user determination unit to determine whether a source user of the browse request is registered as the authorized user of the browse request file, a dependent file specifying unit to specify a dependent file having a dependence relationship with the browse request file by referring to the dependence relationship information when the source user is authorized; and a browse permission response transmitting unit to transmit the browse permission response to the source user based on whether or not the source user is registered as the authorized user of the dependent file by referring to the authorized user information.