A method and electronic device are provided to determine that a text-based message to be sent from a sender to a recipient includes a document attached thereto, determine a protection setting value associated with a protection setting, the protection setting value determined based on collaboration data associated with the sender and the recipient, determine whether the protection setting value meets a threshold, in response to determining that the protection setting value meets the threshold, apply the protection setting associated with the protection setting value to the document attached to the text-based message, and transmit the text-based message.