Portal pages and overlays are assigned globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). Users are granted permission to view portal pages and overlays by having their user object in the container hierarchy be associated with the GUIDs. User objects can be directly associated with the GUIDs, or can inherit the GUIDs from a container or group. Once the user object is (directly or indirectly) associated with the GUID assigned to a portal page or overlay, the user can view the portal page or overlay.