Cooperative data access request authorization in a dispersed storage network

A computer readable storage medium comprises:

• at least one memory section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), causes the one or more computing devices to:
• receive, by storage units of a set of storage units, an access request regarding a set of encoded data slices from a user device, wherein a data segment is dispersed storage error encoded to produce the set of encoded data slices;
• interpret, by a storage unit of the storage units, to determine whether the user device is authorized to access the set of encoded data slices as requested in the access request;
• when the storage unit determines that the user device is authorized to access the set of encoded data slices as requested in the access request, send, by the storage unit, a message to proceed with responding to the access request to other storage units;
• and
• when the storage unit determines that the user device is not authorized to access the set of encoded data slices as requested in the access request, send, by the storage unit, a message to disregard the access request to the other storage units.