I want to allow my form to be shared but protected from being edited

Is there an easy way to do this?

Yes.

Just flatten the fields before sharing the document.

You can use the Preflight or the Optimize PDF features to do it, or my free abracadabraTools which make the process easier:

https://www.abracadabrapdf.net/utilitaires/utilities-in-english/abracadabratools_en/

Acrobat offers security but it's basically worthless. Nothing can stop people from taking the file, modifying it, copying it, sharing it and so on. That's the nature of the internet, and of open file formats. Acrobat warns you that many third party apps will ignore security, and this is true.

Second point: combining PDF forms varies between difficult and impossible. Acrobat can do it, but if the form fields have the same name, then the fields are automatically changed to match in all the copies.

Hey there,

Since you are the one who created the PDF, so as per your requirement what best you can do is to apply document's security and restrict it from editing. 

How you can do this is expplained in details in this help artcile : https://helpx.adobe.com/in/acrobat/using/securing-pdfs-passwords.html#id_20302 

Let us know if this is what you were looking for.

Thanks,

Akanchha