Microsoft will soon allow some users to block Copilot from analyzing their Office files

Microsoft Purview is a pretty useful data governance, security, and management service that allows customers to gain enhanced visibility and control over their content. It's meant for commercial customers, such as organizations that are storing data at scale. As AI continues to expand and infiltrate every corner of a firm, many are a bit conscious about the technology gaining access to their confidential data. Microsoft is now making a configuration change that will allow such customers to rest easy.

Right now, users within an organization have the option to apply Purview sensitivity labels (when available) to secure certain files and label them as such. For example, if you apply the "Confidential" label on an Excel file, the file will be encrypted, and a "confidential" watermark will be applied to it. So, if this file is shared with anyone, they are aware that its access is supposed to be restricted.

Up until now, Microsoft was allowing some connected experiences, like its AI services, to analyze files, regardless of their sensitivity label. This is of major concern to most organizations, as a recent example highlighted how confidential emails with data loss prevention (DLP) policies like privacy labels were being uploaded to Copilot for analysis.

As such, Microsoft is updating an existing Purview data label sensitivity setting that prevents "some connected experiences that analyze content", from being blocked completely from doing this. The label isn't changing, but the blocking is now being enforced across all connected services (including Copilot and other AI tools), and now extends to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Files with the label applied already will get this enhancement automatically too once it becomes available.

Microsoft has urged IT admins to inform their respective helpdesk and compliance teams, update internal documentation, and review sensitivity labels to ensure that they meet their respective compliance needs.

This change is tagged as MC1297982 in the Message Center. General availability is scheduled to begin in a phased manner soon and will complete by the end of next month. That said, it is important to note that this only applies to commercial customers who have a license that allows them to use Purview.