Microsoft Compliance Solutions
Purview portfolio
Microsoft Purview covers data governance, risk, and compliance. Core pieces: Data Map (catalog and classification), Information Protection (sensitivity labels, encryption), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Insider Risk Management, eDiscovery, Audit, Compliance Manager, and Communication Compliance.
Classification and labels
Sensitivity labels persist with the content and can encrypt, apply watermarks, and restrict sharing. Retention labels govern how long content is kept and what happens after. Trap: sensitivity = protection; retention = lifecycle. A question about keeping records seven years then deleting points to retention, not DLP.
DLP and Insider Risk
DLP policies match sensitive information types across locations (Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, endpoints). Insider Risk Management uses behavioral signals with privacy controls; it is not the same as DLP rule matching.
Compliance Manager and eDiscovery
Compliance Manager maps controls to regulations and produces a compliance score with improvement actions. eDiscovery (content search, holds, review sets) supports legal investigations. Audit retains activity logs; Standard versus Premium audit retention differs.
Traps
- Compliance score is a relative measurement, not a guarantee of legal compliance.
- Adaptive protection combines DLP with insider risk; do not call it a firewall.
- Customer Lockbox governs Microsoft engineer access to customer data during support.
Rule of thumb
Identify the verb in the requirement: protect (label/DLP), keep or delete (retention), investigate (eDiscovery), measure (Compliance Manager), monitor people (Insider Risk).
Worked example
"Block sharing of credit card numbers in email and Teams, and alert on attempts." That is a DLP policy using a sensitive information type, not a sensitivity label alone, because enforcement across locations is required.