Microsoft Purview

What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview (formerly Microsoft Information Protection and Microsoft Compliance) is the data governance and compliance platform built into Microsoft 365. It provides tools for classifying sensitive data, preventing it from leaving your organisation inappropriately, and ensuring it's retained or deleted according to your policies.

Purview is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium at the P1 tier, with more advanced capabilities available in E3 and E5 licences. For most Canberra businesses, the Business Premium capabilities are sufficient to establish a solid data governance baseline.

Sensitivity labels

Sensitivity labels are the foundation of Purview. They let you classify documents and emails — Public, Internal, Confidential, Highly Confidential — and apply protection settings automatically based on that classification.

A document labelled Confidential can be configured to encrypt automatically, watermark when printed, and prevent copying or forwarding. The label travels with the document — if it's shared externally, the protection goes with it.

• Manual labelling — users apply labels when creating or editing documents
• Recommended labelling — Purview suggests a label based on content detected in the document
• Automatic labelling — labels applied automatically when sensitive content (credit card numbers, TFNs, health information) is detected

Data Loss Prevention

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies detect and prevent sensitive information from being shared inappropriately. A DLP policy can block an email containing a Tax File Number from being sent externally, warn a user before they upload a document containing credit card numbers to a personal cloud service, or prevent sensitive files from being printed.

DLP policies work across Exchange email, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and endpoint devices. They can be configured to block, warn, or simply audit — allowing you to understand what's happening before enforcing stricter controls.

Retention policies

Retention policies ensure that content is kept for as long as required and deleted when it's no longer needed. For Canberra businesses subject to government record-keeping requirements, retention policies are a compliance necessity.

Purview retention policies can be applied to Exchange email, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. Content can be retained for a defined period, deleted after a defined period, or both — retained for seven years and then deleted, for example.

Why it matters for Canberra businesses

Canberra businesses frequently handle sensitive information — government contracts, health data, legal documents, financial records. The Privacy Act, the Australian Government's information security requirements, and sector-specific regulations all impose obligations on how this data is handled.

Purview provides the technical controls to meet these obligations: classifying sensitive data, preventing inappropriate sharing, and maintaining records for the required period. It also provides the audit trail to demonstrate compliance if you're ever asked to.

Getting started with Purview

The right starting point is a data classification exercise — understanding what sensitive data your organisation holds, where it lives, and who has access to it. From there, a sensitivity label taxonomy and a small number of high-priority DLP policies deliver the most immediate value.

I.T.S Canberra configures Purview as part of a Microsoft 365 Business Premium deployment, including sensitivity label design, DLP policy configuration, and retention policy setup aligned to your compliance requirements.