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Microsoft Power BI Updates Blog

Announcing Default sensitivity label preview and other top asked MIP features in Power BI

Headshot of article author Anton Fritz

Principal Product Manager
30 August, 2021

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) helps you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information, wherever it lives or travels. MIP capabilities are included with Microsoft 365 Compliance and give you the tools to know your data, classify your data, protect your data, and prevent data loss.

 

Today we are happy to announce public preview of default label policies in Power BI Desktop together with some of the top asked MIP features in Power BI:

 

Default label policies in Power BI

Default label policies enable you to define a baseline level of protection to be applied to Power BI files. Unless changed, the default label set on files persists when the files are published or uploaded to the Power BI service.
When a user opens a new file in Power BI Desktop or edits an existing file that doesn’t yet have a MIP sensitivity label, Power BI seamlessly applies the default label to the file. If the user doesn’t choose another label, the file will be saved with the default label.

The following image shows how the Sensitivity menu displays the default label as selected when a new or existing unlabeled Power BI file is opened.

Moving forward we are working make it so that default label policies will also apply to content that is created or edited in the Power BI service.

 

Default label together with Mandatory label

We recently released the public preview of mandatory label policies in Power BI. Mandatory label policies enable organizations to ensure that MIP sensitivity labels will be applied to new content when it is created in or uploaded to Power BI.

When both default label and mandatory label policies in Power BI apply to a user, the user won’t be required to choose a label before being allowed to save or publish a file. This is because the default label will be applied. While users can change the default label to another label if they so choose, they just won’t be able to remove the label from the file, due to the mandatory label policy.

 

How to enable a default label policy in the Microsoft 365 compliance center

A Microsoft 365 administrator can enable a default label policy for Power BI by selecting the desired label in the Apply this label by default to Power BI drop-down menu in the Power BI section of the “Sensitivity label policy” settings in the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

See how to enable mandatory label in M365 compliance

 

Further announcements for MIP in Power BI

 

MIP sensitivity labels in Power BI Desktop – GA

MIP sensitivity labels in Power BI Desktop are now generally available. With MIP sensitivity labels in Power BI Desktop, it’s easy to classify and protect .pbix and .pbit files, similarly to the way it is done with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files. By applying a MIP sensitivity label to a .pbix file, the file can be both classified according to its level of sensitivity and protected according to the label’s file encryption settings.

A MIP sensitivity label on a .pbix file persists when the file is uploaded or published to the Power BI service. Likewise, when a dataset or report with a MIP sensitivity label is downloaded as a .pbix file, the label and its protection settings are applied to the downloaded file.

Note:  Power BI Desktop honors Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity label settings. This means that only authorized users, as defined during sensitivity label creation in the Microsoft 365 compliance center, are allowed to open and edit protected Power BI Desktop files.

 

Support for Get data from in Power BI Desktop – preview

Excel files are among the most popular data sources for BI reports. Many enterprises use MIP sensitivity labels to classify and protect Excel files. Now you can import data from protected Excel files if you have sufficient permissions.

 

Data source MIP sensitivity label inheritance in Power BI Desktop preview, and extend data source label inheritance to support Excel files

In April we announced the public preview of Power BI MIP sensitivity label inheritance when importing data from Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure SQL Database to help ensure that your data remains classified and secure across its data journey from Azure through to Power BI and on to Office.

We’re happy to announce that:

  1. We’re extending data source inheritance when importing data from Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure SQL Database so that it will be supported both in Power BI Desktop and in the Power BI service.
  2. We’re adding support for MIP sensitivity label inheritance when getting data from an Excel file to Power BI Desktop, to help ensure that your data remains classified and secure across its journey from Office to Power BI and back to Office.

For MIP data source inheritance in Power BI Desktop you need to have MIP sensitivity labels in Power BI enabled for you.

Read more about this feature

 

MIP sensitivity labels for paginated reports – preview

Now you can set MIP sensitivity labels on paginated reports in the Power BI service, just like you can on Power BI reports. When data from a paginated report is exported to a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF file, the report’s label and protection settings will be applied to the exported file. Read more about this feature.

 

New setting in the M365 compliance center – Require users to apply a label to Power BI content

A Microsoft 365 administrator can enable a mandatory label policy for Power BI by selecting the Require users to apply a label to their Power BI content checkbox in the Sensitivity label’s policy settings in the Microsoft 365 compliance center. This is in addition to being able to enable the setting via PowerShell. Read more about this feature.
 

 

MIP label activities in Microsoft 365 Activity Explorer preview

With the addition of Power BI data in activity explorer, now customers can view their labeling events from Office and Power BI seamlessly in single location. This functionality is currently in preview, with GA to follow in the coming months. For more information see the documentation here: Power BI sensitivity label data in Activity Explorer (preview) – M365 Admin (handsontek.net)

 

Coming soon:

  • Data source label inheritance in the Power BI service when the data source is an Excel file (preview).
  • Get data from protected Excel files in Power BI service (preview)
  • Require users to apply MIP sensitivity labels – general availability.
  • Default label when creating new content in the Power BI service (preview).
  • Publish/Republish .pbix files with labels via 3rd party service principals.

 

Learn more:

Finally – if you have any other suggestions or feedback about MIP in Power BI, you can fill out this form.