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What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview protects and classifies your company's data across Microsoft 365. See what Purview can do, and who needs it.

In short

Microsoft Purview is Microsoft's platform for data governance and information protection across Microsoft 365, Azure and other systems.

Purview helps you find, classify and protect sensitive data, such as civil registration numbers, contracts and customer data, and manage how long data is retained. It is relevant for Danish businesses that must comply with GDPR, NIS2 or customer requirements for documented data handling, but lack an overview of where sensitive information actually resides.

Three key points: sensitivity labels classify and encrypt documents and emails automatically; DLP policies, meaning Data Loss Prevention, prevent sensitive data from being shared by mistake; and retention policies ensure data is deleted or kept according to fixed rules rather than chance. Purview is also the foundation for safe use of AI tools such as Copilot.

As a certified Microsoft partner, MI Support IT helps Danish businesses plan and implement Purview so data protection becomes concrete and demonstrable.

Back to the glossary

What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview is Microsoft's unified platform for data governance, data classification and information protection. Where antivirus and firewalls protect systems, Purview protects the data itself: the platform finds sensitive information across email, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, labels it, and enforces rules for who may see, share and store it, and for how long. Purview is documented on Microsoft Learn.

For a Danish SMB, the problem is rarely that people do not want to protect data, but that nobody knows where civil registration numbers, contracts and customer data actually live. Purview provides that overview and makes protection automatic instead of depending on each employee's diligence.

What is DLP (Data Loss Prevention)?

DLP (Data Loss Prevention) is a set of rules that prevent sensitive data from leaving the company by mistake. A classic example: an employee is about to send an email containing a Danish CPR number (civil registration number) to an external recipient. A DLP policy can warn the employee, require a justification or block the send entirely, while logging the incident so you can document it.

DLP builds on data classification: Purview automatically recognises patterns such as civil registration numbers, credit card numbers and health data, and you can supplement with your own sensitivity labels ("Internal", "Confidential" and so on), which follow the document even when it is shared outside the organisation.

Purview and GDPR

GDPR requires that you know which personal data you process, that you protect it appropriately, and that you delete it once the purpose is fulfilled. Those are exactly the three disciplines Purview automates: classification (find personal data), protection (labels, encryption, DLP) and retention policies that automatically delete or retain data according to fixed rules. When a request comes in from a data subject (or from Datatilsynet, the Danish Data Protection Agency), you can search across your estate and document your practice instead of guessing. Purview does not remove the responsibility, but it turns IT compliance into something you can demonstrate, not just something written in a policy.

There is also an AI angle: when tools based on artificial intelligence such as Copilot get access to your data, Purview's classification and rights management is what determines what the AI may see and reproduce.

Which licences does Purview require?

Basic features such as simple sensitivity labels are included in most Microsoft 365 subscriptions, for example Business Premium and E3. The advanced features (automatic classification at scale, advanced DLP across endpoints and insight reports) typically require Microsoft 365 E5 or the separate E5 Compliance add-on licences. The right choice depends on which types of data you handle and what your customers and industries require, not on what sits at the top of the price list.

How MI Support IT can help

As a certified Microsoft partner, we help you map your data, choose the right licence tier and implement classification, DLP and retention policies in a manageable order. Read more about Microsoft 365 and IT security, or contact us for a conversation about your data handling.

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