Native Support for Sensitivity Labels is Here!
Office 365 has long supported two different kinds of labels to assist with compliance – Retention and Sensitivity. Saving proper detail for another time, in short, Retention labels help you ensure you keep important information around without it accidentally getting deleted. Sensitivity labels help you keep important information from prying eyes. (Ironically, Retention labels can be used directly in DLP – Data Leakage/Loss Prevention – rules, while Sensitivity labels cannot. At least, not yet.)
Sensitivity labels and policies have also long been a feature of Azure Information Protection (AIP). Around a year ago, Microsoft started unifying the experiences around AIP and Office Sensitivity labels. Now, starting with build 1909, users of Office 365 Pro Plus no longer need the separate AIP client software in order to directly access their organization’s labels.
Access to Sensitivity labels is directly available from the ribbon on the editing experience of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. As you hover over each option, the tooltip for that label is displayed.
But Wait, There’s More!
This in and of itself is great news, but it gets better!
The AIP client is bound to a single Azure Active Directory tenant. The new native Sensitivity label support is tenant independent. This is very useful for people who have Office accounts with multiple organizations. You can freely change the association of the Office client to any account you can access. The organization for each label is clearly indicated, so you can be compliant with all of your customers.
So, what if you are already using the AIP client?
If you’re already using the AIP unified client, it will continue to take precedence over the native functionality by default. They are able to coexist, however. All you need to do to enable the native label support is to disable the AIP COM add-in from the Office Options window (File, Options). This allows the AIP to remain in force everywhere else (e.g. Explorer, which isn’t covered by the new update).
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Compliance is an area where the Microsoft 365 suite is evolving rapidly. While the native label support in the Windows Office clients is much appreciated, it has been a long time coming (Mac Office and Word/Excel/PowerPoint on mobile have had it for a while now). And, there are still a few gaps. For example, the web apps for Office 365 still do not have sensitivity labels. They are coming, however. Microsoft has a frequently updated roadmap to these updates. This Page has a table that tells you where native labeling is currently supported, and give a roadmap for support on other platforms.
On a Side Note
I know it has been a while since I’ve posted. I have been heads down with a lot of changes in my life for a while. Some have been great, others less so. I think, though, that I’ve reached a point where I’ll be able to get back into blogging a bit, and in general being more active in the community. So, for those of you who have been wondering where I’ve been, I’m happy to say “I’m Baack!”
Random Thoughts 