Frequently asked questions for Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is an integrated data governance, compliance, and risk management solution that helps organisations discover, classify, protect, and manage their data across Microsoft 365, Azure, and other cloud or on-premises sources. This helps organisations to reduce risk, improve compliance, and get more value from Microsoft 365 without adding extra administrative burden.
Microsoft Purview is a comprehensive data governance and compliance solution that helps organisations discover, classify, protect, and manage their data across Microsoft 365, Azure, and on-premises environments.
It enables businesses to identify sensitive information, monitor data usage, enforce security and compliance policies, and reduce risk while meeting regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and the Australian Privacy Act.
By providing unified visibility and actionable insights, Microsoft Purview helps organisations safeguard data, improve compliance, and make informed decisions based on trusted information.
Microsoft Purview is the overarching data governance and compliance platform that provides visibility, classification, and protection across all your data, both in Microsoft 365, Azure, and on-premises systems.
Microsoft 365 Compliance, on the other hand, is a subset of Purview focused on compliance features in Microsoft 365, including information protection, insider risk management, eDiscovery, and audit solutions.
In short, Purview unifies governance across all environments, while Microsoft 365 Compliance delivers compliance tools specifically for Microsoft 365 workloads.
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Yes. Microsoft 365 E3 includes core Microsoft Purview capabilities, including:
- Basic data loss prevention (DLP) for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business,
- Manual sensitivity labelling and retention policies,
- Standard eDiscovery,
- Standard auditing,
- Compliance Manager.
These foundational Purview features help you classify, protect, and govern data while meeting basic compliance requirements.
However, advanced Purview services are not fully included in the base E3 plan. Features like advanced DLP, trainable classifiers, automatic sensitivity labelling, insider risk management, communication compliance, premium eDiscovery, and premium audit require either a Microsoft 365 E5 license or additional Purview add‑on licenses on top of E3.
In short, E3 gives you core Purview compliance tools, but full Purview data governance and advanced compliance features require higher‑tier or add‑on licensing.
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Yes. Microsoft 365 E5 includes Microsoft Purview’s advanced compliance and data governance capabilities as part of the subscription, giving organisations access to the full Purview suite without the need for separate Purview Suite add‑ons.
This means E5 customers get premium compliance tools, including advanced data loss prevention (DLP), insider risk management, communication compliance, eDiscovery Premium, advanced audit, information protection and governance, records management, and more, all integrated under the Microsoft Purview umbrella.
In practical terms, if your users are licensed with Microsoft 365 E5, you already have rights to the complete set of Purview compliance and governance features designed for highly regulated environments, so you won’t normally need additional Purview licenses.
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The Microsoft Purview Suite is a comprehensive set of data governance, protection, and compliance capabilities designed to help organisations discover, classify, protect, manage, and govern their data across Microsoft 365, cloud services, and hybrid environments.
Core components of the Purview Suite include:
- Microsoft Purview Information Protection
Classify, label, and protect sensitive data such as financial, personal, or regulated information. - Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Prevent accidental or malicious data leaks by enforcing policies across email, files, and collaboration tools. - Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
Detect and help mitigate internal threats or policy violations before they escalate. - Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium)
Provide enhanced audit logs and activity tracking for forensic and compliance investigations. - Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
Support efficient legal and compliance investigations with guided workflows, holds, search, and export features. - Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
Monitor and flag risky or inappropriate communications to help enforce policies. - Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Centralise compliance assessment, control mapping, and improvement actions in a single dashboard. - Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Automate retention, deletion, and records management policies to stay compliant throughout the data lifecycle.
Together, these tools give organisations a unified approach to data protection, compliance, risk control, and regulatory readiness, all managed under the Microsoft Purview umbrella.
Yes. Microsoft Purview helps organisations achieve regulatory compliance by providing tools to discover, classify, protect, and manage sensitive data across Microsoft 365, Azure, and on-premises environments.
Purview enables automated enforcement of data protection policies, retention labels, and data loss prevention (DLP) rules, helping businesses comply with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, the Australian Privacy Act, and more. With features such as audit logging, eDiscovery, compliance score, and risk insights, Purview provides organisations with a unified platform to monitor, report, and maintain regulatory compliance efficiently while reducing risk.
Microsoft Purview helps organisations implement and enforce data retention policies across Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Exchange.
Using Purview, businesses can automatically classify content, apply retention labels, and define rules to retain or delete data in line with legal, regulatory, or business requirements. Purview’s retention and records management tools ensure that important information is preserved while unnecessary or outdated data is securely disposed of, reducing compliance risk and storage costs.
This unified approach helps organisations stay audit-ready and meet regulatory obligations efficiently.
Microsoft Purview supports audits and investigations by providing comprehensive visibility and tracking of user and data activity across Microsoft 365, Azure, and on-premises environments.
With features such as advanced audit, eDiscovery Premium, and compliance reporting, Purview enables organisations to monitor, search, and export logs for internal or regulatory investigations. It helps identify policy violations, track access to sensitive data, and produce evidence for legal, compliance, or security reviews.
By centralising audit data and providing actionable insights, Purview ensures organisations remain audit-ready and can respond to investigations efficiently and accurately.