Which Subscriptions have Data Loss Prevention (DLP)?

Hi Jasmine,

I appreciate you taking the time to provide me with this information. I do need to bother you with a few more question though.

From what I understand, you can get DLP in these three ways:

• Purchase an E3 or E5 license which includes DLP bundled in the subscription.
• Purchase a DLP Add-on and associate it with a user's mailbox. (This only works for business standard and higher)
• Purchase an EXO Plan 2 license (Does this mean that if I purchase an EXO 2 Plan license and associated it with a business basic account, the DLP features will not work s well?)

Also, please refer to the image below:

In this scenario, I only have a few users who have an EXO Plan 2 mailbox, but the settings seem to be asking if the protection should be turned on for SP sites, OD accounts etc. How does DLP work in this case? Will only the data that is owned by users who have EXO Plan 2 be protected? 

Also. You have mentioned that you cannot use DLP for the whole organization with one EXO 2 license, but can I protect the whole organization with one user having an E3 license?

Hi Shaan,

Thank you for the information and update.

After doing some research, I might have found why it is a little confusing here. According to Office 365 plan options - Service Descriptions and this article you provided, Microsoft 365 Business plans (Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium) contains Exchange Online Plan 1 license. While according to Data loss prevention, in order to make use of DLP features, we must have at least one mailbox with an Exchange Online Plan 2 license configured. So in order to use the whole set of DLP features, it is recommended to use E3 license and above. While the service itself is available according to Overview of Microsoft 365 Business Premium and my observations on a Business Premium tenant as below: (this license alone is not included in E3, which might be the cause of the difference)

Hope this is clear for you. Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions about this. In the meantime, I’ll consult more professional members to see if there is a clearer statement about this. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Happy holidays,

Jasmine

Hi Shaan,

Thank you for the update.

Based on my research and consulting, for Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Business Premium to use DLP, we have to purchase Office 365 data loss prevention add-on  (add to Exchange Online Plan 1), as footer 7 in Security & Compliance Center availability for business and enterprise plans states. For other plans including Exchange Online Plan 2 license (have one license under one subscription), they don’t need to purchase the add on to use DLP.

Hope this is clear for you. Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions about this:)

Happy holidays,

Jasmine

Hi Jasmine,

Thank you for your answer. However, this is all still too unclear for me.

First of all, the support agent did clarify some things for me, so let me post a summary of what we discussed:

1. According to the first document I've provided, which states that the "Office 365 data loss prevention for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business" is available for "Business" licenses, it is apparently only referencing to "Business Premium" (I wish the documentation could be much clearer about this).
2. According to the second document I've provided, whatever is marked with "NO" will not be able to use any of O365 DLP features (even if you were to purchase the separate add-on), whereas those subscriptions marked as "YES" are a mix of subscriptions that come bundled with DLP as well as subscriptions that you can purchase the add-on and use it with. (the agent also points out that this documentation however doesn't provide a clear distinction between which ones come bundled, and which ones require an add-on).
3. The documentation stating that Business Premium has DLP is referring to the fact that DLP can be used as an add-on in the Business premium license. However, this again contradicts his statement since this documentation states "NO" under business standard, even though in the first documentation, it's provided as "YES".

Now, according to you, it is required to have an EXO Plan 2 license associated with a mailbox in order to utilize DLP. Does this mean that if I purchase the DLP add-on separately for let's say - Business standard or premium, I will not be able to utilize DLP unless I also purchase an EXO Plan 2 license? Also according to the document that references the need for the Plan 2 license : "In order to make use of DLP features, you must have at least one mailbox with an Exchange Online Plan 2 license configured" - does this mean, only a single mailbox needs to have the EXO Plan 2 to use DLP for all the users in the organization? or will DLP only apply to the mailbox with EXO Plan 2?