Compliance for Microsoft 365 for enterprise
Most organizations have business or legal requirements that govern how data is used, shared, and retained. Some organizations also have data residency requirements or regulatory requirements that restrict communication between certain users and groups.
Microsoft Compliance contains a plethora of information to help organizations understand how we as a cloud service provider can satisfy those requirements. See the comprehensive list of compliance offerings for information detailing how Microsoft complies with national, regional, and industry-specific requirements governing the collection and use and data.
Shared responsibility model
Security and compliance in the cloud is a shared responsibility and the division of those responsibilities between the cloud service provider and customer depends on the cloud offering utilized. Microsoft works to ensure that we are compliant with industry and international standards, and customers are responsible for ensuring their data within the Microsoft Cloud is protected in a manner that is compliant with the standards and regulations imposed on the customer.
Inheritance of compliance features and settings
Microsoft 365 apps, depending on the app, inherit compliance features and settings from Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Azure, and Viva Engage. In addition, all Microsoft 365 services are built on the Microsoft Graph API.
For detailed information on each service, see:
Microsoft 365 Plan for security and compliance
Microsoft Teams Overview of security and compliance in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft SharePoint Plan compliance requirements for SharePoint and OneDrive
Microsoft Graph Use the Microsoft Graph compliance and privacy APIs
Viva Engage Overview of security and compliance in Viva Engage
Microsoft Entra ID Microsoft Entra security baseline for Microsoft Entra ID
Azure Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform compliance offerings
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
All Microsoft 365 apps and services support compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. For detailed information, see the GDPR Overview.
Data residency
Multi-Geo is Microsoft 365 feature that allows organizations to span their storage over multiple geo locations and specify where to store users' data. For multinational customers with data residency requirements, you can use this feature to ensure that each user's data is stored in the geo location necessary for compliance. For more info about this feature, see Multi-Geo Capabilities in OneDrive and SharePoint.
For more information about Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo, see Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo.
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a family of data governance, risk, and compliance solutions that can help your organization govern, protect, and manage your entire data estate.
Data lifecycle management
Use data lifecycle management capabilities in Microsoft Purview to govern your OneDrive and SharePoint content for compliance or regulatory requirements. The following table describes the capabilities to help you keep the content you need you and delete what you don't need.
| Capability | What problems does it solve? | Get started |
|---|---|---|
| Retention policies and retention labels Learn about retention for SharePoint and OneDrive |
Retain or delete content with policy management for SharePoint and OneDrive documents | Create and configure retention policies Create retention labels for exceptions to your retention policies |
Deleted users' data
When a user leaves your organization and you've deleted that user's account, what happens to the user's data? When considering data retention compliance, determine what needs to happen with the deleted user's data. For some organizations, retaining deleted user data could be important continuity and preventing critical data loss.
If a user's Microsoft 365 account is deleted, their OneDrive files are preserved for 30 days. To change this setting, Set the OneDrive retention for deleted users.
By default, when a user is deleted, the user's manager is automatically given access to the user's OneDrive. To change this, see OneDrive retention and deletion.
Information protection
Microsoft Purview Information Protection capabilities help you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information in OneDrive and SharePoint. The following table describes these capabilities. Consider if you want to implement any of these capabilities as part of your OneDrive and SharePoint rollout.
| Capability | What problems does it solve? | Get started |
|---|---|---|
| Sensitive information types | Identifies sensitive data by using built-in or custom regular expressions or a function. Corroborative evidence includes keywords, confidence levels, and proximity. | Customize a built-in sensitive information type |
| Trainable classifiers | Identifies sensitive data by using examples of the data you're interested in rather than identifying elements in the item (pattern matching). You can use built-in classifiers or train a classifier with your own content. | Get started with trainable classifiers |
| Sensitivity labels | A single solution across apps, services, and devices to label and protect your data as it travels inside and outside your organization. Sensitivity labels can be used to protect files themselves or individual SharePoint sites and teams. |
Enable sensitivity labels for Office files in SharePoint and OneDrive Use sensitivity labels to protect content in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Groups, and SharePoint sites |
| Data loss prevention | Helps prevent unintentional sharing of sensitive items. | Get started with the default DLP policy |
File sync
The OneDrive sync app has policies that you can use to help you maintain a compliant environment. Consider configuring these policies before you roll out SharePoint and OneDrive.
| Policy | Windows GPO | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Allow syncing OneDrive accounts for only specific organizations | AllowTenantList | AllowTenantList |
| Block syncing OneDrive accounts for specific organizations | BlockTenantList | BlockTenantList |
| Prevent users from syncing libraries and folders shared from other organizations | BlockExternalSync | BlockExternalSync |
| Prevent users from syncing personal OneDrive accounts | DisablePersonalSync | DisablePersonalSync |
| Exclude specific kinds of files from being uploaded | EnableODIgnoreListFromGPO | EnableODIgnore |
Information barriers
Microsoft Purview Information Barriers is a compliance solution that allows you to restrict two-way communication and collaboration between groups and users in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Often used in highly regulated industries, information barriers can help to avoid conflicts of interest and safeguard internal information between users and organizational areas.
When information barrier policies are in place, users who shouldn't communicate or share files with other specific users won't be able to find, select, chat, or call those users. Information barrier policies automatically put checks in place to detect and prevent unauthorized communication and collaboration among defined groups and users.
If your business requires information barriers, see Learn about information barriers and Use information barriers with SharePoint to get started.
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