Plan for communication compliance
Before configuring Communication Compliance, it's important to align on roles, licensing, and planning decisions across the organization. This means making sure the right people are assigned to the right roles. It also requires verifying that your licensing supports the necessary features. Finally, check that communication channels, users, and groups are properly scoped for policy coverage.
Identify the right stakeholders
Communication Compliance often involves multiple teams working together. While IT might configure the solution, policy decisions and investigation processes usually come from compliance, legal, HR, or privacy teams. Common stakeholders include:
- IT administrators
- Legal and regulatory compliance officers
- HR and employee relations
- Security and privacy leads
Planning should also define who investigates flagged messages and determine how alerts are escalated or resolved.
Assign roles and permissions
Access to Communication Compliance is controlled through role groups in Microsoft Purview. These roles define what each participant can do, from configuring policies to investigating alerts.
Supported roles include:
- Microsoft Entra Global Administrator
- Microsoft Entra Compliance Administrator
- Organization Management (Microsoft Purview portal)
- Compliance Administrator (Microsoft Purview portal)
- Communication Compliance
- Communication Compliance Admins
Communication Compliance doesn't grant access by default, even for high-privilege roles. A Global Administrator won't see the Communication Compliance solution or be able to configure policies or view user messages unless explicitly added to a supported role group. This strict access model helps protect user privacy by ensuring only authorized users can investigate sensitive communications.
Each role group has specific capabilities:
| Action | Admins | Investigators | Analysts | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configure policies and settings | ✓ | |||
| Review and remediate alerts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Remove messages from Teams | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Manage privacy settings and notices | ✓ | |||
| Access dashboards and reports | ✓ | ✓ |
To assign roles:
- Go to the Microsoft Purview portal and select Settings > Roles and scopes > Role groups.
- Select the role group you want to manage.
- Select Edit, then Choose users, and select the users you want to add.
- Select Next, then Save to apply the changes.
After you assign roles, it might take up to 30 minutes for access to take effect across the environment.
For global organizations, administrative units can be used to scope access by region or department. Admins assigned to a specific unit only see the policies and data related to that scope.
Confirm licensing requirements
Users included in communication compliance policies must have one of the following:
- Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance
- Office 365 E5
- Office 365 E3 with the Advanced Compliance add-on
To detect inappropriate or risky interactions from generative AI sources outside of Microsoft 365 (such as Microsoft Fabric Copilot or external AI tools), pay-as-you-go billing must also be enabled.
Set up audit logging
Communication Compliance relies on audit logs to track alerts, reviewer actions, and policy changes. Audit logging is enabled by default for Microsoft 365 tenants, but it's important to verify this setting. Audit logging must be enabled for Communication Compliance to work as expected. If it was previously turned off, it must be reenabled before policies can function properly.
Scope users and reviewers
Policy coverage is defined by selecting specific users, groups, or adaptive scopes. This determines whose communications are reviewed. Reviewers must have Exchange Online mailboxes and must be assigned individually.
Groups can simplify configuration. For example:
| Use Case | Supported Groups |
|---|---|
| Scoped or excluded users | Microsoft 365 Groups, Distribution Groups |
| Reviewers | Individual users only |
To reduce administrative overhead, adaptive scopes can be used to dynamically include users based on properties like department or geography. Administrative units and adaptive scopes can't be used together, so it's important to decide which model best fits the organization.
Configure privacy settings
Privacy settings control whether user names are anonymized during investigations. When anonymization is turned on, users in the Communication Compliance Analysts role group see pseudonyms instead of real names. Investigators continue to see full user details.
This setting applies only to Communication Compliance and helps reduce investigation bias.
Prepare groups for policy scoping
Creating dedicated groups for scoped users and reviewers makes it easier to maintain and adjust policy coverage over time. Distribution groups and Microsoft 365 Groups are supported for scoping users. For reviewers, individual assignment is required.
If messages from Viva Engage or Microsoft Teams are reviewed, further configuration might be necessary. For example, Viva Engage must be in Native Mode to support communication compliance policies.
Review administrative boundaries
In organizations with compliance boundaries already in place, these might need to be updated to grant access to communication compliance administrators and reviewers. This ensures that scoped mailboxes and communication channels can be properly accessed for investigation and remediation.
Planning for communication compliance includes technical and organizational preparation. Roles must be assigned, licensing validated, and scopes clearly defined. Communication channels, privacy settings, and reviewer workflows all require careful consideration. When these pieces are in place, your organization will be better prepared to create effective communication compliance policies and respond appropriately when issues arise.