Sensitivity Labels

Sensitivity labels are Microsoft Purview's mechanism for classifying and protecting content. Administrators publish a label taxonomy — for example, Public, Internal, Confidential, Highly Confidential — and users apply labels to documents, emails, Teams meetings, and SharePoint sites. Each label can apply protections automatically: encryption with usage rights, headers and footers, watermarks, sharing restrictions, container-level controls (external sharing settings, guest access, device requirements), and DLP triggers. Labels travel with the content even outside the tenant. They're the centrepiece of Microsoft 365 information protection and an important prerequisite for safely rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot at scale.