Enabling Purview Is Not The “Flip of a Switch”
…In fact, it’s more like the Christmas Vacation house of lights.
You don’t just plug it in and everything magically works.
There are breakers, extension cords, timing, and planning… and if you rush it, something blows.
Sensitivity labels are the lights.
Change management, training, and business process understanding are the wiring behind the walls.
Ignore the wiring, and you’re standing in the yard wondering why nothing turned on.
Let’s be honest, you would never hire Clark Griswold to do your lights. Don’t take the same approach with Purview.
Today we’re going to take a look at a few aspects of Sensitivity Labels and Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Keep in mind, Purview is a robust topic. Every aspect will not be covered in this post, even around labels and DLP. If you want to know more, please ping me on LinkedIn with any questions or topics you have.
Over the past year, I’ve heard a version of the same statements from a wide range of organizations:
“Help us enable Purview” or “We just need a few sensitivity labels and we’ll be good”.
The folks I talk to make it seem like it’s just a “flip of a switch.” And understandably so. In Microsoft 365, many security improvements really do feel like switches you turn on. You enable MFA in Entra ID. You enroll devices in Intune. You deploy Defender for Endpoint and tune alerts over time. These tools raise your security posture, often without dramatically changing how users do their day-to-day work.
Microsoft Purview is different. Period. Full Stop.
Purview isn’t something you simply enable and move on from. It’s a program — and more importantly, it’s a deliberate shift in how an organization thinks about, handles, and protects data.
That difference is why Purview is often underestimated, rushed, or misunderstood. Let’s have a look.
A Quick Primer: What Actually Falls Under Purview
Part of the confusion around “rolling out Purview” is that people treat it like a single control, when in reality it’s a collection of related capabilities that work together.
At a high level, Purview includes:
- Sensitivity labels – Define how data should be classified and protected, and what happens when it’s shared.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) – Enforces rules around how sensitive data can be used, shared, or moved.
- Retention and records management – Controls how long data is kept, when it’s deleted, and when it must be preserved.
- eDiscovery – Supports legal holds, investigations, and defensible data review.
- Insider risk management – Detects and investigates risky data-related behaviors by users.
- Information governance – Helps organizations understand where data lives and how it’s being used.
Each of these capabilities solves a different problem. Together, they define how data is classified, protected, retained, and governed across the organization
That’s why Purview is a program — not a feature.
DLP vs Labels
Alright, let’s get some definitions out of the way. One of the most important distinctions to understand is the relationship between sensitivity labels and DLP. There is definitely some nuance here, such as using encrypted labels without DLP. But I don’t recommend moving right to encrypted labels without proper design. I’m also not touching on OOTB sensitive information types (SITs) in this post. Ping me if you want to know more here.
A sensitivity label is the signal.
DLP is the enforcement engine.
The label answers the question: “What is this data?”
DLP answers the question: “What are you allowed to do with it?”
On its own, a label can:
- mark content as sensitive
- apply encryption
- influence sharing behavior
DLP takes that signal and applies context:
- where the data is going
- who is accessing it
- whether it’s being emailed, uploaded, or shared externally
- whether the action should be allowed, warned, justified, or blocked
This is why simply “adding labels” rarely delivers the outcome organizations expect. Without DLP, labels lack consistent enforcement. Without labels, DLP lacks intent and clarity.
When designed together, labels provide meaning, and DLP provides control.
And when either one is rushed or misunderstood, users feel the impact immediately — often without understanding why.
Why Purview Feels Different Than Entra, Intune, and Defender
Most Microsoft security controls operate at the infrastructure layer and often “in the background.” Entra ID strengthens identity protections. Intune governs device posture. Defender for Endpoint focuses on detection and response. These are powerful capabilities, but they tend to stay behind the scenes once deployed.
Purview operates at the data layer.
And the data layer is where people work.
The moment security moves from infrastructure into data, it stops being invisible. It shows up in daily workflows, collaboration patterns, and user decisions. That’s the moment security stops being something users “don’t notice” and starts being something they experience. There’s a reason why Microsoft use to call the Defender Suite “E5 Security” and the Purview Suite “E5 Compliance”. If Purview was just another “security tool”, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But it’s not.
And this is not a flaw in Purview. It’s the point.
When Data Policy Becomes Behavior Policy
Purview, and more specifically Azure Information Protection and Sensitivity Labels, forces organizations to define what “sensitive” actually means in their environment. That sounds simple until you realize those definitions have real consequences.
When you introduce sensitivity labels, encryption, DLP enforcement, or sharing restrictions, you’re not just setting policy. You’re shaping behavior. Files behave differently. Emails behave differently. External collaboration feels different. Long-standing end user habits suddenly meet guardrails.
A document that used to be easily forwarded may now be encrypted. A vendor who previously accessed a SharePoint file without issue may now hit a restriction. A user who never had to think about data classification now has to pause and make a choice.
At that point, Purview stops being a technical control and becomes an operational change.
Why Purview Is Ultimately a Change Management Exercise
I can’t stress the following enough!
Unlike most security tools, Purview requires users to actively participate. Users are asked to understand labels, recognize protected content, and adapt to new rules around sharing and access. If they don’t understand why those controls exist, Purview feels like friction rather than protection.
This is where many Purview initiatives/roll outs/enablement struggle. The technology is configured, but the organization hasn’t been prepared. Policies aren’t aligned to how people actually work. Exceptions aren’t clearly defined. Training focuses on features instead of behaviors.
When that happens, users don’t see Purview as a safety net — they see it as something that gets in the way. And when security gets in the way of getting work done, users will always look for alternatives.
That’s not a failure of Purview. It’s a failure of change management.
Why Purview Can’t Be Owned by IT Alone
Another common mistake is treating Purview as just another IT-owned security tool. In reality, Purview is driven by business risk and regulatory obligations, not technical preference.
Legal teams define what must be protected. Compliance teams interpret regulatory requirements. Business leaders understand which workflows are mission-critical and which risks are acceptable. IT’s role is to translate those decisions into enforceable controls.
When that alignment doesn’t exist, Purview policies tend to swing to extremes. Either they’re so permissive they don’t meaningfully reduce risk, or they’re so restrictive that collaboration breaks down. Neither outcome builds trust, and both undermine adoption.
Purview works best when policy reflects real business intent, not theoretical security ideals.
Why You Don’t Train Users on Defender — but You Must Train Them on Purview
So as an example, when Defender for Endpoint is deployed, users aren’t asked to learn how to use it. When Intune is rolled out, device enrollment happens once and fades into the background.
Purview doesn’t fade into the background.
It shows up in moments that matter: sharing a file, sending an email, collaborating externally, or reusing content. Users need to understand what’s happening in those moments and why. They need simple guidance, not documentation — clarity around what to do, what to expect, and how to handle exceptions.
Without that understanding, Purview becomes the villain instead of the safeguard.
The Real Question Behind “Enable Purview”
So when organizations ask to “enable Purview,” what they’re really asking is something much deeper:
Are we ready to define and enforce how data should be handled in our organization?
That question isn’t answered with a checkbox. It’s answered through governance, design, communication, and ongoing refinement. It requires an honest look at how people work today and a willingness to guide how they work tomorrow.
That’s why Purview stands apart from Entra, Intune, and Defender. Not because it’s more complex technically, but because it operates where security and human behavior intersect.
And that’s exactly why getting it right matters.
In my next post, I will draw comparisons of rolling out Purview with rolling out Copilot. The two are closely linked. Stay tuned…