Regaining Control Over Unmanaged GenAI Apps: New Microsoft Purview Enhancements in Edge

Many organizations are growing increasingly concerned about the widespread use of unsanctioned Generative AI (GenAI) tools. These apps, often accessed through unmanaged browsers, pose significant risks to data security and compliance. To help with this, Microsoft is now updating some features in  Microsoft Purview that will enhance policy enforcement for unmanaged cloud apps accessed via the Edge browser.  What’s Changing? Previously, enforcing Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Collection policies required manual creation of Edge configuration policies. These policies were often complex and needed to be scoped correctly to block unsupported browsers or apply protections. With this update, Microsoft automates much of that process: Collection Policies now apply directly within Edge without needing a separate blocking configuration. DLP Policies automatically generate Edge configuration policies that align with the scope of the DLP rules. DLP policies can operate in two mode...

Prepare for: Multiple account access to Copilot in Microsoft 365

There is a new (As of January 30, 2025) policy setting is available in Cloud Policy, which will enable multiple account access to Copilot in Microsoft 365 desktop and mobile apps, allowing users to utilize Copilot across different signed-in accounts. 

The feature itself will allow a user to use a fully licensed Copilot feature from one tenant on "any" document available to them in a tenant they have access to. No matter if the user has Copilot in any of the other tenants. The feature will be rolled out globally from early March 2025 and is expected to be completed by late March 2025, but organizations might want to look into this policy and understand how it may or may not impact their existing security policies.

I recommend reading up on the following article, where details about what the user can access in different scenarios are described.

Here are some of the things to take into consideration: 

  • Copilot's data protection is based on the identity used to access the file, ensuring enterprise data protection regardless of the account used. 
  • The setting for web grounding in Copilot is also identity-based. If web grounding is disabled for a particular identity, it will remain disabled even when accessing Copilot from another account.
  • If a user is accessing a document in a different tenant, work grounded data from the home tenant will NOT be available
  • The feature will be available in most of the major apps. 
For organizations considering to restrict this behaviour, Microsoft has provided the following Learn Article.