What is a sensitivity label?
Also known as: Purview sensitivity label, MIP label
A sensitivity label is a Microsoft Purview classification that an organization applies to files, emails, sites, and Microsoft 365 Groups to mark how sensitive their content is and to enforce protection such as encryption, access restrictions, and visual markings. Labels travel with the content across Microsoft 365 and drive downstream controls, including whether Microsoft 365 Copilot may surface a given item. Consistent labeling is a prerequisite for defensible data governance.
A sensitivity label does two jobs at once: it classifies content by how sensitive it is, and it enforces protection that travels with the content. A file labeled “Confidential” can carry encryption, access restrictions, and a visual marking that persist wherever the file goes across Microsoft 365.
Labels matter for Copilot governance because they are a signal Copilot respects. Consistent, accurate labeling lets an organization keep the most sensitive material out of AI-generated answers, and it gives compliance teams a defensible basis for who can open what. Inconsistent labeling, by contrast, leaves protection to chance.
