Microsoft's information protection and encryption solutions safeguard sensitive data across devices, applications, cloud services, and on-site locations. These solutions allow for the classification and labeling of data according to its sensitivity, enabling the application of suitable protection policies. They grant the ability to dictate access permissions and usage rights for your data, even when it is outside your organization. Utilizing advanced encryption technologies and standards like AES 256-bit, RSA, and FIPS 140-2, Microsoft's offerings ensure extensive oversight and reporting on data activities and compliance posture.

Microsoft 365 Purview provides features such as content search, data classification, and monitoring to assist users in managing their data assets. Content search enables the discovery of information across multiple data sources with keywords, filters, and complex queries. Data classification allows for labeling and tagging data according to rules that denote sensitivity, compliance, and business importance. Monitoring tracks and audits data activities and changes, alerting users to any unusual or suspicious actions. These tools help organizations enhance visibility, control, and understanding of their data, bolstering data security, compliance, and governance.

Microsoft 365 allows users to manage data effectively and efficiently through retention labeling and data lifecycle management (DLM). These tools help users comply with legal and regulatory requirements, safeguard data against threats, optimize storage and performance, boost productivity and collaboration, and foster organizational innovation and transformation. They achieve this by preserving or discarding data as necessary, encrypting and auditing sensitive information, categorizing data according to its lifecycle, eliminating or relocating outdated data, and improving access to data, sharing, consistency, analytics, insights, decision-making, and the integration of new technologies and services.

Sensitivity and retention labels are features within Microsoft 365 that assist organizations in managing data risk and compliance. Sensitivity labels categorize and safeguard data according to its level of confidentiality, implementing encryption, visual markings, and restrictions on access. Retention labels determine the duration for data preservation and the actions to take upon its expiration, enforcing retention policies across different locations and scenarios. Managed and enforced by Microsoft 365 Purview, these labels support automated labeling through content analysis and machine learning. They also offer insights and analytics regarding data utilization, protection, and management, aiding organizations in enhancing their data governance strategies.