Microsoft Copilot Security, Privacy, and Compliance

We all know someone who is very dear to us because they are like a best friend or assistant at our workplace. They organize work for us, provide us with a summary of our emails, and save us time. Moreover, having someone to have your back for your mundane job routine is quite relaxing. This is what Microsoft Copilot is about but on an organizational level.

Your work best friend can hesitate, lose track, or leave anytime, but Copilot will always be there at your service. Microsoft Copilot is not just for an individual team member but for organizations to keep their data at hand and just a question away. Before you dive deep into it, we will help you understand the security, compliance, and privacy of Microsoft Copilot in detail.

Let’s begin and answer a few questions for you!

First – What is Microsoft 365 Copilot, and How Does it Work?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an assistant that integrates with a variety of Microsoft 365 applications, including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Power Platform. It makes pretty amazing things possible.

Large language models (LLM), Microsoft Graph, and Microsoft 365 apps work together in Microsoft 365 Co-pilot to transform users’ natural language into innovative and useful outputs.

Business Chat utilizes the LLM and M365 apps and user data such as Chats, calendars, emails, files, meetings, and contacts to deliver the most appropriate answers to the prompts quickly.

Now, let’s address your security concerns about Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Is Microsoft 365 Copilot Secure?

Yes, You are in control of your data. Microsoft doesn’t share your data with anybody else unless you give us permission to. Moreover, unless you permit Microsoft to do so, Microsoft doesn’t use your data to train or enhance Copilot or its AI features.

The security, compliance, and privacy rules and procedures of Microsoft services like Dynamics 365 and Power Platform are carried over to Copilot. Copilot is the AI solution you can rely on because of its multi-factor authentication, compliance limits, privacy safeguards, and other features.

However, there are also certain concerns because the security labels from the source files are not transferred to the Copilot results. This poses a significant risk to source files that hold private information. It is now the employee’s responsibility to verify the AI’s work and make sure data is correctly classified and risk-rated.

What Are the Privacy and Security Concerns of Using Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Some people love the ability to use Copilot for their businesses, but others are concerned about data privacy and security. If you’re in charge of keeping your organization’s data secure, you should consider twice before trusting and using a new technology like Microsoft Copilot.

Before you enable Microsoft Copilot, you may have a lot of questions in your mind:

Is it safe to install and enable Microsoft Copilot?
Can I add extra security with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Does Copilot pose any risks since it has access to all the data?
Does Microsoft Copilot share my data with third parties?
How does user access restriction work to stop unauthorized access to data?
How can I make sure my data is encrypted and stored securely?
Does Copilot follow any specific security certifications or standards?
Does Copilot go against the organization’s privacy and security policies?
Does it store the conversations I have with the AI chat assistant?
How much does it cost, and is it really worth subscribing to?
Does it store my browsing history or tab data since it reads browser tabs and windows?
How does Microsoft 365 Copilot handle the privacy of user data, and what data does it collect and store?

These are only a handful of the questions you may have. Some organizations are concerned about security and are hesitant to utilize Microsoft Copilot because, no matter how well you safeguard your data, there’s always the chance that someone may attempt to gain access to it.

How does Microsoft Guarantee Data Privacy and Security When Using Copilot?

Copilot respects existing data regulations and permissions, and users will only view responses based on data that they have direct access to.

Microsoft is in a unique position to offer AI that is ready for the workplace. Copilot complies with our current privacy, security, and compliance promises to customers because it is powered by Azure OpenAI Service. Various protection measures are used to ensure the security of organizational data.

Some of them are below:

Service-side technologies are used for encrypting customer content both at rest and during transit, enhancing security.
Connections are secured through Transport Layer Security (TLS) to safeguard data transmission.
The transfer of data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to Azure OpenAI Service is facilitated via the Microsoft backbone network for reliability and safety.
The architecture is designed to safeguard tenant, group, and individual data to address concerns about data leakage.
Copilot protects user privacy by only displaying information that is visible to them.
Microsoft’s all-encompassing strategy for security, compliance, and privacy forms the foundation of Copilot’s security.
Copilot benefits from the security, compliance, and privacy standards of Microsoft services such as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, from which it is integrated.

In short, Copilot is a reliable AI solution because of its features, such as privacy protections, compliance restrictions, and multi-factor authentication.

What License Do I Need for Microsoft Security Copilot?

Customers must first have a current Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license. This cutting-edge innovation is specifically designed for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium subscribers and costs only $30 per user each month. However, the Copilot for Microsoft 365 plan for the productivity suite isn’t currently available to users of other Microsoft 365 versions, either.

Apps4Rent Can Help in Implementing Copilot Securely

Finally, you have probably found your best business partner. Your security concerns are valid, and Microsoft has addressed all of them and will continue to do so. If you are on the path of digital transformation with AI-empowered tools, we at Apps4rent are the Microsoft partner and are here to offer the custom plan for you.