Restricted Data Notifications in Outlook

If you compose an email in Microsoft Outlook that includes potentially sensitive information (like a credit card or Social Security Number), you may receive a notification, and the message may be protected by the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) security feature.

Category 1 Data being scanned

  • U.S. Social Security Number (SSN)
  • Credit Card Number
  • U.S. / U.K. Passport Number
  • U.S. Bank Account Number
  • U.S. Driver's License Number
  • Canada Bank Account Number
  • Canada Passport Number
  • Canada Social Insurance Number

What you see if you send Category 1 Data with Microsoft Purview DLP enabled

Applies to: People using Windows Outlook desktop client

Important: individuals using UBmail should not be sending category 1 data.

1. When using Outlook to compose a message with Category 1 Data, you will notice a policy tip above the header information.

.2. You will receive an acknowledgement window when you click send. Select Send Anyway

What a recipient sees if you send Category 1 Data

  • If the recipient is using Exchange Online on an official Microsoft Outlook client, the message is decrypted automatically and displayed like any other email
  • External recipients not using Exchange Online will receive a notification that they’ve been sent a protected message and will need to sign in to retrieve it:

1. Click Read the message

2. Sign in to view the message

Known issues

  • When using a digital signature, you will receive Category 1 alerts, but the message will not send encrypted. 
  • Outlook Classic will not display encrypted messages, with attachments, for messages sent to a shared mailbox. Please use New Outlook or the web version.

False Positives

Submit false positives to microsoft-data-protection@buffalo.edu

See also

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