Microsoft Purview · Communication Compliance
Communication Compliance
Full access to configure policies, investigate alerts, remediate violations, and manage all aspects of communication monitoring.
Scope: Full access to all communication compliance features organization-wide or scoped to administrative units
Permissions
- Policy Configuration - Create and configure communication compliance policies with ML classifiers
- Alert Investigation - Investigate all alerts and view full message content (Teams, Exchange, Copilot, third-party)
- Remediation - Take remediation actions (notify, escalate, remove messages, apply retention)
- Case Files - Access all case files and investigation history with audit trails
- Policy Settings - Configure policy settings, conditions, and pseudonymization for privacy
- User Permissions - Manage user permissions and role assignments for communication compliance
- Export - Export case data, reports, and evidence for legal or regulatory proceedings
- Trainable Classifiers - Configure trainable classifiers and customize detection logic
- Policy Templates - Manage policy templates (harassment, threat, regulatory violations)
- Copilot Monitoring - Monitor Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions for sensitive content
- Administrative Units - Configure administrative units for scoped policy management
- Policy Exceptions - Manage policy exceptions and user exclusions
Common use cases
- HR investigations into harassment, discrimination, or hostile workplace violations
- Compliance monitoring for regulated communications (FINRA, SEC, FCA, GDPR)
- Detecting insider trading, front-running, or market manipulation communications
- Identifying potential data leakage or IP theft through communications channels
- Monitoring for offensive, threatening, or inappropriate language and images
- Regulatory compliance for financial services message supervision
- Monitoring Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions for sensitive or prohibited content
- Third-party communication platform monitoring (Zoom, Slack) integration
Best practices
- Start policies in simulation mode to tune detection before enforcement and notifications
- Limit full Communication Compliance access to senior HR, legal, and compliance staff only
- Use built-in ML classifiers and policy templates before creating custom detection logic
- Implement multi-stage escalation workflows for serious violations requiring legal review
- Document all investigation activities comprehensively for legal defensibility
- Regular policy reviews to reduce false positives and improve detection accuracy
- Coordinate with legal counsel on employee notification requirements per jurisdiction
- Implement retention policies for investigation records to meet regulatory requirements
- Use pseudonymization feature to protect investigator privacy during initial review
- Train investigators on appropriate use of remediation actions and evidence preservation
- Monitor Copilot interactions with appropriate boundaries between productivity and privacy
- Use administrative units to scope policies for multinational or multi-division organizations
Security considerations
- Extremely sensitive - can view all employee communications including private Teams chats
- Privacy implications require careful legal review and compliance with employment laws
- Must comply with employment laws, worker councils, and collective bargaining agreements
- All access should be logged and audited via unified audit log for oversight
- Consider using Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for just-in-time access activation
- Limit role assignment to absolute minimum number of trusted users
- Ensure proper employee notification and consent per local privacy laws (GDPR, etc.)
- Copilot interaction monitoring may capture highly sensitive business discussions
- Message remediation actions (removal) can impact legal holds and eDiscovery
- Third-party platform integration requires additional privacy impact assessments
- Pseudonymization helps but full de-anonymization is possible by investigators