Microsoft Purview is a unified platform for data governance, data security, risk management, and compliance across your entire data estate – including hybrid, on-premises, multicloud, and SaaS environments.

Instead of stitching together separate point solutions for data security, governance, and compliance, Purview gives you a single, integrated approach that helps you:

• Understand and govern your data with tools like:
  - Microsoft Purview Data Map to automatically scan, classify, and map metadata across analytics, SaaS, and operational systems.
  - Microsoft Purview Data Catalog so business users can easily discover curated, high-value data assets using business-friendly terms.
  - Microsoft Purview Data Policy to define and automate access, movement, and sharing policies across data sources.
• Secure data throughout its lifecycle by:
  - Automatically discovering, labeling, and protecting sensitive data with Microsoft Purview Information Protection – across apps, devices, SaaS, and both cloud and on-premises environments.
  - Reducing data leakage with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies that work across endpoints, apps, services, and on-premises files.
  - Using Insider Risk Management with machine learning to correlate signals and flag potential insider risks.
• Improve risk and compliance posture by:
  - Automating classification and retention at scale with Data Lifecycle Management (including support for 90+ sensitive info types and machine learning).
  - Managing records in unalterable, compliant formats with Records Management.
  - Running end-to-end legal and internal investigations with eDiscovery and Audit capabilities.
  - Monitoring communications and AI-generated content for policy violations with Communication Compliance.
  - Continuously tracking your compliance posture with Compliance Manager and its pre-built assessments and risk-based compliance score.

For security, compliance, and data teams, Purview helps simplify vendor management, reduce manual work through AI and automation, and provide a unified view of data risk and usage across the organization. That combination makes it easier to protect critical data, close exposure gaps, and support analytics and AI initiatives with confidence.

Microsoft Purview is designed to help you reimagine how data is discovered, governed, and activated for analytics and AI, without losing control.

It does this in three main ways:

1. Create a unified map of your data estate
   Microsoft Purview Data Map automatically scans and captures metadata across:
   - Analytics platforms
   - SaaS applications
   - Operational systems
   - Hybrid, on-premises, and multicloud environments
   
   It stays up to date with built-in scanning and classification, and you can integrate existing catalogs via Apache Atlas APIs. This gives you a current, unified view of where data lives, where it travels, and how it’s used.
2. Make data easily discoverable for business users
   With Microsoft Purview Data Catalog, data stewards and owners can:
   - Curate data assets for governed use
   - Apply business-friendly terms and standardized controls
   - Publish data products that business users can search and access
   
   This means users don’t need deep technical knowledge of the data estate structure. They can quickly find quality data for analytics, AI-based apps, and generative AI scenarios that support innovation and growth.
3. Control how data is accessed, moved, and shared
   Microsoft Purview Data Policy lets you define automated access policies across data sources. For example, you can:
   - Give DevOps teams one level of access to a resource
   - Allow data owners broader access
   - Provide governed self-service access for business users
   
   These policies help you balance accessibility and protection, so people get the data they need while sensitive assets remain governed and compliant.

In practice, this means your organization can:

• Shorten the time it takes to find trustworthy data for projects.
• Standardize how data is described, classified, and governed.
• Support federated data governance with business-friendly tools and AI-enabled efficiency.

The result is a data environment where discovery, governance, and security work together instead of competing with each other.

Microsoft Purview brings together multiple capabilities to help you reshape how you manage risk and compliance across the full data lifecycle.

Key areas it supports include:

1. Automated classification, retention, and records management
   - Data Lifecycle Management automatically classifies and governs content at scale using:
   • File properties
   • Pattern recognition
   • 90+ sensitive info types (such as PII like passport or Social Security numbers)
   • Machine learning
   - You can automatically apply retention labels and policies so you keep what’s required and dispose of what you don’t need.
   - Records Management lets you store and retain regulatory, legal, and business-critical records in unalterable, compliant formats, helping you demonstrate compliance when needed.
2. Legal and forensic investigations
   - eDiscovery provides an end-to-end workflow to:
   • Identify persons of interest and data sources
   • Apply legal holds to preserve data
   • Collect, analyze, review, and export content for internal or external matters, including data spillage scenarios
   - Intelligent features like deep indexing, email threading, and near-duplicate detection help narrow large data sets.
   - Copilot for Security in Microsoft Purview can generate contextual summaries of review items, helping reviewers quickly identify what’s relevant.
   - Microsoft Purview Audit supports forensic work with detailed insights into user activity and high-bandwidth data access, and can preserve audit logs for up to 10 years to meet regulatory requirements.
3. Monitoring communications and AI-generated content
   - Communication Compliance helps detect:
   • Sensitive information sharing
   • Harassing or threatening language
   • Adult content
   • Violations of regulations such as SEC or FINRA
   - It is built with privacy by design, including role-based access controls, pseudonymized usernames by default, and audit logs.
   - It also extends to Generative AI, detecting compliance violations in AI-generated content, including prompts and responses from Copilot for Microsoft 365.
4. Continuous compliance posture management
   - Compliance Manager helps you continuously assess and track your compliance effectiveness with:
   • Pre-built assessments for common standards and regulations
   • Step-by-step guidance on implementing controls
   • A risk-based compliance score so you can see where you stand and where to improve.

Together, these capabilities help you move from reactive, manual compliance work to a more proactive, automated, and measurable approach – while keeping your data estate ready for audits, investigations, and evolving regulatory requirements.