Configure Privacy Levels in Power BI - Complete Guide for PL-300 Exam
Why Privacy Levels Are Important
Privacy levels in Power BI are crucial for protecting sensitive data when combining information from multiple sources. When you merge or append queries from different data sources, Power BI needs to know how to handle potential data exposure. Privacy levels prevent sensitive organizational data from being accidentally exposed to external sources during query folding and data transfers.
What Are Privacy Levels?
Privacy levels are security settings assigned to each data source in Power BI that determine how data can be isolated or combined with other sources. There are three main privacy levels:
1. Private: Contains sensitive or confidential information. This data is completely isolated from other data sources. Examples include employee records, financial data, or personally identifiable information (PII).
2. Organizational: Data that can be shared within your organization but should not be exposed to external sources. This level allows combining with other Private or Organizational sources but not Public sources.
3. Public: Data from sources visible to everyone, such as public websites or open data sets. Public data can be combined with any other privacy level.
How Privacy Levels Work
When Power BI combines data from multiple sources, it evaluates the privacy levels to determine if the combination is allowed:
- Public sources can be combined with any source
- Organizational sources can combine with Private and other Organizational sources
- Private sources are isolated and handled with maximum protection
If privacy levels conflict or are undefined, Power BI may block the query or prompt for configuration. You can set privacy levels in Power Query Editor by navigating to Home > Data Source Settings > Edit Permissions.
Configuring Privacy Levels
To configure privacy levels:
1. Open Power Query Editor
2. Go to File > Options and settings > Data source settings
3. Select the data source and click Edit Permissions
4. Under Privacy Level, choose the appropriate setting
5. Click OK to save
You can also configure global privacy level options under File > Options > Privacy where you can choose to always combine data according to privacy settings, combine data according to each file's settings, or always ignore privacy levels.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Configure Privacy Levels
Key Concepts to Remember:
- Private = Most restrictive, sensitive data, isolated from other sources
- Organizational = Internal use, can mix with Private and Organizational
- Public = Least restrictive, can combine with anything
Common Exam Scenarios:
1. When asked about combining HR data with external data sources, the answer typically involves setting HR data to Private
2. Questions about data from company SharePoint sites usually require Organizational level
3. If a query fails when combining sources, check if privacy levels are configured
4. Remember that setting privacy levels to None or choosing to combine data by bypassing privacy checks can expose sensitive information
Watch For:
- Questions about the Formula.Firewall error, which occurs when privacy level conflicts exist
- Scenarios asking which privacy level allows data to be combined with external APIs
- Questions about where to configure privacy levels (Data Source Settings in Power Query)
Best Practice Tips:
- Always set appropriate privacy levels rather than bypassing checks
- When in doubt, choose a more restrictive privacy level
- Understand that privacy levels affect query performance and data refresh capabilities
- Know that privacy settings can be configured at both the global and per-file level