Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint: Anchored comments in the PDF viewer

🚨 The Signal: OneDrive/SharePoint PDF viewer now supports anchored comments, enabling direct collaboration on specific text or locations within PDFs. This feature is on by default, enhancing document review but increasing potential for information disclosure if not properly governed.

The Impact

All users viewing PDFs face increased risk of unintentional information sharing if existing data loss prevention and sensitivity labeling policies are not robustly applied.

• End users: Risk of inadvertently sharing sensitive information via comments.
• Security team: Need to verify DLP and sensitivity labels cover new comment types.
• Compliance team: Review existing policies for PDF collaboration and data handling.
• Admins: Ensure existing security controls are correctly applied to PDF comments.

The Action

1. Review existing Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to ensure they adequately cover comments within PDF documents stored in SharePoint and OneDrive.
2. Verify that Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) sensitivity labels are correctly applied to PDF documents and that their associated policies restrict commenting or sharing as required for sensitive data.
3. Communicate to end-users the appropriate use of comments on sensitive PDF documents, reinforcing existing data handling policies.
4. Regularly audit SharePoint and OneDrive sites for PDF documents with sensitive content and ensure proper access controls and labeling are in place.

Domain: SharePoint · Impact: medium · Workload: SharePoint