Microsoft Purview: Data Lifecycle Management – Ensure regulatory compliance by deleting inactive OneDrives and mailboxes for departing employees

🚨 The Signal: Microsoft Purview now automates deletion of inactive OneDrive and Exchange mailboxes for departed users. This reduces data sprawl and compliance risk by ensuring sensitive data is not retained unnecessarily.

The Impact

Compliance and IT teams are affected by reduced data retention risk and improved data hygiene.

• Compliance Teams: Reduced risk of non-compliance due to data over-retention.
• IT Administrators: Less manual effort for managing departed user data.
• Security Teams: Reduced attack surface from orphaned data.
• Legal Teams: Improved defensibility in data discovery processes.

The Action

1. Navigate to Microsoft Purview compliance portal > Data lifecycle management > Microsoft 365 > Retention policies.
2. Create a new retention policy or modify an existing one.
3. Configure the policy to apply to Exchange mailboxes and OneDrive accounts.
4. Define retention settings for inactive mailboxes and OneDrives, specifying deletion after a set period.
5. Publish the policy to the relevant users or the entire organization.

Domain: Purview · Impact: high · Workload: Microsoft Purview