Services
Affected Platforms
Summary
Microsoft Purview DLP will enhance data protection by scanning sensitive data in image metadata when OCR is unavailable. Rolling out worldwide from mid-July to late September 2025, this feature activates automatically without admin action, expanding DLP coverage and potentially affecting compliance reporting.
Details
Updated August 13, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
We're enhancing Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to improve data protection coverage. With this update, DLP will now scan and classify sensitive data embedded in image metadata when Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is not available. This ensures better detection of sensitive information in scenarios where text is not visible in the image itself.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 495459
When this will happen:
General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in mid-July 2025 and is expected to complete by late September 2025 (previously early August).
How this affects your organization:
Once this feature is rolled out, DLP policies will automatically begin scanning image metadata for sensitive data, even when OCR is turned off. This helps ensure that sensitive information embedded in image files is not overlooked. No configuration changes are required—this feature is on by default.
What you can do to prepare:
No admin action is needed. However, we recommend reviewing your existing DLP policies to ensure they are aligned with your organization’s data protection goals.
Compliance considerations:
- Alters how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed Yes – image metadata is now included in DLP scans
- Modifies DLP, labels, or other Purview capabilities Yes – expands DLP scanning scope
- Alters compliance monitoring/reporting Maybe – may affect reporting visibility for image metadata