Privacy of personal data when publishing a dashboard

[Syndicate_Admin]

Hello everyone!

I hope you can guide me with this concern:

I have a dashboard that is published on the web, this dashboard uses information in excel in which there is personal information, but this personal information is not shown on the dashboard as graphs or tables, however this information remains in the semantic model, or in the transformations used. Is there a risk that this information can be consulted or downloaded by a user?

Thanks a lot!

[Syndicate_Admin]

Thank you for replying.

This information is obtained from various Excel files that are collected from users. In that case, is it better to create another Excel that through Power Pivot obtains the data from the different Excel files only with the necessary fields, and the latter connect it to Power BI? or what other option would exist to avoid compromising the data?

Thanks a lot!

[Ritaf1983 · Accepted solution]

There is no connection between the data source (Excel or otherwise) and the "Publish to Web" feature. When using "Publish to Web," users only have access to the visualizations you share, not the underlying data model or source files.

That said, there is a general recommendation to avoid publishing reports or dashboards containing sensitive or personal data to an open network. Even though the data model is not exposed, the risk

I recommend 2 blog posts for more information :
https://exceleratorbi.com.au/publish-web-not-secure/

https://www.maxwikstrom.se/powerbi/why-you-shouldnt-use-power-bi-publish-to-web-and-what-to-use-inst...

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[Ritaf1983]

Hi @Syndicate_Admin 

When publishing a dashboard to the public web (Public Web), users cannot download data to Excel or access the underlying datasets. However, it is important to note that an open network is an open network, so publishing dashboards with sensitive information is not recommended.

For more information, you can refer to Microsoft's official documentation:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/collaborate-share/service-publish-to-web

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly