Interpretation of GUI window about privacy level

[DorFey]

Hi!

Basically - i want to access the Azure Maps Service for forward Geocoding (city -> Longitude, Lattidude).

For this reason i made a query in M to access the service and to map a combination of postalcode+cityname, so i get the geolocation.

I configurated a Azure Maps instance and got an API-Key for accessing the service. I don´t want the key to be visible public or in my .pbix and since it wasn´t possible to use a environmental variable i stored the API-KEY in a .txt on my Desktop (which later will be replaced by an Azure Key Vault instance).

I set up a parameter to store the path to a .txt file, in which the API-KEY is stored. After starting the query, PowerBI showed a information window about the privacy levels. What is your interpretation of that window?

I´ve read some basic things about privacy levels, but i am quite unsure, how to interpret this kind of window.

How does powerBI provide access to the stored value in the local .txt file to Azure Maps Server?

Does this privacy definition mean, that the service can only access the data, if both privacy levels are equally low?

In the case i set c:\ to "private" (because my api-key is stored there and shouldn´t be public) and the azure request link to "public" the combination isn´t possible and throws a error message.

[DorFey]

I tried so set both params to public and it seems, that this kind of adjustment solved the issue.
The authentication to the service still isn´t possible (but the data privacy issue is solved for me atm).

Thank you for your help 🙂

[BeaBF]

@DorFey Try to set in this way:

Data Source	Privacy Level
C:\api-key.txt	Private
https://atlas.microsoft.com	Public

If the privacy levels are incompatible (like combining a Private and a Public source), Power BI blocks the operation — or isolates them (which sometimes makes the query inefficient or impossible to run, depending on how data needs to flow).

BBF

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[DorFey]

Hey there!

I tried to use that configuration (API-KEY = private, https://atlas.microsoft.com = public), but i got an error message, that these kind of data isn´t combinable:

Is it some kind of security issue, if i use the public attribute also for the api-key .txt - file? (what would be the consequences in this actual case?)

Can transmitting the api-key to the azure web service as a "combination"?
I first though, that the private option prevents, that the data get combined in a data model or query results, but sending the value to the web service is still possible?

[BeaBF · Accepted solution]

@DorFey You're right! Power BI’s privacy levels prevent combining Private (API key file) and Public (Azure Maps URL) sources in a single query for data protection. This blocks sending the API key if privacy levels differ.

Solutions:

1. Temporarily set both sources to Public (safe only for local dev).

2. Use "Ignore Privacy Levels" for the file (local testing only).

3. Move the API key to Azure Key Vault and set both to Organizational.

4. Use Power BI Service parameter credentials in production.

BBF

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