App Dataset Security

[itchyeyeballs]

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me if its possibe to secure datasets that are within apps? 

We want to share reports with large groups of users but we don't want them to be able to access the underlying data as much of it is sensitive (it gets aggregated to non-sensitive levels in the reports).

I can't find any useful information anywhere that explains how to achieve this, its also hard to test things as my account has admin access so can see everything by default.

We have tried the hide table functionality within designer but are not sure if this is secure and also it would be a nightmare to manage this way across all our datasets.

Edit - We have also looked at disabling export of data (and analyse in Excel) in the tenant settings but this seems to be a sledgehammer to crack a nut as lots of our reports rely on allowing users to download the aggregated data from visuals.

Any help appreciated

[GilbertQ]

Hi @itchyeyeballs

There is actually a new setting in the Power BI Service, for each report where you can specify the exporting reporting options as shown below.

You can go into the reports, then click on the settings icon.

I always recommend leaving the Summarized data, because that is what makes up the visual

[itchyeyeballs]

Hi,

Thank you, that looks useful,

Am I right in thinking that for every report we publish that needs to have underlying data protected we will have to hide all the individual tables in designer and also set the export data option in the service? (Have I missed any other ways for users to get at the data?)

Seems like it would be easy to accidentaly expose data or am I missing something?

Phil

[GilbertQ]

Hi there,

Read only users will not see any tables. And to be realistic the users will always see the summerized data which is shown in the visuals

[itchyeyeballs]

Hi,

It looks like the app users are able to click on the app contents button and see the datasets, from there they can run quick insights or (if they are a pro user) can use the analyse in Excel function to download the data. I have a feeling there are probably other ways for them to get to the data as well.

The only way I can see to secure data is to pre-aggregate (which seems to be confirmed in a related thread I started here)

IT would be great if there was a way to tick a box and secure all underlying data on a report by report basis but Power BI doesn't seem to have been built that way.