New Publish to Web warning July 2025 concerns

[PowerUp2000]

Hi all, 

I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone has any information on the new publish to web warning.

According to official MS documentation (updated May 2025), the warning used to read: "Do not publish confidential or proprietary information, or an individual's personal data". 

However, today when I published, the warning had changed to: "Do not publish confidential or proprietary information, or an individual's personal data because any Internet user with access to the embed code for this report can fully access all the data in the semantic model anonymously".

The new wording really concerns me. Does this imply that anyone who has access to the public embed code will be able to connect to the granular data in the semantic model? This is completely contradictory to my understanding of publish to web, which I thought only gave users access to data aggregated at the visual level. I also cannot understand how someone would be able to connect to the semantic model with just the embed code. 

Has anyone else come across this/been in contact with Microsoft to understand the impacts? Any guidance would be appreciated. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @PowerUp2000 ,

Thank you for following up. I understand the confusion regarding the updated warning’s wording. The phrase “any Internet user with access to the embed code for this report can fully access all the data in the semantic model” means users can access the data shown in the report’s visuals and interactive features, but not the semantic model directly. Anonymous users cannot connect to or query the dataset using tools like DAX Studio, XMLA, or external APIs. However, if the report includes detailed tables, drillthroughs, or filters, it may still reveal sensitive or row-level data from the underlying model. Microsoft revised the warning to emphasize that report authors need to manage data exposure carefully, as Publish to Web removes authentication barriers. The technical behavior remains unchanged; the warning is just clearer to help users assess data exposure risks.

I hope this provides the clarification you needed. If you require any further assistance, please feel free to reach out.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi @PowerUp2000 ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

The “Publish to Web” warning updated in July 2025 does not change how the feature works but uses clearer language to highlight possible data exposure risks.

The warning now makes it clear that anyone with the embed code can anonymously access the report and see all data shown in the report visuals. Although users cannot query the semantic model directly, the report may still display detailed data depending on the setup of visuals, filters, drill through, or tooltips.

This update is meant to help report authors evaluate privacy risks before publishing. If your report contains sensitive, proprietary, or personal data even if it seems aggregated it is recommended to use secure options like organizational sharing, embedding with authentication, or row-level security.

Hope this helps. Please reach out for further assistance.

Thank you.

[PowerUp2000]

Hi v-tsaipranay,

Thank you very much for providing some further detail. However, I am still confused about the sentence in the new warning: "any Internet user with access to the embed code for this report can fully access all the data in the semantic model". This seems completely contradictory to your statement above "users cannot query the semantic model directly."

Are you able to explain why the new warning makes any reference to the semantic model? Your explanation makes it seem like users access the data shown in visuals, so it's the responsibility of the report creator to set up their visuals, fitlers, drillthroughs etc to meet their security requirements. Is there any risk that an annonymous user could access the underlying semantic model beyong what is visualised? 

[FBergamaschi]

They are just telling you that anybody with the link will be able to see the data published, nothing is changin from before, they just stated that in a more maybe scaring way 🙂

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