Publish to Web: Can I prevent a published report from being access by anyone?

[StephaneOH]

Hello all,

I am looking into sharing options for my company and I wanted to test "Publish to Web" feature to share reports internally, through an intranet for example. When I go to create the embed link, there is this warning:

Embed in a public website

You are about to create an embed code for this report. Once published, anyone on the Internet will be able to access the report and the data it contains, and Microsoft may display the report on a public website or a public gallery.

I assume that only people with the link can access it so if someone shares the link with someone outside the company they can see it, okay, fine. But the second part "Microsoft may display the report on a public website or a public gallery" is puzzling me. Does that mean Microsoft keeps a repository of every published reports? Does this mean that even if I don't share the link with anyone, people can find it on the internet because Microsoft makes it available?

Thank you for your help!

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi there

As per the messages you got Microsoft does have the right to put the publish to web reports on a website.

Also anyone who gets the link will be able to view all the content.

@MattAllington has a great blog post explaining it in more detail.

https://exceleratorbi.com.au/publish-web-not-secure/

I would suggest rather signing up for the Power BI Pro Trial, as well as the users whom you share it with. This is an initial 60 day trial.

[StephaneOH]

Very helpful, thank you! It is what I suspected but wanted to be sure I didn't miss on something.

[GilbertQ]

Glad to help you