Publish to the Web and Embedded Question

[brett_walton]

3 questions -   we are debaiting our use / need of embedded content . 

1) I currently have on prem sharepoint so I publish to the web and put that link in Sharepoint for viewing - Is that considered embedded content ?  

2) Does anyone know if the Publish to the Web feature is staying ? 

3) What is the date that we will needed to start paying for the embedded feature ? 

Thank You , 

Brett 

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@brett_walton

1) I currently have on prem sharepoint so I publish to the web and put that link in Sharepoint for viewing - Is that considered embedded content ?  Yes, but it is free. And also completely unsecured. The URL generated is discoverable by anyone, so if you have private company data, it shouldn't be used for that purpose. It doesn't matter if you stick it behind your SharePoint login, the URL itself can be found thus exposing your companies data...

2) Does anyone know if the Publish to the Web feature is staying ? I don't see why it wouldn't. It's for blogs, public info sharing, journalism, etc.

3) What is the date that we will needed to start paying for the embedded feature ? Now. Premium Embedded only pricing begins at 625/mo.

[Anonymous]

@Seth_C_Bauer

Hi Eno, firstly thanks for your dedication to the community... you deserve all the kudos you get...

Just to clraify something on what you said...

"... The URL generated is discoverable by anyone, so if you have private company data, it shouldn't be used for that purpose. It doesn't matter if you stick it behind your SharePoint login, the URL itself can be found thus exposing your companies data..."

I understand that there is no access control to endpoint URL that is generated from publish to web (i.e. https://app.powerbi.com/view?xxxx) , but in reality, how discoverable is that URL? I Mean xxxx its a random string of 125 chararacters....? It wouldnt be something that could be easily stumbled upon...

Appreciate your insights.

Ger

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous Thanks! I enjoy helping out.

"How discoverable" - It isn't as difficult as you think. The last time I looked into this I saw several webinars where people were demoing the feature and I compared the URL strings to my own. The only difference was a GUID in the middle.

Talking to my security experts, I walked them through how the URL is generated and asked how difficult it would be to create a program to search for these URL's. The answer? Not hard at all. It would be pretty easy to spin up a program to random check for a valid return of a web page. While it may get shut down for spamming, it wouldn't be hard to spin it up from a different source. That was the easy way, and while I'm not sure of how one would go about this, I am sure I believe these guys. Couple that with the disclaimer on the article, and it re-enforces the caution. Data is valueable, and Power BI reports summarize and can show deep insights into your business. Exposing that is a big deal, and should be taken seriously, which is why I hammer on this all the time.

[Anonymous]

Thank you sir... very very useful to understand that. You have convinced me anyway 

Ger

[brett_walton]

Thank you for the reply, one remaining question. Are the embedded pricing the same if you do NOT have Premium ?  We are a smaller company, we have no case for premium.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@brett_walton Embedded only pricing starts at 625/month. It is the Premium Embedded Sku - EM series