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maronis's avatar
maronis
Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
9 years ago
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Security of hidden columns

Hello, I'm creating a report that includes data from a survey of employee opinions. I want to provide department heads with a summary of the survey results, but ensure that the data stays anonymous. ...
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  • GilbertQ's avatar
    GilbertQ
    9 years ago

    Hi maronis I have had a look and from my personal testing if the column is hidden in the Power BI Desktop file, there is no way to see those columns unless you have the ability to download the PBIX file.

     

    So if the users have read-only access they will never see the hidden columns.

     

    I tested it with the following and I could not see a column I know that I had hidden in a table.

    • Edit Report in Power BI Service
    • Connect to the Dataset in the Power BI Service
    • Connect to the Dataset in the Power BI Service using Power BI Desktop
    • Connect to the Dataset in the Power BI Service, using the Analyze in Excel 

    I cannot think of any other scenario's where a user would be able to see the columns, so if anyone else thinks I have left something out please let me know.

Greg_Deckler's avatar
Greg_Deckler
Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
9 years ago

Yes. Hidden columns is not a security feature, it is to provide a cleaner interface for end users.

  • maronis's avatar
    maronis
    Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
    9 years ago

    Got it, thanks. Is there any functionality to fully secure the data in a column, in the same way that row-level security can restrict access to specific rows of data?

    • maronis's avatar
      maronis
      Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
      9 years ago

      Also, when I have other users test my reports, if they are not owners of the workgroup, it looks like they can't see any hidden columns and there's no way to unhide these columns or download a pbix with all the data (as far as I can tell). Is this correct? Or is it a situation where right now there's no way for non-owners to access hidden columns, but that might change in the future?

      • Greg_Deckler's avatar
        Greg_Deckler
        Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
        9 years ago

        If they can get to the Dataset, they can see the hidden columns. They will not see them in a Report.