Share report without sharing access to dataset

[kvnbn]

I work for a small business that wants to share reports with our external clients. We only want them to see the reports and dashboards. They should not be able to:

1. View the dataset.
2. Export the reports/dashboards

We have given our clients Direct Access to the reports rather than through Links. They currently only have the Read permission. Is that sufficient for disabling both of the options above? What happens when they try to click on ... > View Dataset from the report? 

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

Are you designing your reports in Power BI Desktop or in the service?

In the desktop you can block exporting for Reports.  

Dashboards have their own sets of controls.  (They have no concept of "Export").

To try and prevent access to datasets remove the Build permissions.

In general your attempt is futile. If you don't want users to "steal" (copy, export etc) your data then your only choice is to NOT SHOW THEM your data.

[kvnbn]

Thank you. I designed these in desktop, so I followed your directions and disabled the exporting. Our clients only have Read permissions and not Build permissions. When I open the dataset, I can see this page (details and table names have been whited out), and I can click on the tables/columns to see the data in a Table preview. Would my Read-only users be able to do this?

[lbendlin]

I would guess so. You would have to test that with actual users from your external clients.  I assume you are also aware of the Power BI Embedded scenarios and the difference between "app owns data"  and "user owns data" .

My previous statement still stands: If you don't want users to "steal" (copy, export etc) your data then your only choice is to NOT SHOW THEM your data.