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Microsoft Kills 30-Day Data Retention Policy for Copilot in Fabric
Microsoft this week announced several usability improvements coming to Copilot in Fabric in preparation of its general availability release later this year.
First, Microsoft is changing its process for monitoring potential misuse in Copilot in Fabric. The company will no longer store records of user prompts (inputs as well as outputs) for 30 days in its datacenters "following customer feedback."
"To enhance privacy and trust, we've updated our approach to abuse monitoring," Microsoft said in a blog post Tuesday describing the changes. "Now, we no longer store prompt related data, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to your privacy and security."
Second, Copilot in Fabric will be turned on by default for all tenants effective May 20. Currently, administrators must manually enable Copilot in Fabric via their admin portal. That will change on May 20.
As explained in Microsoft's blog, this change will mean that "AI features like Copilot will be automatically enabled for tenants who have not yet enabled the setting."
Microsoft Fabric admins who don't want Copilot turned on by default can get ahead of the switch by manually disabling the setting before it takes effect. Doing so is a four-step process, according to Microsoft:
- Visit the admin portal.
- Locate the setting: "Users can use a preview of Copilot and other features powered by Azure OpenAI".
- Enable the feature and save your changes.
- Then, disable the feature and save it again.
Finally, for European users, Copilot in Fabric will only process their prompts in Microsoft datacenters within the boundaries of the European Union. That means users within the EU no longer have to turn on the cross-geo setting.
"The prebuilt Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot in Fabric may process your prompts and results (input and output when using Copilot) outside your capacity's geographic region, depending on where the Azure OpenAI service is hosted," Microsoft explained. "Previously, you had to turn on the cross-geo setting if your capacity region was not in US or France."
With an update to Copilot in Fabric's cross-geo mapping component, this step is no longer required. According to Microsoft, "For any capacity residing in the EU, your data will not be stored or processed outside the EU data boundary."
Copilot in Fabric is currently in public preview. The above changes represent "important milestone to eventually allow Copilot to reach GA within this year," Microsoft said. More information about Copilot in Fabric is available here.