Imagine hiring a super-smart assistant.
They can summarize emails, draft proposals, pull up reports, and answer questions instantly.
Sounds amazing, right?
Now imagine that assistant has access to everything—even the stuff you didn’t mean to share.
That’s Microsoft Copilot.
🧠 What Is Copilot?
Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant built into Microsoft 365.
It’s designed to help your team work faster by pulling insights from emails, documents, chats, calendars—you name it.
But here’s the catch:
Copilot doesn’t know what it shouldn’t see.
It sees what your users can see. And if your permissions aren’t locked down, Copilot might surface sensitive data to the wrong person.
🕵️♂️ Real-World Scenario: The Sales Rep Who Saw Too Much
A company we worked with gave Copilot access to their Microsoft 365 environment.
One day, a sales rep asked Copilot:
“Show me our top-performing contracts from last quarter.”
Copilot pulled up a list—including confidential legal agreements, executive notes, and internal pricing models.
Why?
Because the rep had access to a shared folder that should’ve been restricted—but wasn’t.
Copilot didn’t break any rules. It just followed the permissions already in place.
⚠️ Why This Matters for Business Owners
Copilot is powerful. But power without control is risky.
If your data isn’t properly labeled, protected, and permissioned, Copilot can unintentionally expose:
- HR files
- Financial reports
- Legal documents
- Executive communications
- Customer PII
And once that data is surfaced, it’s hard to unsee.
🛡️ What You Can Do (Even If You’re Not Technical)
You don’t need to be an AI expert to protect your business. You just need to ask the right questions.
Start here:
“Have we reviewed our data permissions and sensitivity labels before enabling Copilot?”
If the answer is “not yet,” it’s time to pause and prep.
✅ Quick Fixes You Can Ask For:
- Review file and folder permissions
- Who can access what—and should they?
- Apply sensitivity labels
- Use Microsoft Purview to tag documents as “Confidential,” “Internal,” etc.
- Enable Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Prevent sensitive data from being shared or surfaced inappropriately.
- Audit shared links and external access
- Clean up old sharing permissions and guest access.
- Run a Copilot readiness assessment
- Ask your IT team or MSP to simulate what Copilot can see for different roles.
🧠 Analogy Time: Copilot = Your Smart Assistant
Think of Copilot like a brilliant assistant.
They can find anything—but they don’t know what’s off-limits unless you tell them.
Would you let your assistant browse your personal HR files or board meeting notes?
No way.
So before you turn on Copilot, make sure your data boundaries are clear.
🚀 Coming Up Next…
In the next post, we’ll talk about what you should expect from your MSP—and how to make sure they’re not just fixing problems, but actively preventing them.
👣 Your Action Step Today
✅ Ask your IT team:
“Have we labeled our sensitive data and reviewed who can access it before enabling Copilot?”
If they haven’t, don’t panic. You’re ahead of the curve just by asking.
Want help running a Copilot readiness check?
We’ll walk through it with you—no jargon, no judgment, just clarity.
