MC878427: Restricted Content Discoverability for SharePoint Sites

Announcement ID	MC726119		Published Date	03-06-2024
Service	Copilot		Last Updated	06-21-2024
Category	Stay informed		Expiration Date	09-23-2024
Roadmap ID	385352		Action Required by Date
Tags	Admin impact, New feature, User impact

Summary
Microsoft 365 introduces Restricted SharePoint Search for Copilot, allowing admins to limit search to selected SharePoint sites. Rollout starts late June 2024, with full availability by early July 2024. The feature is off by default and requires admin roles to enable. Users can access content from allowed sites and personal files.

More Information

Restricted SharePoint Search began rolling out in Public Preview on April 17, 2024 and is designed for customers of Copilot for Microsoft 365. This feature allows you to disable organization-wide search, and to restrict both Enterprise Search and Copilot experiences to a curated set of SharePoint sites of your choice, to give you time to review and audit site permissions while maintaining momentum with your Copilot deployment. Additionally, whether you have Enterprise Search or Restricted SharePoint Search enabled, users in your organization will still be able to interact with their own and previously accessed files and content in Copilot for Microsoft 365. When this will happen: Preview: We began rolling out Restricted SharePoint Search in Public Preview on April 17, 2024, and expect to complete by early May 2024. General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late June 2024 (previously mid-June) and expect to complete by early July 2024 (previously late June). How this will affect your organization: Restricted SharePoint Search is off by default. To turn it on, you will need Global/Tenant and SharePoint admin roles. If you decide to enable it Copilot and non-Copilot users in your organization will be able to find and use content from: An allowed list of curated SharePoint sites set up by admins (with up to 100 SharePoint sites), honouring sites existing permissions. Content from their frequently visited SharePoint sites. Users OneDrive files, chats, emails, calendars they have access to. Files that were shared directly with the users. Files that the users viewed, edited, or created. Additionally, Copilot users in your organization will see this message in their Copilot experiences: "Your organization's admin has restricted Copilot from accessing certain SharePoint sites. This limits the content Copilot can search and reference when responding to your prompts. What you need to do to prepare: No action is needed from you to prepare for this rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.