A sensitivity label is a classification tag that you can apply to environments such as Microsoft 365 in order to classify and protect the contents.

Sensitivity labels act as a digital stamp. They help sort documents into categories such as General, Confidential or Highly Confidential based on how sensitive the data is. These labels help protect data by enforcing rules such as encryption, restricted access or visual markings. In Microsoft Excel, sensitivity label can be used to label or classify a workbook based on the content. For example, a document containing the financial report of an organization can be labeled as Confidential so that only the members of the finance team can open it.

Each sensitivity label has a unique identifier called globally unique identifier (GUID).. In order to set a sensitivity label, you must first specify the GUID of the sensitivity label. System administrator creates a sensitivity label in the Microsoft Purview portal before sharing it with the users.. For more information, see Create and configure sensitivity labels.

Actions that support sensitivity labels

Note: Sensitivity label support is currently available only in the Excel advanced package.
The following actions in the Excel advanced package enable you to use sensitivity labels to manage and protect sensitive information:

Example for using sensitivity label

Consider a scenario where you want to add the sensitivity label called Confidential to a Microsoft Excel workbook that contains financial report of quarterly earnings and projections. The following image shows the Workbook with this sensitivity label added:Sample sensitivity label