DLP Cut from Defender for Cloud Apps – Customers Must Move to Purview DLP

Microsoft is retiring a range of data loss prevention features available in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps via file policies as of Jan. 6, 2027. Customers who used these features in Defender for Cloud Apps must ensure they have licensed Purview Information Protection and Governance and migrated to similar DLP capabilities available within Purview. Since most customers obtain both services through Microsoft 365 E5 suites, there is likely to be no effect on licensing costs. The now-deprecated features previously available included Defender for Cloud Apps file policies, file policy mapping, and SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business DLP policy integration.
Other than the integrated use of DLP within SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, the Purview replacement features aren’t an exact match for the Defender for Cloud Apps features they replace, so customers who previously relied on the old functionality should familiarize themselves with the new capabilities as soon as possible and replace Defender for Cloud Apps DLP policies with Purview DLP policies. This change continues a recent trend of refocusing Defender for Cloud Apps and migrating features tangential to cloud apps management into other services that historically focused more on that area of security or compliance.