We’re excited to announce that sensitivity labels in OneNote have reached General Availability (GA)! This milestone marks a significant step forward in helping organizations protect sensitive information while enabling seamless collaboration across Microsoft 365.
Why This Matters
Sensitivity labels help organizations control how sensitive data is handled where work happens, including OneNote.
Enterprise customers have consistently asked for better ways to safeguard sensitive information in OneNote. With support for sensitivity labels, OneNote now works with Microsoft Purview so that when a section is labeled, the controls defined by your organization’s policies, such as encryption and access restrictions, are applied to help handle sensitive content in line with compliance requirements.
With sensitivity labels now available in OneNote, organizations can
- Applying encryption at the section level.
- Meet compliance requirements without disrupting productivity.
- Enable secure collaboration across devices and platforms.
This capability has been one of the most requested by enterprise customers, and it’s designed to help you strengthen your data governance controls while supporting your teams as they work.
From a Copilot perspective, the security foundation is already in place since Copilot only accesses content users are permitted to see. With Sensitivity Labels now available in OneNote, we add an additional layer of control by allowing organizations to classify and protect their most sensitive notes. This helps keep AI‑powered assistance compliant with your organization’s security and privacy standards while enabling teams to work confidently with protected notes.
What’s Included in GA
- Manual Labeling: Apply sensitivity labels at the section level in OneNote across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web.
- Consistent Experience: Familiar labeling experience aligned with other Microsoft 365 apps.
- Integration with Microsoft Purview: OneNote enforces the file‑based sensitivity labels defined by your organization, and applies the corresponding encryption settings.
Visuals: How It Looks
Here are examples of the new labeling experience in OneNote:
Windows Client:
Web Client:
Mac:
iOS:
Android:
Getting Started
OneNote uses the same sensitivity labels configured for files. However, the labeling capability in OneNote is not enabled by default and must be enabled manually by the IT administrator. For detailed guidance, please refer to ‘Enable sensitivity labels for files in SharePoint and OneDrive’ and to ‘Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels in OneNote’.
What’s Next
We will keep evolving the labeling experience to bring even more value to organizations. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to refine and expand our capabilities.
Microsoft