Introducing Microsoft Rights Management for individuals

[Azure Information Protection Team]

First published on CloudBlogs on Jul, 31 2013

Hi,

We’re excited to announce Microsoft Rights Management for individuals. Our service will allow you to securely protect and exchange files with others.  Rights Management protects your files by encrypting and allowing access to only those whom you have chosen. The Microsoft Rights Management for individuals offer, the topic of today's post, is about letting users in organizations that don't offer RMS to their employees to be able to use it (for free). To better understand the overall offer, please see the post above with the attached whitepaper.

Below Tejas Patel will cover the basics with you.

Update: For more information, see RMS for Individuals and Windows Azure Rights Management

- Dan on behalf of the Rights Management team

Simply stated, you'll just sign-up, install our application, invoke the “share protected” verb on a file and you are on your way! Now, let's break it down step-by-step:

To get started:

• To sign-up, go here http://portal.aadrm.com – it's free and easy to use.
• Install our application you can immediately “share protected” with others.

Here are a couple of items to try:

Share Protected with someone else (within or outside of your organization), with any file format.

1. Right click on any file, then click “Share Protected”
2. Add the recipients who will be able to access the file.
3. Select “Allow consumption on all devices”. (more below)
4. Click Send, a new email will be created in Outlook with the users you added.
5. Send the email.
6. The recipients can view the file you sent, and can simply sign up for a free Microsoft Right Management account as needed.

By selecting “Allow consumption on all devices”, the application adds the file to a container which is then encrypted so the file is protected. When sharing with others who use devices such as Ipad’s, Iphones, and Android, this mode will allow them to view the file on their devices (and even using device-specific applications like Pages on an iPad) after we verify they have access to the file. Support for these devices will be coming by October and we will blog once these are available.

Share Protected with someone else (within or outside your organization) with a Microsoft Word document

1. Right click on any Word document, then click “Share Protected”
2. Add the users who will be able to access the file.
3. Set the slider, to restrict the what the recipient of the file will be able to do.
4. Click Send, a new email will be created in Outlook with the users you added.
5. Send the email.
6. The recipients can view the file you sent, and can simply sign up for a free Microsoft Right Management account as needed.

If the recipient of your file already has an Office 365 account, they can sign-in with these credentials and receive access to the content. In the future, users signing up directly via the Rights Management for Individuals, will be prompted for re-verification to ensure their account is still valid.  To avoid this experience, we recommend organizations subscribe to Azure Active Directory for free and enable DirSync + Federation. This allows an organization to retain control of their user accounts rather than having a new account created. See the RMS whitepaper for more specifics on this point.

We currently support the viewing of Microsoft Office applications that are Rights Management enlightened via Office 2013 and Office 2010.  The applications include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.  If you are using Office 2013, you will need to sign in by going to File and then account. For Office 2010, you will be prompted for credentials.

FAQ:

Where can I download the application?

• It is located here: https://portal.aadrm.com/home/download

Why can’t  sign up for the preview with my email address or Office 365 account?

• We will add support for Office 365 soon, stay tuned. If you have an Office 365 account you will be able to view protected files.
• We are evaluating support for personal email addresses services right now.

Can I try the sign-up without actually signing up?

• Sure, just enter any user e.g. joe@contoso.com and this will walk you through the sign up process.

What If I don’t want users from my organization to sign-up for this service?

• Claim your Azure Active Directory domain, by signing up for a free subscription here https://account.windowsazure.com/organization

What  versions of Microsoft Office are supported with the RMS Application?

• The RMS Application supports Office 2013 and Office 2010

When will you add support for other devices and operating systems?

• We will add support for these devices by October 2013.

Will your application also work with Azure Rights Management that is available via Office 365?

• Absolutely, please give it a try.

Who can I share with right now?

• Anyone within your organization that has AD RMS
• Anyone who has signed up for RMS for Individuals, or Office 365 subscription.

Please let us know if you have comments or questions

Thanks,

Tejas on behalf of the Rights Management team