RLS not getting applied when exporting data to excel

Power BI
1

Hello,

I set RLS on the data model based on the user department profile.
This works fine while the users view the dashboard built.
They see what is related to their department data. However, when they export the summarised data to excel they suddenly see everything (content being exported showing ALL department data)!
All users are viewers on the workspace with permission to export summarised data.
so my question is Why RLS is not applied to the exported content?

Thanks,
Jojo

2

Hi @jojo

What an interesting question. Well in my research I had the following observation:
Users with permitted access to a report are allowed access to the entire underlying data set, unless the RLS (Line Level Security) limits access. Report authors can classify and label reports using confidentiality labels. If the confidentiality label has protection settings, Power BI will apply these protection settings when exporting report data to Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files. Only authorized users can open protected files.

for more information I leave the link below.

Best regards
Gifted

3

Hi @Gifted
Thank you for the nice documentation. In my case, RLS is applied and users have limited access However the issue comes after exporting the underlying/summarised dataset from the report which is still confusing.
As per this documentation, Report confidentiality labels are only applicable if the tenant has Power BI Premium particularly P licenses.

Thanks,
Jojo

4

can you provide a mock up that duplicates your error?
I’m asking because of this line in the RLS documentation:

Question: Can I use RLS to limit the columns or measures accessible by my users?
Answer: No, if a user has access to a particular row of data, they can see all the columns of data for that row.

So if you have ‘hidden’ a column by producing it via a measure, the user will still have access to that column when exporting.

Also, please note that using “test as role” will not affect export of data - so if this is something you are finding as you are testing the report (not happening in deployment with various users) - you have not encountered an error.

5

@Heather,

I’ll provide a mockup for my case later. As you said, I was using “Test as role” while doing the testing, that is most probably the case. I’ll check using another user account to see if that is the issue.

This is something new, Thanks!!

Thanks,
Jojo

6

hopefully that was the key - good luck!

7

Hi @jojo, did the response provided by the contributors help you solve your query? If not, how far did you get, and what kind of help you need further? If yes, kindly mark the thread as solved. Thanks!