Data loss prevention (DLP)

Tools and policies that detect and stop sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or health records, from being shared, sent or stored where it should not be.

Data loss prevention works by recognizing sensitive content, such as social insurance numbers, credit card numbers, health card numbers or documents labelled confidential, and applying rules to it. A DLP policy might warn a user before they email a spreadsheet of client data outside the company, block uploads to personal cloud storage, or log the activity for review.

For Alberta businesses that handle personal or health information, accidental disclosure is a common cause of privacy breaches. DLP helps catch honest mistakes before they become reportable incidents, and it can also make it harder for a departing employee or an attacker to quietly remove large amounts of data. Some Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace plans include DLP features that many organizations never switch on.

Practical tip: start with a small number of clear rules for your most sensitive data types, and run them in a warn or monitor mode first. That lets you see what would be blocked and adjust before enforcing, so staff are not frustrated by false alarms.