Applies ToOutlook for Microsoft 365 Outlook for Microsoft 365 for Mac Outlook on the web New Outlook for Windows

Note: This feature requires a Microsoft 365 subscription and is available for users and organizations whose administrators have set up sensitivity labels. If you're an administrator looking to get started with sensitivity labels see Get started with sensitivity labels.

You can apply sensitivity labels to your meetings to keep them compliant with your organization's information protection policies. 

The names of these labels, the descriptions you see when you hover over them, and when to use each label will be customized for you by your organization. If you need additional information about which label to apply, and when, contact your organization's IT department. 

How are sensitivity labels applied? 

Sensitivity labels are applied either manually or automatically if a default meeting label has been configured in your tenant. Auto labeling of a meeting is not supported yet. 

Note: Even if your administrator has not configured automatic labeling, they may have configured your system to require a label on all Office files, emails, and meetings and may also have selected a default label as the starting point. If labels are required you won't be able to save a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file, or send an email or meeting in Outlook, without selecting a sensitivity label. 

To apply, change, or remove a label manually follow these steps:

Important: The Sensitivity label for meetings is only available if you're using a work or school account with an assigned Office 365 Enterprise E5 license, and your administrator hasn't configured any sensitivity labels and turned on the feature for you. 

  1. On the Event tab, select Sensitivity. (In classic Outlook, this is on the Appointment tab.)test

  2. Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your meeting.

    Notes: 

    • The sensitivity label you select may come with pre-defined restrictions, or you may be prompted to select who can read or change the file.

    • ​​​​​​If your organization has configured a website to learn more about their sensitivity labels, you will also see a Learn more... option.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What happens when I apply a sensitivity label?

When you apply a sensitivity label, the label information will persist with your meeting, even as it is shared between devices, applications, and cloud services. Applying a sensitivity label may also result in changes to your meeting according to your organization's configuration, such as:

Meeting organizers apply a sensitivity label to meeting invites from Outlook or Teams. Recipients in your organization see the sensitivity label and all recipients see any headers or footers as configured content markings. Optionally, the meeting invite can be encrypted so only authorized people can see it and access the meeting link. Usage rights can further restrict access, for example, preventing the invite from being forwarded.

The encryption works similarly to how you can apply a label with encryption to an email. As with email encryption, if recipients aren't using an email client that can decrypt this meeting invite, they're directed to Outlook on the web or the encryption portal where they can read the invite and access the meeting link.

  • If the meeting invite has a label that requires encryption, then meeting responses from attendees using Outlook clients are also encrypted.

  • If an attendee forwards a meeting invite with sensitivity label, then the label in the original meeting invite always applies and attendee cannot change the sensitivity label.

  • The AIP add-in for Outlook doesn't support applying labels to meeting invites.

  • Apply a default label to meetings and calendar events.

  • The default label is applied to new calendar events and to existing unlabeled calendar events when they are updated.

Applying sensitivity label to meeting series

For a meeting series:

  • The organizer can apply a sensitivity label for the meeting series, but not to individual occurrences.

  • Exceptions for a meeting series will be labeled (and encrypted if applicable) only if they're created after the label is applied to the meeting series. Existing exceptions, including those in the future, won't be labeled.

  • If the organizer changes the meeting body or attachments for a meeting series after it's encrypted by a sensitivity label, existing exceptions won't be updated with those changes.

  • If the organizer changes any meeting attributes (such as start date, end date, location, the meeting body, or attachments) for a specific occurrence in a series after it's encrypted by a sensitivity label, this action automatically creates an exception for the series with the same label for the meeting series.

Justify changes to sensitivity label

Your administrator can have a policy that requires you to provide justification before changing a sensitivity label from a higher sensitivity to a lower sensitivity. In this configuration, you may be asked to choose a justification reason or provide your own when selecting a less sensitive label.

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Note: You will only be asked to justify changes one time after opening a meeting or replying to a meeting or updating a meeting. After justifying once, subsequent changes will not require justification until that meeting is closed and opened again.

Supported Clients

For Outlook, applying, changing, and viewing sensitivity labels for meeting invites and appointments are supported with Outlook on the web, new Outlook​​​​​​​, and some versions of Outlook for Windows and Mac. Starting in late October 2023, Outlook mobile will support sensitivity labels for meetings. For other versions, platforms, and email clients, encrypted meeting invites can be opened in the same way as encrypted email.

Outlook and Teams

When users apply sensitivity label to a meeting in Outlook, it gets synced to Teams calendar as well and vice-versa. 

See also

Apply sensitivity labels to your files and email

Use sensitivity labels to protect calendar items

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