Microsoft 365 Copilot respects the permissions that already exist in SharePoint. This means that preparing SharePoint for Copilot is not only about enabling new technology. It is also an opportunity to understand who currently has access to what, identify potential oversharing, and clean up permissions that may no longer make business sense. This article will walk through the main areas that should be reviewed as part of a SharePoint permission audit before a broader Copilot rollout.

Topics covered in this article:

• Building an inventory of SharePoint sites
• Identifying and prioritizing sensitive or high-risk sites
• Reviewing site owners and administrators
• Identifying sites with broad access
• Reviewing SharePoint and Microsoft 365 group membership
• Finding direct user permissions
• Identifying broken permission inheritance and unique permissions
• Reviewing sharing links
• Reviewing guest and external access
• Identifying stale or outdated permissions
• Detecting common oversharing patterns
• Prioritizing permission findings based on risk
• Remediating permission issues before enabling Copilot
• Establishing ongoing permission monitoring and governance

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