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HR professionals often work with personal information about employees, such as medical and financial records. This data is useful for developing important HR reports, but it isn't just data — it's private information. Your challenge is to use the data you need to keep your business practices efficient and competitive and still respect employee confidentiality.

Controlling how content is viewed and shared

Information Rights Management (IRM) technology can help protect the confidentiality of employees' personal data by enabling the people who are compiling and sharing the information — HR professionals — to set rules that control how the information can be viewed, by whom, and for how long. It's easy to create confidential content in Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, or Microsoft Office PowerPoint® — and distribute it using Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 —  by following a few simple steps.

You define permissions for files individually, so that each file is safeguarded appropriately for its content and audience. Recipients can open the document, workbook, or presentation as usual — but they can work with the content only according to the permissions you set.

Set permissions for a file

1. Start Office Word 2003, Office Excel 2003, or Office PowerPoint 2003, and open or create a document, workbook, or presentation.
2. On the File menu, point to Permission, and then click Do Not Distribute.
3. In the Permission dialog box, select the Restrict permission to this <file type> check box.
4. In the Read and Change boxes, type the names or e-mail addresses of people you want to give permission to.

   If you want to give all users permission, click Give all users Read access to the right of the Read box, or click Give all users Change access to the right of the Change box.

5. Click OK, save your document, workbook, or presentation, and distribute to the people with permission.

Tips

More permission options

You can add and refine permission settings by clicking More Options in the Permission dialog box. Do any of the following:

Set an expiration date for content

Include referral information

Allow users to view content without Microsoft Office 2003

Require users to connect to the Internet to open content with restricted permission

Change a user's access level

Distributing protected files using Outlook

Using IRM, you can create rules and policies that specify who can read messages. This helps to prevent sensitive e-mail messages from getting into the hands of people who shouldn't see them. You can also specify that recipients may not copy, paste, print, forward, or edit the information. You and the recipients of your messages can worry less about information leaks that can lead to negative perceptions among employees.

If recipients don't have Outlook 2003 installed on their computers, they can download the Rights Management Add-on for Microsoft Internet Explorer or another program that supports content with restricted permission.

 Note    When you attach a Microsoft Office 2003 document to a message with restricted permission, you automatically restrict access to the document. If permission is already restricted for the attached document, the attachment retains its existing permission.

The Permission button

Use the Permission button on the Outlook toolbar to restrict permission on an e-mail message for specific recipients. Click Permission again to remove restricted permission. Recipients can open and read an e-mail message with restricted permission just as they would a message that doesn't have restricted permission — but they can't forward, print, or copy the content.

Message expiration

You can set messages to expire so that they are unavailable or obsolete after a certain date. To set an expiration date for a message:

1. On the Outlook toolbar, click the arrow next to Options, and on the drop-down menu that appears, click Options.
2. In the Message Options dialog box, under Delivery options, select the Expires after check box, choose a date and time, and then click Close.

When a message expires, the message header remains visible in Outlook folders with a line through the header text, but recipients cannot open or take any other actions on the message.

You can set a message expiration date without restricting permission for a message. In this case, when the message expires the header still appears with a line through it, signaling that the message has expired or is no longer valid. However, because the content was not restricted, recipients can continue to open and work with the message.

Permission policies

E-mail administrators can add up to 20 custom permission policies to the Permission submenu of the File menu. These permission policies define who can read messages and what actions recipients can take with those messages. For example, an e-mail administrator might define a policy called "Company Benefits: Confidential" that specifies that a message using that policy can be opened only by people inside the company domain.

Troubleshoot using IRM with Outlook

I want a message with restricted permission to expire on a particular date for the message recipients, but I am worried that I won't be able to access the message after the expiration date.

I was able to open an e-mail message with restricted permission previously, but now I can't.

I replied to an e-mail message with restricted permission, but the original message wasn't included.

When I try to open an e-mail message I received, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 says I need to use a .NET Passport to access the message.

I can't open an e-mail message with restricted permission when I am working offline.

An attachment I included in a message with restricted permission now has restricted permission, too.

Viewing content with restricted permission

Viewing content when Office 2003 is not available

Viewing your permissions in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint