Summary: This document defines and reviews the different privacy levels in Power BI Desktop and their relationship to the Data Gateway used by the Power BI Service.
Target Audience: Report Authors

Privacy Levels in Power BI Desktop

In Power BI Desktop, privacy levels specify the degree to which one data source will be isolated from others. There are certain scenarios in which a less-restrictive approach is not needed and may improve both functionality and performance of your data model.

Default Privacy Levels

Within Power BI Desktop under File > Options and Settings > Options, the default privacy level can be configured.
There are also privacy settings which apply to the current file only.

Typically, it is best to choose the first radio button as that will align with what is set for the data source in the data gateway in the Power BI Service.
The second option can be utilized if an author prefers for the setting to be controlled by the 'Current File' privacy setting instead – this is a bit riskier as it relies on the user setting this correctly per file (and it is easy to forget).
The final option, to ignore, should never be selected.

Data Source Credentials

For each specific data source connected to from within Power BI Desktop, there is a credential securely saved on the author's local machine.
These can be accessed in Power BI Desktop under File > Options and Settings > Data Source Settings.

Privacy Levels in the Gateway

Privacy levels are in Power BI Desktop and in the Gateway. Settings in Power BI Desktop are not transferred to the Power BI Service and data sources will instead use what has been defined in the Gateway.
Current Privacy level for all Oracle and SQL data sources registered on UMS Gateways is set to Organizational.