DataMapper: Enterprise application guide with links to learn more

5. Restricting DataMapper Access with Microsoft 365 Security Controls

DataMapper supports Microsoft 365’s granular access controls so that administrators can strictly limit which sites, OneDrive accounts, and mailboxes the application can read.


This section shows how to configure:

  • 5.1 SharePoint Online – “Sites.Selected” (site-scoped access)
  • 5.2 OneDrive for Business – “Sites.Selected” (user/drive-scoped access)
  • 5.3 Exchange Online – “Application-Based Access Control” (mailbox-scoped access via RBAC or Application Access Policy)

🟢 Principle of least privilege

5.1 SharePoint Online — Restrict Access with Sites.Selected

By default, app permissions like Sites.Read.All  give tenant-wide access to all SharePoint sites. To avoid that, Microsoft provides Selected scopes such as Sites.Selected , which require you to explicitly grant access to each site. The app then has no access to any site unless you grant it. 

Links to learn more:

5.1.1 Prerequisites

  • Azure AD / Entra ID application already registered for DataMapper
  • Global Administrator or Application Administrator permissions

  • SharePoint Administrator permissions

    The Application (client) ID of the DataMapper app:

    • Entra ID → App registrations → your DataMapper app → Application (client) ID

5.1.2 Step 1 – Grant Sites.Selected  in Entra ID

  1. Go to Microsoft Entra admin center → Applications → App registrations.
  2. Select your DataMapper app.

  3. Go to API permissions → Add a permission → Microsoft Graph → Application permissions.

    Search for and select:

    • Sites.Selected
  4. Click Add permissions.
  5. Click Grant admin consent for your tenant.

✅ At this point, DataMapper has no SharePoint site access. You must grant access per site in the next step. 

Links:

5.1.3 Step 2 – Get the SharePoint Site ID

You need the Site ID for each SharePoint site you want DataMapper to scan.

Option A – Using Graph Explorer / HTTP

  1. Go to Graph Explorer or your preferred HTTP client.
  2. Call:
GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{your-tenant-name}.sharepoint.com:/sites/{site-name}

Example:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/contoso.sharepoint.com:/sites/HR
  1. Copy the "id"  value from the response; this is your Site ID.

Option B – Using PnP PowerShell (Connect-PnPOnline ) 

Links:

# Install once if needed: # Install-Module PnP.PowerShell  Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://<YOUR_TENANT>.sharepoint.com/sites/<SITE_NAME>" -Interactive  # This shows site details including the ID Get-PnPSite

5.1.4 Step 3 – Grant DataMapper Access to a Specific Site

You now grant DataMapper read access to that site only.

Option A – Graph API (generic, any platform)

Links:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{site-id}/permissions Content-Type: application/json  {  "roles": [ "read" ],  "grantedToIdentities": [    {      "application": {        "id": "<DATAMAPPER_APP_CLIENT_ID>",        "displayName": "DataMapper"      }    }  ] }

Replace:

  • {site-id}  with the Site ID from step 5.1.3
  • <DATAMAPPER_APP_CLIENT_ID>  with your app’s Application (client) ID

Option B – PnP PowerShell (simple & admin-friendly) 

Link:

Connect-PnPOnline "https://<YOUR_TENANT>.sharepoint.com/sites/<SITE_NAME>" -Interactive  Grant-PnPAzureADAppSitePermission `  -AppId "<DATAMAPPER_APP_CLIENT_ID>" `  -DisplayName "DataMapper" `  -Site "https://<YOUR_TENANT>.sharepoint.com/sites/<SITE_NAME>" `  -Permissions Read

🧪 Verification:

After granting, try listing documents with DataMapper or via Graph using the app token. If you still receive 403 Forbidden, verify the app token includes Sites.Selected  and that the site permission was applied to the correct Site ID. 

Links:

Repeat this process for every SharePoint site you want DataMapper to scan.

5.2 OneDrive for Business — Restrict Access with Sites.Selected

OneDrive for Business is stored in SharePoint as a personal site per user. The same Sites.Selected  mechanism applies: you can limit DataMapper to only specific OneDrive accounts instead of all users. 

Links:

5.2.1 Permissions (same as SharePoint)

Use the same Sites.Selected  application permission configured in 5.1.2. No extra Graph scope is required.

5.2.2 Step 1 – Get a User’s OneDrive Site ID

Use Microsoft Graph to resolve the OneDrive site:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{userPrincipalName}/drive

From the response, note the sharepointIds.siteId  field – that’s the site-id you will use in the next step.

5.2.3 Step 2 – Grant DataMapper Access to Specific OneDrive Accounts

Use the same POST /sites/{site-id}/permissions pattern as with SharePoint:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{site-id}/permissions Content-Type: application/json  {  "roles": [ "read" ],  "grantedToIdentities": [    {      "application": {        "id": "<DATAMAPPER_APP_CLIENT_ID>",        "displayName": "DataMapper"      }    }  ] }

Repeat per OneDrive account you wish to include in scanning.

🔐 Result: DataMapper can only scan the OneDrive sites you explicitly granted. All other OneDrive accounts remain inaccessible, even though the app holds Sites.Selected  globally. Links:

5.3 Exchange Online — Application-Based Access Control (ABAC)

For email scanning, DataMapper typically uses an application permission such as Mail.Read  via Microsoft Graph. By default, this would allow access to all mailboxes.

To align with least-privilege, Microsoft now recommends Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for Applications to scope access to specific mailboxes. The older Application Access Policy mechanism is still available and widely used but considered a legacy feature. 

Links:

Below, we show both options.

5.3.1 Prerequisites

  • DataMapper app registration with Microsoft Graph → Application permission → Mail.Read  (read-only)
  • Exchange Online Admin permissions
  • The app’s Application (client) ID and Service principal object ID (from Entra ID → Enterprise apps)

RBAC for Applications allows you to:

  • Assign a role (e.g. Application Mail.Read) to your service principal.
  • Attach a management scope that defines which mailboxes the app can access

Links:


5.3.A.1 Connect to Exchange Online

Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser  Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName <admin@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com>

5.3.A.2 Create (or Confirm) the Service Principal in Exchange

If Exchange doesn’t yet know about your Entra app as a service principal, create it:

# AppId = Application (client) ID from Entra ID # ServiceId = Object ID of the service principal (Enterprise apps → DataMapper app) New-ServicePrincipal `  -AppId "<DATAMAPPER_APP_APPID>" `  -ServiceId "<DATAMAPPER_SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_OBJECTID>" `  -DisplayName "DataMapper"

5.3.A.3 Create a Management Scope for Allowed Mailboxes

Example: restrict DataMapper to all mailboxes in a specific department or with a naming pattern.

New-ManagementScope `  -Name "DataMapperMailboxScope" `  -RecipientRestrictionFilter "Department -eq 'Compliance'"

You can adjust the filter to match your own policy (e.g. CustomAttribute1 -eq 'DataMapper'  or PrimarySmtpAddress -like '*risk@*' ).

5.3.A.4 Assign the Mail.Read Role to the Service Principal

Assign the Exchange role Application Mail.Read to the service principal, scoped by the management scope above. 

Links:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment `  -App "<DATAMAPPER_APP_APPID>" `  -Role "Application Mail.Read" `  -CustomResourceScope "DataMapperMailboxScope"

Result:

  • DataMapper can only read mail in mailboxes that match DataMapperMailboxScope .
  • All other mailboxes are blocked, even though the app has Mail.Read  application permission in Graph.

5.3.A.5 Test Access

Choose a mailbox that should be in scope:

# This cmdlet is for legacy Application Access Policies; # for RBAC, test by issuing a Graph/REST request using the app token # and confirming that scoped mailboxes are accessible and others are blocked.

In your documentation, you can simply state:

✅ Verification:

Use a test mailbox that should be included, and one that should be excluded. Call Graph with the DataMapper app’s credentials (/users/{id}/messages ). Only mailboxes matching the RBAC scope should return data; others should return 403 Forbidden.

5.3.B Legacy Option: Application Access Policies

If your organization still uses Application Access Policies, you can use them to limit which mailboxes DataMapper can access. This method is simpler conceptually but considered legacy and has scalability limits. 

Links:

5.3.B.1 Create a Mail-Enabled Security Group

Use the Exchange admin center or PowerShell:

New-DistributionGroup -Name "DataMapperMailboxes" -PrimarySmtpAddress datamappermailboxes@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com

Add all mailboxes that DataMapper should be allowed to scan into this group.

5.3.B.2 Create an Application Access Policy

New-ApplicationAccessPolicy `  -AppId "<DATAMAPPER_APP_APPID>" `  -PolicyScopeGroupId "datamappermailboxes@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com" `  -AccessRight RestrictAccess `  -Description "Limit DataMapper to selected mailboxes only"

This policy restricts the app to mailboxes in the group. All other mailboxes are blocked for that application.

5.3.B.3 Test the Policy

Test-ApplicationAccessPolicy `  -Identity user@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com `  -AppId "<DATAMAPPER_APP_APPID>"
  • If the test result shows Allowed, DataMapper can access that mailbox.
  • If the result shows Denied, DataMapper cannot access that mailbox.

5.4 Summary of Access Limiting Options

Workload Mechanism Scope Type
SharePoint Sites.Selected  (Selected scopes) Specific sites / libraries / lists
OneDrive Sites.Selected  (per-personal site) Specific OneDrive accounts
Exchange Online RBAC for Applications (recommended) Mailboxes matching a management scope
Exchange Online Application Access Policies (legacy) Mailboxes in a specific group

💡 These controls allow administrators to ensure that DataMapper only interacts with explicitly approvedmailboxes, sites, and OneDrive accounts, while still providing the read-only access required for sensitive data scanning.

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DataMapper – Enterprise Application & Creation Process (Microsoft 365)

This guide explains how to securely connect DataMapper to Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business) using a least-privilege, read-only, and fully auditable access model.

DataMapper uses Microsoft Graph API to scan emails and documents for GDPR-sensitive data. The application can operate using:

  • ✅ Delegated access (recommended) – on behalf of signed-in users

  • ✅ Application access (optional) – for background scanning

    ✅ Granular security scoping using:

    • SharePoint & OneDrive Sites.Selected
    • Exchange Online RBAC for Applications / Application Access Policy

1. Create the Enterprise Application in Entra ID (Azure AD)

  1. Go to Microsoft Entra Admin Center

  2. Navigate to:

    Applications → App registrations → New registration

    Enter:

    • Name: Safe Online – DataMapper
    • Supported account type: Single tenant
  3. Set Redirect URI (Web):
https://app.bysafeonline.com/auth/microsoft/callback
  1. Click Register

2. Authentication Setup (Client Secret)

  1. Go to Certificates & Secrets
  2. Click New client secret
  3. Copy the Secret Value
  4. Deliver securely to Safe Online

3. API Permissions (Read-Only & Delegated-First)

✅ Delegated Permissions (Recommended)

These only allow DataMapper to act on behalf of a signed-in user:

API Permission
Microsoft Graph Mail.Read
Microsoft Graph Files.Read
Microsoft Graph Sites.Read.All
Microsoft Graph User.Read
Microsoft Graph offline_access

✅ Optional Application Permissions (For Background Scanning)

API Permission
Microsoft Graph Mail.Read
Microsoft Graph Sites.Selected
Microsoft Graph Files.Read.All
Microsoft Graph User.Read.All

⚠️ IMPORTANT:

❌ ReadWrite  or FullControl  permissions are NOT required and must NOT be granted.

After adding permissions:

→ Click Grant Admin Consent

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