Outlook "Please treat this as private label" auto added to some emails - Help.

[Nufc1980]

For many years, we've had to work around a frustrating issue with sage and outlook.

1) We generate invoices and statements from sage 50 as a PDF. Sage exports this to outlook 365 and the email ends up in the senders outbox.

2) All emails generated from sage to outlook 365 contain a security message that says "please treat this as private", which sits underneath the to box as you can see below.

3) Some of our customers report never receiving the invoice/statement/email, so we have to forward the email from the outlook sent box. Oddly, when forwarding the message the "please treat this as private" label is no longer on the email. This usually means the customer gets the email second time around. But as some customers who owe you money, if they don't receive the original, it's only when you prompt them that you realise they didn't get it. It's seemingly random as to who can/cannot receive it, although i've since read that it could be due to shared mailboxes.

4) in an effort to resolve this i have checked with our own IT email exchange host who verified that the email is leaving our server, we also have delivery receipts on which confirm delivery to the sender. I have also spoken at length to Sage who have no idea what is happening, but they are adamant it is not their software that is causing the private label to be added.

My firm belief is that some customers email servers will block emails with this private security message due to some kind of security/spam settings.

5) To test whether this is solely linked to outlook, i did perform a test using gmail as the main email. So we exported invoices and statements from sage to a gmail address and interestingly the private label was not added.

6) i have found articles about outlook auto adding a security label to emails that it believes contain sensitive information, so my assumption is that the issue is with microsoft.

What i'd like to find out from the community here is whether i can change the settings for outlook 365 to prevent the private label being applied automatically. I have checked our security settings on sage as these are default. No other emails have the label added unless imported from sage. So it must be something that is completed on the import process of outlook from 3rd party programs with an attachment or what it deems as sensitive information.

If i can solve this then i'm certain that this will ensure all customers receive our invoices/statements.

I appreciate that we could just export the pdf and attach it to a new email...but the point is that we generate 100's of invoices daily and this would be so time consuming, so we need to keep the process automated as much as possible.

Hopefully someone smart can help!

Thanks in advance - Adam

 

[Diane Poremsky]

>>
6) i have found articles about outlook auto adding a security label to emails that it believes contain sensitive information, so my assumption is that the issue is with microsoft.
<<
It might be the sensitivity label. But I have no idea why Sage is adding it.

You should be able to use a macro to change it.

Add Attachments and Set Email Fields During a Mail Merge

Use an ItemSend macro to set fields on email merges and include attachments.

www.slipstick.com

Try this code - it will check all mail you send but only change if set to private. Remove the If line to only ever send using Normal.

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

If Item.Sensitivity = olPrivate then 
   Item.Sensitivity = olNormal
End If

End Sub

 

[Nufc1980]

Thanks. I don't believe that sage is adding the label because when i export from Sage to Gmail, it doesn't get added. So It seems to be a feature inbuilt into outlook whereby it seemingly automatically adds the security label if it thinks that sensitive documentation is being shared. There are are a few articles on this...
support.microsoft.com/.../sensitivity-labels-are-automatically-applied-or-recommended-for-your-files-and-emails-in-office-622e0d9c-f38c-470a-bcdb-9e90b24d71a1

Apply sensitivity labels to your files and email - Microsoft Support

Automatically apply a sensitivity label in Microsoft 365

answers.microsoft.com/.../ffa60688-f500-4691-8fef-8cb0452c3faf

i have tried to get answers in the past direct on sage forums without luck.

Sage City Community

When sending statements & invoices from Sage via outlook, the email generated has a little message next to follow up, showing as "Please treat this as private"

www.sagecity.com

 

[Diane Poremsky]

If it is automatic, it can be disabled by the admin.

Do you meet these requirements? I don't know if policy can only be enabled if there is at least one E5 and can be applied to all accounts, even if not assigned E5 license.

The following conditions must be met for Microsoft 365 to automatically apply or recommend a sensitivity label:

• You have one of the following licenses assigned:
  • Office 365 E5
  • Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance
  • Azure Information Protection Premium P2
• You're connected to the internet.
• Microsoft 365 is configured to allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content.
• You're using a version of Office that supports automatic and recommended sensitivity labeling.
• Your administrator has configured the conditions that trigger this feature, and has configured whether the sensitivity label should be automatically applied or recommended.

You can try setting this registry key -
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\security\labels]
"useofficeforlabelling"=dword:00000001
Remove txt from the attached file to set the key.

This is the policy description:

This policy setting controls whether sensitivity labels configured by an admin can be applied and viewed by using the Sensitivity feature in an Office app, such as Word, or by using the Microsoft Azure Information Protection add-in, if the add-in is installed and enabled.

If you enable this policy setting, the Sensitivity feature in an Office app can be used to apply and view sensitivity labels. If the Microsoft Azure Information Protection add-in is installed, the add-in is prevented from loading, even if the add-in is enabled, and the add-in can’t be used to apply sensitivity labels.

If you disable this policy setting, the Sensitivity feature won’t be available in an Office app and can’t be used to apply or view sensitivity labels. If the Microsoft Azure Information Protection add-in is installed and enabled, the add-in will be allowed to load and can be used to apply sensitivity labels.

If you don’t configure this policy setting:

- If the Microsoft Azure Information Protection add-in is installed and enabled, the add-in will be allowed to load and can be used to apply sensitivity labels. The Sensitivity feature won’t be available in an Office app and can’t be used to apply or view sensitivity labels.
- If the Microsoft Azure Information Protection add-in is not installed, or is installed but is disabled, then the Sensitivity feature in an Office app can be used to apply and view sensitivity labels.

Note: This policy setting only applies to subscription versions of Office, such as Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise.

 

[dondreak]

I knew I could count on Diane.
Microsoft left out that its a DWORD entry not a REG_SZ