Why RLS protects sensitive data in Power BI - Dashboard Impact

Dashboard Mode - Why RLS protects sensitive data

Business Question

How does Row-Level Security (RLS) protect sensitive data by restricting what each user can see in a sales report?

Sample Data

Salesperson	Region	Sales Amount
Alice	North	1000
Bob	South	1500
Charlie	East	1200
Diana	West	1300
Eva	North	1100
Frank	South	1400

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM('Sales'[Sales Amount])
  Result: 7500
• Bar Chart: Sales by Region
  Shows total sales grouped by Region:
  North: 2100, South: 2900, East: 1200, West: 1300
• Table: Salesperson Details
  Shows Salesperson, Region, and Sales Amount rows filtered by RLS
• RLS Rule: Users see only rows where Region = LOOKUPVALUE('UserRegion'[Region], 'UserRegion'[User], USERPRINCIPALNAME())
  Example: User assigned to 'North' sees only North region rows

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Total Sales      |   Sales by Region    |
|      (KPI Card)       |     (Bar Chart)      |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|          Salesperson Details Table           |
|                (Filtered by RLS)             |
+----------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

The RLS filter automatically limits data shown in all components based on the logged-in user's assigned region. No manual filter needed. When a user logs in, Power BI applies the RLS rule to show only rows matching their region. This updates the KPI, bar chart, and table to show only their allowed data.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Region = 'South', which components update?

• The KPI Card will show total sales only for South region (2900).
• The Bar Chart will update to show sales only for South region.
• The Salesperson Details Table will show only salespeople from South region.
• If RLS is active and user is assigned to 'North', no data will show because South region is outside their allowed data.

Key Result

Dashboard shows how RLS restricts sales data by region to protect sensitive information.