platform-guideline 3 linked patterns checked

Data, privacy, and security for web search in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Documents Copilot referencing web content to ground responses and the policy controls that affect whether web references are available.

Read with a purpose

What this source can teach

Use this source to understand a platform convention and the setting it was designed for.

  1. Start with the original. Open the source and find the guidance or example relevant to your task.
  2. Trace the connection. Use the claim notes below to see how this site applies the source to specific patterns.
  3. Check the setting. Compare the source's platform, people, and constraints with your own decision.

Pattern Decisions This Source Supports

Pattern Supported decision Required contract Claim note
AI answer without sources Flag this anti-pattern when an AI answer makes evidence-dependent claims and provides no source link, citation marker, grounding panel, source scope, or verification action. Evidence-dependent answers must expose whether sources were searched, retrieved, used, unavailable, permission-limited, failed, or not required. Supports web references and policy-controlled source availability.
Citation display Choose citation display when the main user need is verifying a generated or summarized claim against the source that supports it. Each citation marker opens or focuses the source record that supports the adjacent claim. Supports web references and policy-controlled source availability.
Source grounding display Choose source grounding display when users need answer-wide evidence coverage, source scope, retrieved-versus-used source status, or unsupported-claim visibility. The grounding display names the source scope that was available for this answer, not just sources the user might expect. Supports web-grounded response behavior and policy-controlled web access.

Comparisons supported by this source

Evidence Role

This source is treated as platform-guideline evidence. Its value comes from the specific claims and setting described above.

Publisher: Microsoft. Last checked: .

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