Bidirectional cross-filtering using DirectQuery in

Power BI Desktop
12/6/2017 • 1 min to read • Edit Online

When filtering tables to create the appropriate view of data, report creators (and data modelers) face challenges
when determining how filtering is applied to a report; the filter context of a table was held on one side of the
relationship, but not the other, often requiring complex DAX formulas to get the desired results.
With bidirectional cross-filtering, report creators (and data modelers) now have more control over how filters are
applied when working with related tables, enabling those filters to be applied on both sides of a table relationship.
This is accomplished by having the filter context propagated to a second related table on the other side of a table
relationship.
A detailed whitepaper is available that explains bidirectional cross-filtering in Power BI Desktop (the whitepaper
also covers SQL Server Analysis Services 2016, both have the same behavior).
Download the Bidirectional cross-filtering for Power BI Desktop whitepaper
Enabling bidirectional cross-filtering for DirectQuery
To enable cross-filtering, in the Edit Relationship dialog for a relationship, the following must be selected:
The Cross filter direction must be set to Both
The Apply security filter in both directions must also be selected
 NOTE
When creating cross filtering DAX formulas in Power BI Desktop, use UserPrincipalName (which is often the same as a user's
login, such as joe@contoso.com) instead of UserName. As such, you may need to create a related table that maps
UserName (or EmployeeID, for example) to UserPrincipleName.

For more information, and for examples of how bidirectional cross-filtering works, check out the whitepaper
mentioned earlier in this article.
 Power BI Desktop privacy levels
1/20/2018 • 3 min to read • Edit Online

In Power BI Desktop, privacy levels specify an isolation level that defines the degree that one data source will be
isolated from other data sources. Although a restrictive isolation level blocks information from being exchanged
between data sources, it may reduce functionality and impact performance.
The Privacy Levels setting, found in File > Options and settings > Options and then Current File > Privacy
determines whether Power BI Desktop uses your Privacy Level settings while combining data. This dialog includes
a link to Power BI Desktop documentation about Privacy Levels and Privacy Levels (this article).

The Privacy settings dialog for each data source is found File > Options and settings > Data source settings.
Select the data source, then select Edit. The Data Source Settings dialog appears, from which you can select the
appropriate privacy level from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the dialog, as shown in the following image.
Cau t i on
You should configure a data source containing highly sensitive or confidential data as Private.
Configure a privacy level
With privacy level settings, you can specify an isolation level that defines the degree that one data source must be
isolated from other data sources.
SETTING
Private data source
Organizational data source
Public data source
Configure privacy level settings
DESCRIPTION
A Private data source contains
sensitive or confidential information,
and the visibility of the data source may
be restricted to authorized users. A
private data source is completely
isolated from other data sources.
An Organizational data source limits
the visibility of a data source to a
trusted group of people. An
Organizational data source is isolated
from all Public data sources, but is
visible to other Organizational data
sources.
A Public data source gives everyone
visibility to the data contained in the
data source. Only files, internet data
sources or workbook data can be
marked Public.
EXAMPLE DATA SOURCES
Facebook data, a text file containing
stock awards, or a workbook containing
employee review information.
A Microsoft Word document on an
intranet SharePoint site with
permissions enabled for a trusted
group.
Free data from the Microsoft Azure
Marketplace, data from a Wikipedia
page, or a local file containing data
copied from a public web page
The Privacy settings dialog for each data source is found File > Options and settings > Data source settings.
To configure a data source privacy level, select the data source, then select Edit. The Data Source Settings dialog
appears, from which you can select the appropriate privacy level from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the
dialog, as shown in the following image.

Cau t i on

You should configure a data source containing highly sensitive or confidential data as Private.

Configure Privacy Levels

Privacy Levels is a setting that is set to Combine data according to your Privacy Level settings for each
source by default, which means that Privacy Levels is not enabled.

SETTING DESCRIPTION

Combine data according to your Privacy Level settings Privacy level settings are used to determine the level of
for each source (on, and the default setting) isolation between data sources when combining data.

Ignore the Privacy levels and potentially improve Privacy levels are not considered when combining data,
performance (off) however; performance and functionality of the data may
increase.

Security Note: Enabling Privacy Levels by selecting Ignore the Privacy levels and potentially improve
performance in the Privacy Levels dialog could expose sensitive or confidential data to an unauthorized
person. Do not enable Privacy Levels unless you are confident that the data source does not contain sensitive
or confidential data.

Cau t i on

The Ignore the Privacy levels and potentially improve performance does not work in the Power BI service. As
such, Power BI Desktop reports with this setting enabled, which are then published to the Power BI service, do not
reflect this behavior when used in the service.
Configure Privacy Levels
In Power BI Desktop or in Query Editor, select File > Options and settings > Options and then Current File >
Privacy.
a. When Combine data according to your Privacy Level settings for each source is selected, data will be
combined according to your Privacy Levels setting. Merging data across Privacy isolation zones will result in some
data buffering.
b. When Ignore the Privacy levels and potentially improve performance is selected, the data will be
combined ignoring your Privacy Levels which could reveal sensitive or confidential data to an unauthorized user.
The setting may improve performance and functionality.

Security Note: Selecting Ignore the Privacy levels and potentially improve performance may improve
performance; however, Power BI Desktop cannot ensure the privacy of data merged into the Power BI Desktop
file.