A municipal permitting office must locate emails and files related to a public-records request topic across Microsoft 365. Which Purview eDiscovery capability should they use?

Content search in Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is the capability a municipal permitting office should use to locate emails and files related to a public-records request topic across Microsoft 365 locations. Operators define a query, scope mailboxes, SharePoint sites, and other supported locations, and return candidate items for review or export. That matches the stem’s need to find topic-related content across the tenant’s collaborative stores.

Purview Data Explorer scans for sensitive-information types across repositories, but it is not built to run a topic-based keyword search across mailboxes and sites for a public-records request. Compliance Manager searches for framework improvement actions, not request-topic keywords across Exchange and SharePoint content. Microsoft Purview Audit search traces mailbox activities such as sign-ins, access, and mailbox changes, but it does not search the actual content of emails and files for a public-records request topic.

Exam caveat: Content search finds and reports on matching items; placing content on hold, reviewing in a case, or exporting for legal production may be subsequent eDiscovery workflow steps. AB-900 wants you to recognize Content search as the cross-location search for files and emails, not as Data Explorer's sensitive-type scan, a Compliance Manager assessment, or Purview Audit search's activity tracing.

Operational check: In Purview eDiscovery, create or open a Content search, add keyword and date criteria matching the public-records topic, include Exchange and SharePoint locations used by permitting staff, run the estimate/search, sample results for relevance, and coordinate with records officers before any purge or hold actions on the returned set.