7.1. Privacy Settings and Content Exclusions
💡 First Principle: Privacy controls work by limiting what Copilot can see and what you're responsible for — exclusions remove files from its view, and ownership rules define who answers for the output. Both are about drawing boundaries, not about changing the model.
Why this matters: the exam tests whether you know how to keep sensitive files away from Copilot, what exclusions actually do (and don't), and how output ownership and its limits work. These are precise, factual topics where a confident-but-wrong intuition costs points.
The mental model: a building with a keep-out room and a liability sign. Content exclusions are the keep-out room (Copilot may not enter certain files); ownership rules are the sign at the door clarifying who's responsible for what's produced inside.
⚠️ Common Misconception: "Content exclusions delete or hide the excluded code." Exclusions stop Copilot from using specified files as context or suggestions. The code remains fully present in the repository for humans and other tooling.
