Ignore lists

Ignore lists are collections of items that you want the system to ignore.

You can ignore lists of content, devices, processes, and user groups.

Ignore lists in data protection rules

Regex wildcards in path exclusion

You can specify ignored processes for clipboard and printer protection rules in the Policy Catalog Windows client configuration on their respective pages. You can specify ignored URLs on the Web Protection page. Because these ignore list are applied at the client, they work with all clipboard, printer, and web protection rules. Clipboard and printer protection rules ignore content produced by processes that are defined in the ignore list. Web protection rules are not enforced on ignored URLs.

You can specify ignored processes for text extraction on the Content Tracking page. Depending on the definition, the text extractor does not analyze files or content fingerprinting opened by the specified application, or does not create dynamic fingerprints for web upload. The definition can specify specific folders and extensions, allowing granular control what is ignored. If no folder is named, the process is not monitored by application file access rules.

To ignore a path, use regex pattern in the Content Tracking → Ignored Processes as shown in the Wildcard examples table. The Purpose column represents the requirement and the Regex Pattern column represents the regex that must be used to ignore a path.

Wildcard examples

Purpose	Regex Pattern	Description	Example
c:\users\*\Documents	c:\\users\\[^\\]+\\Documents\\	Ignores the `Documents` directory under users subdirectory.	Matches: c:\users\user1\Documents c:\users\testuser\Documents. Fails: c:\users\testuser\temp\Documents c:\users \Documents
c:\users\abc*\Documents	c:\\users\\abc[^\\]*\\Documents\\	Ignores the `Documents` directory under users subdirectory beginning with abc.	Matches: c:\users\abc123\Documents c:\users\abc\Documents Fails: c:\users\testuser\Documents c:\users\1abc\Documents
c:\users\*abc\Documents	c:\\users\\[^\\]*abc\\Documents\\	Ignores the `Documents` directory under users subdirectory ending with abc.	Matches: c:\users\testabc\Documents c:\users\abc\Documents Fails: c:\users\testuser\Documents c:\users\abc1\Documents
c:\users\abc\Documents	c:\\users\\[^\\]abc[^\\]\\Documents\\	Ignores the `Documents` directory under users subdirectory that contains abc characters in the file name.	Matches: c:\users\testabc123\Documents c:\users\abc\Documents Fails: c:\users\testuser\Documents
c:\users\xyzabc*\Documents	c:\\users\\ [^\\]xyz [^\\]abc[^\\]*\\Documents\\	Ignores the `Documents` directory under users subdirectory that contains abc characters after xyz characters in the file name.	Matches: c:\users\123xyztestabc456\Documents c:\users\xyztestabc\Documents c:\users\xyzabc\Documents Fails: c:\users\testuser\Documents
c: \**\temp	c:\\.*\\temp\\	Ignores the `temp` directory which is at any location on the c drive.	Matches: c:\users\testabc123\temp c:\test\temp c:\temp Fails: d:\test\abc\Documents\temp
**\temp	.*\\temp\\	Ignores the `temp` directory which is at any location and on any drive.	Matches: c:\users\testabc123\temp d:\test\abc\Documents\temp Fails: c:\users\testuser\tem

You can use wildcard characters, such as ., ?, *, and + in the regex pattern to represent 0 or 1 or more characters when excluding files and folders from scanning.

Valid wildcard

Wildcard	Name	Description	Example
.	Dot	Matches any character.	colo.r matches both colour and coloor.
?	Question mark	Matches zero or one occurrences of the preceding element.	colou?r matches both color and colour.
*	Asterisk	Matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding element.	ab*c matches ac, abc, abbc, abbbc, and so on.
+	Plus	Matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding element.	ab+c matches abc, abbc, abbbc, and so on, but not ac.

Exclusion lists in device rules

You can create excluded plug-and-play items in the Definitions → Device Control → Device Templates page in the DLP Policy Manager.

Some plug-and-play devices do not handle device management well. Trying to manage them might cause the system to stop responding or cause other serious problems. Excluded plug-and-play devices are automatically excluded when a policy is applied.

Note
Excluded plug-and-play definitions are not applicable on macOS operating systems.

The Exceptions tab in device control rules is defined by exclusion lists that are specific to the rule that contains them. The exclusion lists exclude the specified definitions from the rule.

Excluded Users — Used in all device rules
Excluded Device Definitions — Used in all device rules except Citrix and TrueCrypt
Excluded Processes — Used in plug and play and removable storage rules
Excluded Serial Number & User Pairs — Used in plug and play and removable storage rules
Excluded File names — Used in removable storage file access rules to exempt files such as antivirus applications