Last updated: July 2007
Microsoft is committed to protecting your privacy, while delivering services and software that brings you the performance, power, and convenience you desire in your personal computing.
This privacy statement explains many of the data collection and use practices of the beta version of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services, Microsoft® Online Admin Center Microsoft® Online Customer Portal, Microsoft® Exchange Online, and Microsoft® Office SharePoint Online, as well as their associated software clients (the "Service"). This disclosure focuses on features that communicate with the Internet and is not intended to be an exhaustive list. This privacy statement does not apply to other online or offline Microsoft sites, products, or services.
Microsoft business services are operated by Microsoft on behalf of its business customers or partners. Any personal information you provide through the Service may be shared with the customer or partner who has engaged Microsoft to provide this service. Please consult with the Microsoft business customer or partner from whom you obtained the Service for information about how they handle your personal information.
This Service is not intended for the use of children and will not knowingly collect any personal information from children.
Collection, Use and Sharing of Your Personal Information
Microsoft considers personal information collected through the Service to be confidential to you and the business or enterprise customer or partner for the Service where the information was collected. We will collect and use your personal information to provide, operate, and improve the Service.
For more information about specific types of information that the Service collects, please see the section below entitled “Specific Categories of Information the Service Retains or Logs” under “Specific Features of the Beta Service.”
These uses may include service capacity planning—such as anticipating, diagnosing, supporting or resolving problems that might limit or disrupt the Services—and improving the quality of the Service. These uses may also include providing you with more effective customer service, as well as making the Service easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information or by customizing the Service to your particular preference or interests.
We may also supplement the information we collect from you with information obtained from other companies. For example, we may use services from other companies that enable us to derive a general geographic area based on your IP address.
We may also use your personal information to provide you with important information about the product or service that you are using, including updates and notifications.
Except as described in this statement, we will not disclose your personal information outside of Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your consent. We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as technical support, transaction processing, or statistical analysis. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service, and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.
Information that is collected by or sent to Microsoft may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or agents maintain facilities, and by using a Microsoft site or service, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.
Microsoft may disclose personal information about you if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Microsoft; (b) protect and defend the rights of Microsoft (including enforcement of our agreements); or (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, users of Microsoft sites, products or services, or members of the public.
Access to Personal Information
When you are logged into the Service, you can modify your personal information from within the administrative center or call technical support as described here.
Communication Preferences
The contact information you provide to the Service may be used to send provisioning information as well as information and educational material about the Service. You may opt-out of certain types of information and educational e-mail from the Service by following the specific instructions in the e-mail you receive.
Opting out of informational and educational e-mails will not apply to information critical to your use of the Service and management of your account. You will continue to receive these e-mails periodically unless you cancel the Service.
Security of your information
Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.
If a password is used to help protect your accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password or PIN confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. If you are sharing a computer with anyone you should always choose to log out before leaving a site or service to protect access to your information from subsequent users.
Additional Security Notices for specific components of the service are located below under “Specific Features of the Beta Service.”
Anti-Virus
The Service scans uploaded files for viruses or other aspects of files that may be harmful to the service (malware). Files identified as possibly having malware, including those containing personal information, may be used to improve our malware functionality.
Use of Cookies
The Service uses cookies to help protect the integrity of the registration process and to personalize the websites. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can read by a the Service or the Web site in the domain that issued the cookie to you. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. However, some features of this Service may not run properly if you decline cookies.
Changes to this privacy statement
We occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in our products and services and customer feedback. When we post changes, we revise the “last updated” date at the top of this statement. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.
Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you believe that Microsoft has not adhered to this statement, please contact us by using our Web Form.
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Specific Categories of Information the Service Retains or Logs
In the course of running the Service, Microsoft may collect many types of information, and may log that information. Personal information collected and logged may include your name, organization, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, facsimile number, job title, and information about your company, as well as information about the nature of your usage of our service.
We may collect and log certain information about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with the Service’s web sites. Additionally, we collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your Internet Service Provider, IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring Web site addresses. This can include information collected to assist administrators or information workers, including information from your Active Directory (“AD”), or collected to compile a new AD, such as an end-user’s first and last name, title, e-mail addresses or aliases, and phone numbers (including office mobile, alternate, pager, fax, or others).
Additional information collected may include what components of the Service end-users have access to, and information about those components, such as the names of Microsoft® Office SharePoint Online sites associated with your account.
Individual components of the Service, such as Microsoft® Exchange Online or Microsoft® Office SharePoint Online, may collect and use personal information, such as e-mails, files, or documents.
This list of types of information collected is not intended to be a complete or exhaustive of the types of information Microsoft may retain or log in the course of running or improving the Service.
Marketing Information regarding Microsoft® Online Customer Portal
Customers can use the Microsoft® Online Customer Portal to sign up and manage limited-time trial versions of the Service during the Beta period. To use these trial versions through Microsoft® Online Customer Portal, customers must consent to be contacted for marketing purposes in return for access to the trial versions of the Service. If you have provided consent and no longer wish to be contacted, please click the link at the bottom of any marketing e-mail to stop receiving marketing e-mails from the Preview or Trial. For other marketing communications, please follow the instructions above under “Access to Personal Information”.
Microsoft® Online Sign-in
Microsoft Online Sign-In configures an end user’s machine for use with the Service, and changes Microsoft Outlook and Windows network settings on your computer. The client also stores your authentication information in order to keep you logged into the network. You have the option of either storing your complete authentication information or signing in with your password at the beginning of each session.
Migration Client
The Migration client will automatically migrate the AD and e-mails from your existing mail solution to Microsoft Online and Exchange Online.
Security Notice: The migration client will create additional unencrypted copies of your end users personal information on your computer. Please consult the migration client documentation for information on how to find and remove these files from your computer.
Microsoft® Directory Sync Client
Directory Sync transfers information from your AD to Microsoft for use with the AD for the Service. If you load the client and turn on the Directory Sync feature in the Microsoft Online Administrative Center, Directory Sync will collect all information in AD and then regularly and automatically connect with Microsoft to provide updates to the online version of your AD. This feature will update AD information for each new end-user, including, if available, the new end-user’s first and last name, title, e-mail addresses or aliases, and phone numbers (including office mobile, alternate, pager, fax, or others). Directory Sync uses this information to create a new account for the end-user in the Service. Directory Sync also transmits your IP address and authentication credentials, in the course of running this feature.
Microsoft® Exchange Online is the hosted e-mail component of the Service.
Microsoft® Office Outlook 2007: If you use Outlook, the Outlook privacy statement describes what information is transmitted to Microsoft. If using Outlook in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Online, significant additional information will be transmitted to and stored by Microsoft, as part of this Service. This includes all information in your Service mailbox, as long as you are connected to Microsoft Exchange Online.
Microsoft® Office Sharepoint Online is the document sharing and collaboration component of the Service.
Sharing of Site Names: In the Beta version of the Service, the names and descriptions of any SharePoint sites that you create will be accessible to all end-users within your Service account.
Security Notice: If you are not using the Microsoft® Online Sign-in Client you may be prompted to enter credentials when accessing SharePoint Online sites. When responding to these prompts, do not click on “Remember My Password”. Additionally, close the browser or log-out of SharePoint each time you access the site.
If you do click “Remember My Password”, your SharePoint will be accessible to anyone using your Windows credentials on that computer until you remove your authentication credentials. Authentication credentials can be removed from the “Stored User Names and Passwords” section of “Windows User Management” in Windows Vista.