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Privacy changes to Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics

James_Bell's avatar
James_Bell
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Aug 30, 2021

At Microsoft, we’re committed to both data-driven insights and user privacy. As part of that commitment, we’re making a change to Microsoft 365 usage analytics on September 1st to pseudonymize user-level information by default. This change affects the following products and APIs, and will help companies support their local privacy laws: 

 

Global administrators can revert this change for their tenant and show identifiable user information if their organization’s privacy practices allow. This can be achieved in the Microsoft 365 admin center by going to Settings > Org Settings > Services and selecting Reports. Under Choose how to show user information, uncheck the statement In all reports, display de-identified names for users, groups, and sites, and then save your changes. Showing identifiable user information is a logged event in the Microsoft 365 compliance center audit log.  

 

When user identification is enabled, administrative roles and the report reader role will be able to see identifiable user level information. Global reader and Usage Summary Reports Reader roles will not have access to identifiable user information, regardless of the setting chosen. 

 

These changes to the product will bolster privacy for users while still enabling IT professionals to measure adoption trends, track license allocation and determine license renewal in Microsoft 365. 

 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 Tech Community! Whether you have product questions or just want to stay informed with the latest updates on new releases, tools, and blogs, Microsoft 365 Tech Community is your go-to resource to stay connected!

Updated Sep 14, 2021
Version 2.0

24 Comments

  • Nathure's avatar
    Nathure
    Copper Contributor

    EmanuelVazquez 

    Yes : 

    Global administrators can revert this change for their tenant and view identifiable user information if their organization's privacy practices permit. 
    This can be done in the Microsoft 365 admin center by going to Settings> Organization Settings> Services and selecting Reports.
    Under Choose how to display user information, deselect Display identifiable user information in reports.
     
  • EmanuelVazquez's avatar
    EmanuelVazquez
    Copper Contributor

    There is some way to decode the pseudonymize data? there are some graph endpoint to recover the user information?

  • Robert Osborne's avatar
    Robert Osborne
    Copper Contributor

    Hi,

     

    was this information communicated in advance via some other location? Without such communication, applications dependent on the previous behavior and setting are suddenly broken, requiring customer to react.

     

    Rob O

  • Nathure1550's avatar
    Nathure1550
    Copper Contributor

    Bonjour,

    Depuis que cette fonctionnalité a été activée, nous avons une série de chiffres et de lettres à la place des username.

    Par contre, dans les paramètres de l'organisation > Rapports, l'option est bien cochée.

    En décochant l'option "Show identifiable user information in reports", on retrouve bien les noms ou adresses mails dans les rapports.

    Il y a soit un problème de traduction, soit un problème de fonctionnalité.

    Merci d'avance