Forum Discussion
Make Bookings calendar events private by default?
Hi everyone!
We are currently attempting to use Microsoft Bookings with external people. When someone books an appointment with us, a calendar entry that includes the full name of the person booking the appointment is created in the staff's calendar. The staff's calendar is visible throughout the entire organization, meaning everyone can see who scheduled an appointment with us.
This is a privacy issue for us. Making these appointments private in the Outlook calendar would be a solution, but I can't seem to find an option to make Bookings appointments private by default. Changing calendar permissions is also not an option for our organization. I was also not successful in building a flow with Power Automate since linking the booking to a meeting turned out to be difficult.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks!
2 Replies
Thank you for your input Kidd_lp. Apologies for responding this late.
1. Im afraid this solution will not be accepted by our data protection officer. Until this calendar entry is changed, it will still be visible.
2. We have a calendar-culture which relies heavily on being able to check our colleagues appointments. This will create a lot of noise for our users. I also don't think management would be happy to see this kind of change.
3. I looked into this feature. It could be a great approach for standardizing appointments in general but i was not able to figure out how to implement this with a bookings page or a similar calendar booking solution.
4. This would be the only way, i think. I tried creating a flow that triggers when a bookings appointment is created but i was having a hard time connecting it to an appointment inside a persons calendar. I'll try this approach again, then.
Again, thank you for your comment. I will try to find a solution and i will let you know if i find one.
Kind regardsHow about this:
1. Manually Marking Appointments as Private – If changing calendar permissions isn't an option, staff members can manually mark each appointment as private in Outlook after it's created. This isn't ideal for automation, but it does prevent visibility across the organization.
2. Using Outlook's Default Sensitivity Settings – In Outlook, you can set the default sensitivity level for new calendar entries to "Private." This ensures that all new appointments, including those created via Bookings, are private by default.
3. Custom Forms in Outlook – You can create a custom appointment form in Outlook that automatically marks events as private. This involves publishing a custom form and setting it as the default for new calendar entries.
4. Power Automate – While you've encountered difficulties linking Bookings to meetings via Power Automate, you might explore using a flow that modifies the calendar entry after it's created. A flow could detect new Bookings appointments and update their privacy settings.
