Microsoft Teams: Communication, privacy and security

Almost overnight, video conferencing has become a big part of our daily life and work. Everyone around the world is now working, learning, and connecting with colleagues, friends, and family through the power of technology. For many running their business’ remotely, they need a solution that is private, secure and seamless – for CT there is only really one viable solution, Microsoft Teams.

A communication platform designed with high levels of security and privacy

Originally built as a competitor to the hugely popular workplace chat tool Slack, MS Teams has since evolved into an all-encompassing platform that supports everything from video conferencing to power point presentations to 10,000 people. It integrates Microsoft 365 so that sharing Microsoft Word, Excel and other office apps is seamless, while video chat functionality supports up to 250 people simultaneously.

Businesses large and small are depending on Microsoft Teams to stay connected whilst ensuring the highest levels of security and privacy credentials. Below we have highlighted the key features of Teams and why CT is recommending all our customers stay connected in this way.

Microsoft provides privacy and security controls for video conferences in Teams

Microsoft offers a variety of privacy and security controls to allow you to manage who participates in your meetings and who has access to meeting information.

For example, you decide who from outside your organisation can join your meetings directly, and who should wait in the lobby for someone to let them in. You can also remove participants during a meeting, designate ‘presenters’ and ‘attendees’, and control which meeting participants can present content. And with guest access, you can add people from outside your organisation but still retain control over your data. Moderation allows you to control who is and isn’t allowed to post and share content. And advanced artificial intelligence (AI) monitors chats to help prevent negative behaviours like bullying and harassment.

When recording a meeting, all participants are notified when a recording starts, and online participants can access our privacy notice directly. Recordings are only available to the people on the call or people invited to the meeting. And recordings are stored in a controlled repository that is protected by permissions and encryption.

Microsoft safeguard your privacy by design

Microsoft Team’s approach to privacy is grounded in their commitment to giving you transparency over the collection, use, and distribution of your data. Here are their privacy commitments to you:

• They never use your Teams data to serve you ads.
• They do not track participant attention or multi-tasking in Teams meetings.
• Your data is deleted after the termination or expiration of your subscription.
• They take strong measures to ensure access to your data is restricted and carefully define requirements for responding to government requests for data.
• They can access your own customer data at any time and for any reason.
• They offer regular transparency reports on the Transparency Hub, detailing how we have responded to third-party requests for data.

 Microsoft protects your identity and data against cyber security threats

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), a feature turned on by your IT administrator, protects your username and password by requiring you to provide a second form of verification to prove your identity. CT recommend that all organisations implement fundamental security measures to ensure they are adequately protected. This simple, two-step verification process is widely used in many consumer applications today, including banking, and protects you from attacks that take advantage of weak or stolen passwords.

As a leader in security, Microsoft processes more than 8 trillion security signals every day and uses them to proactively protect you from security threats. In Teams, data is encrypted in transit and at rest, storing your data in their secure network of datacentres and using Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) for video, audio, and desktop sharing.

Microsoft meet more than 90 regulatory and industry standards

To comply with global, national, regional, and industry-specific regulations, Teams supports more than 90 regulatory standards and laws, including HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP, SOC, and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for the security and privacy of students and children.

To find out more how CT can help you utilise Microsoft Teams within your business, get in touch today with us today.