Microsoft requires parental consent before collecting personal data from children under 13 (or the applicable age of digital consent in other countries), and provides parents with tools to review and delete their child's data.
This analysis describes what Microsoft's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
If your child uses Microsoft services such as Xbox, Minecraft, or Microsoft 365 Education, their personal data is being collected and you have the right to review, correct, or delete it.
The updated policy establishes additional grounds on which Microsoft may retain personal data. While the prior version tied retention to specific user expectations and available deletion controls, the revised language authorizes retention for 'operating our business, meeting our contractual and legal obligations, improving and developing our products and services, protecting the safety and security of our systems and customers, and resolving disputes.' This expands the stated purposes beyond transaction fulfillment and legal compliance. The updated policy directs users to product-specific documentation for retention details rather than providing explicit deletion procedures and timelines in the privacy statement itself.
View change record →The updated policy now grounds data retention in five broad business purposes: operating the business, meeting contractual and legal obligations, improving and developing products and services, protecting system and customer safety, and resolving disputes. Previously, the policy articulated specific criteria for determining retention periods, including customer expectations for retention until manual deletion, availability of automated deletion controls, and data sensitivity. The revised language removes these granular criteria and instead requires users to consult individual product documentation to understand when their specific data will be deleted. This shifts the burden of finding retention timelines from the main policy statement to separate product-specific documents.
View change record →The updated Privacy Statement removes previously stated language about additional rights available to European Economic Area users, narrowing the policy's explicit protections in that region. Simultaneously, the revised terms now explicitly authorize Microsoft to contact users via auto-dialer and prerecorded voice for marketing purposes, provided the user has consented to receive marketing communications to the phone number supplied. This establishes Microsoft's contractual permission to initiate automated marketing calls using artificial intelligence-generated voice technology where user consent to marketing contact has been given.
View change record →Microsoft collects extensive personal data — including location, voice recordings, typed content, browsing history, and health-related data — across its entire product ecosystem, and uses this data for personalised advertising, product improvement, and AI model training. Data may be shared with third-party partners, advertisers, and other Microsoft-affiliated companies, and some data may be retained even after account deletion. You can review, download, or delete your personal data by visiting account.microsoft.com/privacy and adjusting settings via the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.
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Microsoft's children's data provisions engage COPPA (US), GDPR Art. 8 (EEA), and the UK Children's Code; education sector deployments via Microsoft 365 Education also trigger FERPA obligations, and institutional buyers should verify age-gate and consent mechanisms in enterprise deployments.
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If your child uses Microsoft services such as Xbox, Minecraft, or Microsoft 365 Education, their personal data is being collected and you have the right to review, correct, or delete it.
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