If you use Microsoft products through a work or school account, your employer or institution can access your emails, files, and usage data, and controls your privacy settings — Microsoft's privacy statement does not fully apply in this context.
Employees using work-provided Microsoft accounts have significantly reduced privacy protections — their employer, not Microsoft, controls their data and can access files, emails, and Teams messages, and Microsoft explicitly disclaims responsibility for the organization's privacy practices.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Products Provided by Employer/Organization — End User Notice and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Employees using Microsoft 365, Teams, or other Microsoft services through work accounts should know that their employer can read their communications and files, and that Microsoft's consumer privacy protections do not apply to work account data.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision implicates GDPR Arts. 4(7) and 28 (controller/processor distinction — the employer organization is the data controller for employee data processed through Microsoft services); EU Working Party/EDPB guidance on employee monitoring and workplace privacy; Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA, 18 U.S.C. §§2510–2523) regarding employer access to employee communications; and various state employee privacy laws (e.g., New York Labor Law §201-d, Connecticut statute on electronic monitoring). FERPA (20 U.S.C. §1232g) applies for educational institution deployments.
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