can the admin view, edit or delete my files.

Question

I have been assigned a licence for Office 365 E3 as a user.
To what extent does the admin have ownership/viewership of the files saved in Office 365 ?
I want to use onedrive to keep all my work files and maybe few personal files, Will my admin have access to all my files in onedrive including personal ones and can they view/edit/delete them without me knowing ?
Is there a way to get a password protected/private space in onedrive for files that no one but me has access to ?

Thanks

Answer 1

@48083

I would say, technically they can. However, it's all depends on your company policies.

Specially if your company use MDM and have your device enrolled to Intune. Honestly, I will not suggest you to do so.

Now coming to your questions.

To what extent does the admin have ownership/viewership of the files saved in Office 365 ?

The admin can only do that if he knows your password. But there's something else you need to be aware of is that, the day you leave your company and forget to delete your personal files, then all your data will still be there until your company decide to delete them.

Another thing is that, the admin can also Create a link to view and edit your files.

Is there a way to get a password protected/private space in OneDrive for files that no one but me has access to ?

You can't set another separate password with your OneDrive for business besides the one for your O365 account. So you can only have one password.

Answer 2

You can spam the user voice in the official thread for onedrive vaults: https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/913534-onedrive-security-policy-administration/suggestions/7705995-option-to-password-protect-folders-in-onedrive-for

Maybe MS will reconsider but I doubt this.

Answer 3

@48083

I do not suggest you upload or sync personal files to OneDrive for Business, which is for your organization.

Theoretically, anything stored on OneDrive for Business can be accessed via Microsoft 365 global admin. Such as at the time, when an employee leaves your organization, the manager probably wants to access the data and either review it, back it up, or give it to a new employee.

If you want to get a password protected/private space in Onedrive, it's best to use personal OneDrive which is included on Windows 10 instead of OneDrive for Business. Besides, there is a Personal Vault could protect your files, but OneDrive for Business does not have this function.

Anything unclear please let us know.

---

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.