Privacy and data handling for security reports in Microsoft Teams

When you report a security concern in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft processes information related to your report to investigate potentially malicious activity, improve security protections, and maintain the safety of Microsoft services.

You might report security concerns that involve Teams communications, including messages, calls, meetings, or users. Microsoft might process this information to address your report.

What information is collected?

Depending on what you report, Microsoft might collect and process:

• Information you provide, such as the reason for the report and the user accounts you identify.
• The reported content and its context, including the reported message, call, or meeting, and associated metadata, such as the time of the report, your identity as the reporter, and applicable identifiers.
• Information about the reported user and other participants, such as account details associated with the communication.
• Technical and diagnostic information needed to investigate suspected spam, phishing, fraud, impersonation, or other malicious activity.

Who can access report data?

The person you report isn't informed that you submitted a report.

If your organization enables reporting, authorized administrators in your organization might access report information, including your identity as the reporter, to support security investigation and remediation.

Report data is also shared with Microsoft for threat analysis and service protection.

How does Microsoft use this information?

Microsoft uses report data to:

• Investigate and respond to reported security threats.
• Improve threat detection and protection systems.
• Improve the accuracy of security signals and machine learning models.
• Protect Microsoft services and users from abuse, fraud, phishing, and other malicious activity.

How long is the data retained?

Microsoft retains report data only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this article and in accordance with applicable policies.

For more information about how Microsoft handles personal data, see the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Your organization's own data handling and retention policies might also apply.