Manage Yammer data compliance
As a verified admin, you can keep your users' Yammer posts appropriate and meet security and compliance requirements. You can set up alerts for content that matches keywords, set data retention policies, and if needed, you can view private content. You can also export data from Yammer.
Monitor Keywords
Monitor sensitive content by specifying keywords such as banned words or employees' personal information. All messages in internal and external networks, including messages to and from external participants can be monitored.
Set person responsible for monitoring, editing, and deleting flagged posts
In the Yammer admin center, go to Content and security > Monitor Keywords, and enter the person's email address in Email Address. This person should be a verified admin so they have permission to delete messages anywhere in Yammer.
When a post matches a keyword, the person listed in Email Address receives an email. They can then click a link in the email to review, edit, or delete the flagged post.
Specify keywords and phrases to monitor
In the Yammer admin center, go to Content and Security > Monitor Keywords.
Enter the words and phrases you want to monitor, each on its own line.
You can use regular expresssions to match patterns. For information on using regular expressions, see Regular Expression Language.
Here are some examples of regular expressions commonly used for monitoring.
| Purpose | Pattern | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Word boundary |
\bword\b |
\btheme\b matches "theme" but not "themes" or "them" |
| Credit cards |
\b(?:\d[ ‐]*?){13,16}\b |
1234 5678 90123 1234 5678 9012 3456 1234‐5678‐9012‐3456 |
| Social Security numbers |
\b\d{3}[ -]\d{2}[ -]\d{4}\b |
123 45 6789 123‐45‐6789 |
| Monitor group create | has created | Matthew has created the Easter Region Sales group. |
Tip
For a starting point for creating your keyword list, visit: http://www.bannedwordlist.com (http://www.bannedwordlist.com).
Data retention
You can control whether deleted messages and files stored in Yammer are retained and available in data exports.
If a network is in Archive Mode, any content that is deleted by the user will be removed from the front end but retained by the system for the life of the network. For networks in Delete mode, content that is deleted will be removed after 30 days at which point it will no longer be recoverable.
Set whether to retain deleted messages and files stored in Yammer
In the Yammer admin center, go to Content and Security > Data Retention.
To prevent deleted data from being available in exported data, select Delete. Or, to enable deleted data to appear in exported data, select Archive.
Retained data stored in Yammer can be permanently deleted by using the Yammer Developer API. To do this you export the data to identify the data that needs to be permanently deleted, and then write a custom PowerShell script to loop through the specific items to delete. For information, see the REST API section of Develop apps for Yammer.
Set whether to retain deleted files stored in SharePoint
For Yammer files saved in SharePoint, Office 365 data retention settings apply. For more information, see Overview of retention policies.
Content mode
If as a verified admin, you have a legal reason to view private messages, you can select to see them. For more information, see Monitor private content in Yammer.