Microsoft Teams Compliance – exposed

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Microsoft Teams Compliance is the processes around meeting legal, regulatory, or organisational policies. For example, regulatory compliance​ is:

  • Regulations imposed through laws or regulatory frameworks, typically dependent on jurisdiction. Document example includes contracts, invoices, tax documents, employee files, and customer data.
  • Other examples include data residency and meeting specific certification requirements
  • Microsoft Teams compliance covers many topics across the Office 365 feature set. This approach is because Microsoft Teams brings together many Office 365 apps and services into a single user interface. To understand compliance, we need to look at overall Office 365 features. These features cover most applications available in Office 365 that are accessible through Teams. We also need to look at the compliance functionality available in each application. It sometimes differs from the features available in Office 365 overall.

Where is Microsoft Teams Data Located?

As you may know by now, there is no data that sits in Microsoft Teams. What happens is Teams stores the data in other services and then surfaced visually in the Microsoft Teams user interface. This architecture is why it is imperative to understand the data location for Microsoft Teams compliance.

As an example, you cannot put a retention policy on an entire Microsoft Team and have it cover all the files, conversations, and other data. You must think about each component that’s in the Team and apply the compliance policy there.

As another example, if you want to apply retention to files in one-to-one chats, Teams stores them in OneDrive for Business. You would need to set a retention policy or a retention label to the user’s OneDrive.

Where is Teams Chat Data Located?

A copy of Teams Chats are stored in user mailboxes for compliance and eDiscovery purposes. If you have a one-on-one chat with somebody, Teams stores a copy of the conversation in each user’s Exchange mailbox. This information is in a hidden folder that can only be accessed by administrators and Office 365 search services.

A chat with a bot is technically the same as a chat with a human. Teams also stores a copy of these conversations in the hidden chat folder in each user’s Exchange mailbox.

If you share a file in a one-to-one chat or one-to-many chat, then it is going to be stored in a OneDrive folder. That location is where Microsoft Teams compliance will be managed.

Where is Teams Channel Data Located?

When you create a Microsoft Team, a few services are also provisioned to support it. Firstly, it creates an Office 365 Group. This Group manages the permissions for the Team, and it also has an Exchange Group Mailbox. Additionally, it creates a SharePoint site for the Team. This location is where files will be stored.

Teams stores a copy of all channel conversations in the Exchange group mailbox. See the section below on the Chat Substrate for additional information related to the chats and conversation service. Teams treats posts in the channel conversation created by a connector or bot the same as any other conversation.

When a user shares a file or image in a channel conversation, then Team stores the file SharePoint. This location is where we manage Microsoft Teams compliance. The SharePoint site has a library called Documents, with a folder for each Teams channel. The files tab in each channel shows documents that are in the corresponding channel folder. Because of this, when we upload a document via Teams or the SharePoint user interface will always appear in both places.

Teams also stores emails sent to a Microsoft Teams channel in the Documents library, in the channel folder. When you submit the first email, Teams will create a new folder called Email Messages, within the channel folder.

In addition to files, there is a Wiki tab in each Microsoft Team. Teams stores the wiki data in a SharePoint document library called Teams Wiki Data. Again, each channel has a folder inside this library, and then each wiki page is stored as a .mht file inside the channel folder.

If you create a OneNote for the Team, then it will be stored in the SharePoint site in the Site Assets document library.

Where is Teams Meeting and Call Information Located?

Calendar invites are a particular case because there is a copy of it that’s in both the group calendar and exchange mailbox. There is also a copy in the user mailbox when they accept the meeting.

The Skype (or Teams) call itself is launched from the individual’s Exchange mailbox, which includes both voice and video calls. After the meeting, Teams stores a summary in the user’s mailbox. This location is where meeting and call information is managed for Microsoft teams compliance.

If you are using Microsoft Teams for VOIP calls, then all the information is driven from the user’s Exchange mailbox. Firstly, contacts are stored, and the company directory is stored or accessed through Exchange. Secondly, Teams stores any voicemails or transcripts in the user’s mailbox. Finally, the call history and summaries are also stored there.

Where is Other Microsoft Teams Data Stored?

Let us look at where Microsoft Teams stores other related data. We do this by breaking down this functionality into a list of features. We look at where the data is stored, and how you would apply Microsoft Teams compliance in the chart below.

Feature

Location

Compliance

Chats

Exchange - User Mailbox

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to Microsoft teams chats

Conversations

Exchange - Group Mailbox

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to Microsoft teams channels

Files in a 1:1 or group chat

OneDrive for Business

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to the user’s OneDrive

Files in a Team

SharePoint

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to the SharePoint site

Third party file integration

Within the 3rd party service

Third party service

Group email and calendar

Exchange - Group Mailbox

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to the Team Exchange group mailbox

Planner

Planner

No compliance functionality

PowerBI

Source data system

The service where the data resides would manage compliance policies, not PowerBI

Stream

Stream

No compliance features

Yammer

Yammer

No compliance features

Bots

Chat or Conversation in Teams

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to Microsoft Teams chats or conversations

Connectors

Conversation in Teams

Follows the Office 365 retention policy or label applied to Microsoft Teams conversations

Tabs

A tab provides a view to content that resides in another location

The service where the data resides would manage compliance policies

 

If you are interested in MS Teams or SharePoint related solutions then, please contact Prometix – enquires@prometix.com.au

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