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How to Check Microsoft 365 Privacy Settings

Owners of MS365 sites, folders, and files are responsible for ensuring privacy settings align with the business purpose and the sensitivity of the information within. Please review the information below to confirm or change privacy settings. If you have questions, contact the Helpdesk ([email protected]).

Before You Make a Change

Making a Microsoft 365 Site or Group Public allows any authenticated Trinity College user to discover the group, view group content, access associated resources (depending on their permissions), and join the group if membership settings allow.

Before changing a group back to Public, ask the following questions:

  • Does the site contain student, employee, financial, personnel, or other sensitive information?
  • Is broad visibility required to support the purpose of the site?
  • Would granting access to specific individuals or groups better meet the need?
  • Are the files and content appropriate for viewing by the broader Trinity community?

If the content is intended only for a department, committee, project team, or limited audience, the site should generally remain Private.

MS Teams Privacy Settings

  1. Open Microsoft Teams and go to your list of teams.
  2. Find the team you want to review or change.
  3. Select More options (...) next to the team name.
  4. Click Manage team (or Edit team depending on your app version).
  5. Go to the Settings tab and expand Team details (or select Edit under team info).
  6. Under Privacy, change the drop-down menu to Public or Private.
  7. Click Done or Save to confirm your changes.

MS SharePoint Privacy Settings

The following steps only apply to SharePoint “Teams” sites. If you have questions about your site, contact the Helpdesk.

  1. Go to your SharePoint site home page.
  2. Click the Settings (gear) icon in the upper-right corner.
  3. Select Site information.
  4. Locate the Privacy settings drop-down menu.
  5. Change the setting to Public or Private.
  6. Click Save.

File and Folder Permissions

  1. Navigate to the file or folder in SharePoint.
  2. Select the file or folder and click Manage Access (or select the … menu and choose Manage Access).
  3. Review the people and groups listed under Direct Access and Links Giving Access.
  4. Remove any users, groups, or sharing links that are no longer needed.
  5. For sensitive content, verify that permissions are limited to the appropriate individuals or groups.