Microsoft Teams: University of Toronto's Terms of Use


Introduction

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaborative workspace that brings together people, content and conversations. Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are connected to Microsoft Teams. Information Technology Services (ITS) administers the Microsoft 365 services at the University of Toronto.  

This document provides the governance structure on the use of individual Teams and Team channels within the Microsoft Teams service. Included here are the types of Teams that can be created, roles, University policies and guidelines, and the effective use of individual Teams and Team channels to achieve user goals. 

Description and purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide the Terms of Use for individual Teams and Team channels (herein referred to as “Teams”) that exist within the Microsoft 365 Teams application. It outlines the roles and responsibilities, policies and processes that guide and govern the management and operation of individual Teams and Team channels. 

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based workplace chat and collaboration service available through Microsoft 365. Microsoft Teams is a relatively new service that is regularly updated with additional functionality. As such, this is a “living” document that will be reviewed and/or updated regularly by ITS, in conjunction with the functionality updates issued by Microsoft.  

The scope of this document covers content generated while using the Team and Team channel features within Microsoft Teams. This document applies to any U of T member who uses Microsoft Teams, including faculty, staff, graduate students, affiliates and IT consultants. This Terms of Use document also applies to external users (e.g. consultants and partners) that may have authorized access.  

Note: Microsoft Teams is a collaborative workspace where members have access to all the documents and conversations that are contained by the individual teams they are members of. Before adopting a Team for a specific use case, consider whether the data require special protections that may be more suited to SharePoint Online or other more restrictive spaces with respect to access.    

Use of Teams at the University of Toronto

Teams is designed for dynamic interactions and collaboration between members. Conversations and content sharing can be formal or informal. Teams is not intended to be a permanent repository for content. When a Team is created, an end-date may be assigned. Team Owners will be notified when the Team will expire. Owners can submit a request to renew their Team. For less temporal storage, SharePoint Online or another departmental or Library storage facility may be appropriate.  

Team Owners are expected to review their Team on a periodic basis to determine whether a Team should be archived or deleted.  Owners should archive content and retain the files as per U of T’s applicable retention practices.  

Teams use cases

At U of T, there are different common use cases for Teams. These might include:  

  • Departmental/Divisional/Unit Teams: Private teams for central storage, collaboration spaces and workflow opportunities.  
  • Project Teams: Team project teams can be used for collaborative projects or committees across departments.  
  • Managing Course Staff: Faculty members can use Teams to manage course staff. 

Teams access

The Teams icon is available in the Microsoft 365 waffle at mail.utoronto.ca. However, users cannot create or join Teams. Users can access individual teams by invitation only.  

Requests for new Teams sites are processed by request. New Team requests should be submitted through the Enterprise Service Centre. Detailed instructions on how to request a Team can be found here. Any questions regarding the creation of Teams can be sent to need.Team@utoronto.ca.  

Once a team is created, the URL name is permanent and cannot be changed. A team is given 250GB default space. A Team should have two designated Owners.

Eligibility

Faculty, staff and graduate students with a U of T Microsoft 365 account may request that a team be set up. Participation in a team may be extended to anyone in the University community, including appropriate external users where there is an academic or administrative reason for inclusion.  

Note: External users can participate in Teams to a limited extent, and Team owners are responsible for the behaviour of external Teams users. More information on integrating external users with an individual Team can be found here.

Team approval

Team requests follow an approval process. Requestors will be notified within five University business days of the request regarding team creation.   

Considerations into the team approval process include but are not limited to: 

  • Jurisdiction of the request. 
  • Overlap and/or conflict with similar technologies currently supported and in use at U of T. 
  • Duplicate requests. 
  • Appropriate use of the request with the team (e.g., Teaching Dossiers, financial information).

Roles & responsibilities

Team Owners are responsible for: 

  • Reading, understanding and adhering to the Terms of Use (this document).
  • Ensuring their Team(s) always have two active owners. If a current owner leaves the University, either current owner or a Team member must ensure that a new Team owner has been appointed if the Team is still required. If the Team does not have at least one active owner the Team will be deleted.
  • Closing a Team or Channels within a Team when its continued operation is no longer necessary.

Team Members are responsible for: 

  • Reading, understanding and adhering to the Terms of Use (this document). 
  • Using Teams responsibly and adding content in a manner that is consistent with respectful online etiquette.   

University policies

Content posted in Teams must abide by all relevant University guidelines and policies. All users are required to adhere to the following University of Toronto policies and guidelines:  

  • Appropriate Use of Information and Communication Technology
  • FIPPA – General and Administrative Access and Privacy Practices
  • Copyright and Fair Dealing Guidelines
  • Social Media Policies and Guidelines: Cloud Based Technologies
  • Policy on Information Security and the Protection of Digital Assets
  • Policy on Information Technology
  • University of Toronto File Plan 

Ongoing monitoring and team de-provisioning

ITS will review all Teams in Microsoft 365 on an ongoing basis for regular activity.  A Team will be considered dormant after 12 months of user inactivity. After this time, ITS may contact the primary administrator to determine if the Team is still required.    

A Team may be deleted under the following scenarios:  

  1. By request from the corresponding department head. 
  2. Violation of the Terms of Use – ITS reserves the right to block, restrict or remove any sites found in violation.
  3. After 12 months of inactivity, which is defined by the content not being accessed (read or modified) or no chat activity after 12 months. 

Before a Team is deleted due to inactivity, the following process will occur:  

  1. After 9 months of inactivity, the Team owner(s) will be sent an initial email detailing this policy along with a warning that the Team will be automatically removed in three months’ time.
  2. A specific removal date will be indicated in the email. Team owners can keep the Team by responding to the email. 
  3. The Team will be removed on the date specified in the email, and an email will be sent to the Team owner(s). 

Data retention & removal

Regularly reviewing data and information stored on Teams are vital to ensuring that storage space is used optimally, and helps the University avoid risks associated with unmaintained content.  

Team owners should review the data and information stored on Teams to determine if it can be considered a ‘University Record’, in which case it should be managed in accordance with the 'University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services’ (UTARMS) guidelines and practices. UTARMS provides further guidance and tools for determining records retention and disposition. Purging data and information within Teams will help to reduce redundant, inactive, or transitory content. All University offices are responsible for disposing of inactive records in accordance with University policy. 

Naming policies and conventions

In order to ensure that Team names are not duplicated and that they are appropriate for use, a nomenclature for creating Team names must be followed. Generally, the naming syntax is: [division][department][project/committee]. For example, a Team for members of EASI’s Enterprise Shared Services unit might be called ‘ITS EASI Shared Services’.

Quota

New sites are given 250 GB of space. Team Owners will receive a notification by email when the site is nearing its limit. 

Backups and restores

In cases where a Team has been deleted and needs to be recovered, requests to recover a Team can be sent to need.team@utoronto.ca. Request for Team reactivation must be submitted within 25 days of deletion. Team administrators should understand that such requests may incur costs, for which the administrator (or their department) is fully responsible. 

Third-party app requests

Request for third-party apps to use with Teams are subject to review by the University’s Application Review Committee (ARC). For more information on submitting an app request, access the ARC webpage here.

Support

ITS is responsible for providing support for the Microsoft 365 core services.  

For all intents and purposes in this document: 

  • ITS refers to the service owner and administrator of Teams. ITS staff are subject to the same Terms of Use. 
  • Team Owner refers to users who have elevated privileges for their Team. Team owners can add and remove members, edit or delete a Team, add channels, remove threads, and change the Team picture.
  • Team Member refers to users who have been granted access to a Team.  

ITS is responsible for: 

  • Configuring and securing the system.  
  • Developing and maintaining any processes associated with the maintenance, monitoring security and provisioning of the system. 
  • Developing, updating and publishing the governance for Teams, which includes this Terms of Use document.
  • Enabling/Disabling features.
  • In consultation with ARC, reviewing requests for installing third-party apps and determining whether these may be installed.
  • Removing third-party add-ins if they are found to adversely affect the Microsoft 365 tenant.
  • Providing, delivering or developing training and/or training material for the standard use of Teams.  

ITS is NOT responsible for: 

  • Supporting, designing, developing and maintaining solutions with Teams. 
  • Managing, creating, editing, deleting, monitoring or maintaining content within Teams, including Chat.  
  • Managing and delegating end-user permissions setting within Teams. 
  • Enrolling Team members on behalf of Site Team Owners. All (de-) enrollments should be managed by the Team Owners.  

References

With special thanks and acknowledgement to: