Cookies are small text files placed on your device to store data that can be recalled by a web server in the domain that placed the cookie. We use cookies and similar technologies for storing and honoring your preferences and settings, enabling you to sign in, providing interest-based advertising, combating fraud, analyzing how our products perform, and fulfilling other legitimate purposes. Microsoft apps use additional identifiers, such as the advertising ID in Windows described in the Advertising ID section of this privacy statement, for similar purposes.
We also use “web beacons” to help deliver cookies and gather usage and performance data. Our websites may include web beacons, cookies, or similar technologies from third-party service providers.
You have a variety of tools to control the data collected by cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies. For example, you can use controls in your internet browser to limit how the websites you visit are able to use cookies and to withdraw your consent by clearing or blocking cookies.
If you use a Microsoft product with an account provided by an organization you are affiliated with, such as your work or school account, that organization can:
- Control and administer your Microsoft product and product account, including controlling privacy-related settings of the product or product account.
- Access and process your data, including the interaction data, diagnostic data, and the contents of your communications and files associated with your Microsoft product and product accounts.
If you lose access to your work or school account (in event of change of employment, for example), you may lose access to products and the content associated with those products, including those you acquired on your own behalf, if you used your work or school account to sign in to such products.
Many Microsoft products are intended for use by organizations, such as schools and businesses. Please see the Enterprise and developer products section of this privacy statement. If your organization provides you with access to Microsoft products, your use of the Microsoft products is subject to your organization's policies, if any. You should direct your privacy inquiries, including any requests to exercise your data protection rights, to your organization’s administrator. When you use social features in Microsoft products, other users in your network may see some of your activity. To learn more about the social features and other functionality, please review documentation or help content specific to the Microsoft product. Microsoft is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of our customers, which may differ from those set forth in this privacy statement.
When you use a Microsoft product provided by your organization, Microsoft’s processing of your personal data in connection with that product is governed by a contract between Microsoft and your organization. Microsoft processes your personal data to provide the product to your organization and you, and in some cases for Microsoft’s business operations related to providing the product as described in the Enterprise and developer products section. As mentioned above, if you have questions about Microsoft’s processing of your personal data in connection with providing products to your organization, please contact your organization. If you have questions about Microsoft’s business operations in connection with providing products to your organization as provided in the Product Terms, please contact Microsoft as described in the How to contact us section. For more information on our business operations, please see the Enterprise and developer products section.
For Microsoft products provided by your K-12 school, including Microsoft 365 Education, Microsoft will:
- not collect or use student personal data beyond that needed for authorized educational or school purposes;
- not sell or rent student personal data;
- not use or share student personal data for advertising or similar commercial purposes, such as behavioral targeting of advertisements to students;
- not build a personal profile of a student, other than for supporting authorized educational or school purposes or as authorized by the parent, guardian, or student of appropriate age; and
- require that our vendors with whom student personal data is shared to deliver the educational service, if any, are obligated to implement these same commitments for student personal data.
With a Microsoft account, you can sign in to Microsoft products, as well as those of select Microsoft partners. Personal data associated with your Microsoft account includes credentials, name and contact data, payment data, device and usage data, your contacts, information about your activities, and your interests and favorites. Signing in to your Microsoft account enables personalization and consistent experiences across products and devices, permits you to use cloud data storage, allows you to make payments using payment instruments stored in your Microsoft account, and enables other features.
There are three types of Microsoft account:
- When you create your own Microsoft account tied to your personal email address, we refer to that account as a personal Microsoft account.
- When you or your organization (such as an employer or your school) create your Microsoft account tied to your email address provided by that organization, we refer to that account as a work or school account.
- When you or your service provider (such as a cable or internet service provider) create your Microsoft account tied to your email address with your service provider’s domain, we refer to that account as a third-party account.
If you sign into a service offered by a third party with your Microsoft account, you will share with that third party the account data required by that service.
When a Microsoft product collects age, and there is an age in your jurisdiction under which parental consent or authorization is required to use the product, the product will either block users under that age or will ask them to provide consent or authorization from a parent or guardian before they can use it. We will not knowingly ask children under that age to provide more data than is required to provide for the product.
Once parental consent or authorization is granted, the child's account is treated much like any other account. The child can access communication services, like Outlook and Skype, and can freely communicate and share data with other users of all ages. Learn more about parental consent and Microsoft child accounts.
Parents or guardians can change or revoke the consent choices previously made, and review, edit, or request the deletion of the personal data of the children for whom they provided consent or authorization. As the organizer of a Microsoft family group, the parent or guardian can manage a child’s information and settings on their Family Safety page and view and delete a child’s data on their privacy dashboard.
Select Learn more below for more information about children and Xbox profiles.
Below you will find additional privacy information, such as how we secure your data, where we process your data, and how long we retain your data. You can find more information on Microsoft and our commitment to protecting your privacy at Microsoft Privacy.
Enterprise and Developer Products are Microsoft products and related software offered to and designed primarily for use by organizations and developers. They include:
- Cloud services, referred to as Online Services in the Product Terms, such as Microsoft 365 and Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics365, and Microsoft Intune for which an organization (our customer) contracts with Microsoft for the services (“Enterprise Online Services”).
- Other enterprise and developer tools and cloud-based services, such as Azure PlayFab Services (to learn more see Azure PlayFab Terms of Service).
- Server, developer, and hybrid cloud platform products, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, Azure Stack and open source software like Bot Framework solutions (“Enterprise and Developer Software”).
- Appliances and hardware used for storage infrastructure, such as StorSimple (“Enterprise Appliances”).
- Professional services referred to in the Product Terms that are available with Enterprise Online Services, such as onboarding services, data migration services, data science services, or services to supplement existing features in the Enterprise Online Services.
In the event of a conflict between this Microsoft privacy statement and the terms of any agreement(s) between a customer and Microsoft for Enterprise and Developer Products, the terms of those agreement(s) will control.
You can also learn more about our Enterprise and Developer Products’ features and settings, including choices that impact your privacy or your end users’ privacy, in product documentation.
If any of the terms below are not defined in this Privacy Statement or the Product Terms, they have the definitions below.
General. When a customer tries, purchases, uses, or subscribes to Enterprise and Developer Products, or obtains support for or professional services with such products, Microsoft receives data from you and collects and generates data to provide the service (including improving, securing, and updating the service), conduct our business operations, and communicate with the customer. For example:
- When a customer engages with a Microsoft sales representative, we collect the customer’s name and contact data, along with information about the customer’s organization, to support that engagement.
- When a customer interacts with a Microsoft support professional, we collect device and usage data or error reports to diagnose and resolve problems.
- When a customer pays for products, we collect contact and payment data to process the payment.
- When Microsoft sends communications to a customer, we use data to personalize the content of the communication.
- When a customer engages with Microsoft for professional services, we collect the name and contact data of the customer’s designated point of contact and use information provided by the customer to perform the services that the customer has requested.
The Enterprise and Developer Products enable you to purchase, subscribe to, or use other products and online services from Microsoft or third parties with different privacy practices, and those other products and online services are governed by their respective privacy statements and policies.
Productivity and communications products are applications, software, and services you can use to create, store, and share documents, as well as communicate with others.
Search and artificial intelligence products connect you with information and intelligently sense, process, and act on information—learning and adapting over time.
Windows is a personalized computing environment that enables you to seamlessly roam and access services, preferences, and content across your computing devices from phones to tablets to the Surface Hub. Rather than residing as a static software program on your device, key components of Windows are cloud-based, and both cloud and local elements of Windows are updated regularly, providing you with the latest improvements and features. In order to provide this computing experience, we collect data about you, your device, and the way you use Windows. And because Windows is personal to you, we give you choices about the personal data we collect and how we use it. Note that if your Windows device is managed by your organization (such as your employer or school), your organization may use centralized management tools provided by Microsoft or others to access and process your data and to control device settings (including privacy settings), device policies, software updates, data collection by us or the organization, or other aspects of your device. Additionally, your organization may use management tools provided by Microsoft or others to access and process your data from that device, including your interaction data, diagnostic data, and the contents of your communications and files. For more information about data collection in Windows, see Data collection summary for Windows. This statement discusses Windows 10 and Windows 11 and references to Windows in this section relate to those product versions. Earlier versions of Windows (including Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1) are subject to their own privacy statements.
Entertainment and Related Services power rich experiences and enable you to access a variety of content, applications and games.
