Security Reminder: Set your M365 Teams and Groups to private

We are continuing our Microsoft 365 journey, which ensures everyone at Ohio State can collaborate on a wide variety of devices, while keeping your information and Ohio State data secure. For security purposes, all Teams and Groups should be set to “private”. This is recommended for all faculty, staff and students. This means that only those invited to the Team and Group can view the contents. Please review the Teams and Groups that you own and change the settings to private if needed.

All new Groups and Teams default to “private”. Please do not change this setting. (When creating a Team you have a choice of setting the Privacy mode to Public or Private which controls who can see the Team when searching and how they request to join.) With a Public team anyone, including students, can see the Team and files without being an explicit member. With a Private team, only members of the team can see the team, and the files within the team and must be added as explicit members. We recommend creating only private teams.

Teams Settings

Steps to change the privacy settings for your team from public to private:

  1. Start by using the Desktop or Web app
  2. Go to the team name and select the three dots "..." or "More options"
  3. Select "Edit team" toward the bottom of the menu 
  4. Under "Privacy", select "Private"

If you’re unsure whether your Team should be public or private, please review our privacy recommendations on the administrative resource center.

Groups Settings

Steps to change a Microsoft 365 group from public to private (that is not associated with a Team):

  1. Log in to Outlook for email
  2. Click on the account switcher in the top right corner (either your initials or may have a picture)
  3. Choose “view account
  4. Click the drop-down that says “My Account” in the top left and chose “My Groups
  5. Click the group name under the “Groups I own” column
  6. Click on “Edit Details
  7. Select “Only the owner of this group can add members” to make this a private group and restrict access
  8. Click Update to save the changes

For a more detailed look at recommendations from Microsoft on Team security please see Configure Teams with three tiers of protection on Microsoft's website. For more information on using teams, visit the Teams help page on the Administrative Resource Center.

Before using any Microsoft 365 services please review the information on sharing content, acceptable use, general questions, and other important items to be aware of on this page Microsoft 365 Important Service Usage Information.

If you have a disability and have trouble with any Microsoft 365 product, please reference the Microsoft Accessibility Disability Answer Desk where you can contact Windows and Office accessibility support through various methods. If you require additional support, please call the Ohio State Accessibility Helpline at 614-292-5000.

If you need additional help, the IT Service Desk offers 24-hour support, seven days a week.