Starting January 30, 2024, the University will adopt a schedule of deleting instant chat messages automatically in Microsoft Teams after 150 days. This change will impact one-on-one and group chats in MS Teams. The retention period does not impact conversations hosted within a Teams channel, including channels created for professors for the delivery of their courses. Chats contained in Teams channels will be retained until manually deleted or the channel is decommissioned.
At the time of deployment of Teams at uOttawa, no retention or deletion policies were applied because of the rapid rollout to support university activities remotely. This means that until now, all chat records were retained indefinitely.
Chat messages will be automatically deleted
Automatically deleting these messages within 150 days should avoid maintaining transitory information unnecessarily in accordance with the University Classification and Retention Schedule. While chat messages are usually transitory in nature, University of Ottawa members are reminded that it is the content of a chat message that determines whether it is transitory and not the form that is used to record the information. Important information should be stored in an appropriate information management system.
Save chat messages that contain information that needs to be maintained
Review your personal chat history by clicking “Chat” in the sidebar navigation in Microsoft Teams. You can copy information, links, or files that you want to retain into a permanent place.
To retain information longer than 150 days
Consult the Information Management Tip Sheet for more information on How to use Information Management Tools to determine the best tool available to manage your information.
MS Teams goes beyond simple instant messaging; it is a dynamic tool for exchanging information that requires a thoughtful approach to ensure efficiency, security, and compliance. This decision was made by the MS365 Governance Committee which includes representation from Information and Archives Management, IT, Access to Information Privacy Office, Teaching and Learning Support Service (TLSS), Institutional Research and Planning and the academic community. The implementation of this retention policy aligns with the University’s Policy 23 - Policy on Information Management and is supported by the Secretary General. Stay tuned!