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Last updated: August 2012

Contents

This page is a supplement to the Privacy Statement for Microsoft Lync Products. In order to understand the data collection and use practices relevant for a particular Microsoft Lync product or service, you should read both the Privacy statement for Microsoft Lync Products and this supplement.

This privacy supplement addresses the deployment and use of Microsoft Lync Phone Edition communications software deployed in your or your enterprise’s network. If you are using Microsoft Lync Server as a service (in other words, a third party [for example, Microsoft] is hosting the servers upon which the software runs), information will be transmitted to that third party. To learn more about the use of your data that is transmitted to that third party, please consult your enterprise administrator or your service provider.

Archiving

What This Feature Does: Archiving provides organizations that may be subject to retention requirements based on industry or regulatory requirements, or which may have their own organizational retention requirements with a way to archive certain Lync related communications and usage data in support of those requirements.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Archiving stores the content of both peer-to-peer and multiparty instant messages, conference content, including uploaded content (for example, handouts) and event-related content (for example, joining, leaving, uploading, sharing, and changes in visibility) on a server configured by the enterprise administrator. Peer-to-peer file transfers, audio/video for peer-to-peer conversations, application sharing during peer-to-peer conversation, conferencing annotations and polls cannot be archived. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: Allows an organization to archive content to meet industry, regulatory, or organizational retention requirements.

Choice/Control: Archiving is off by default. There are no user-level controls for this feature; the enterprise administrator for the organization manages it.

Automatic Image Update

What This Feature Does: Image Update downloads Lync Phone Edition software updates from your enterprise’s network and installs them on your phone. Your enterprise’s administrator controls which location is used for update.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: If your administrator chooses to enable Image Update, information about who is logged on the device, the version of your Lync Phone Edition software, and device information is sent to a server in your enterprise. No personal information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: If a different version of Lync Phone Edition software is available, Image Update automatically downloads and installs it on your desk phone. This update will be downloaded from your enterprise’s network.

Choice/Control: The user on the phone cannot control any aspect of Image Update. Only your enterprise’s administrator can decide whether to enable or disable Image Update for the phone.

Audio Test Service

What This Feature does: The Audio Test Service allows the user to check their call quality by making a test call on Lync, which allows the user to hear how they would sound in a real call. When the Check Call Quality button is clicked, the Audio Test Service places a simulated call and prompts the user to record a short, (approximately 5 seconds) voice sample and then plays it back to them. If the network performance is sub-optimal or the user’s device is not set up or configured properly, this will be reflected in the quality of the voice sample.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: A short (approximately 5 seconds) sample of your voice is recorded during the audio test service call. When the Audio Test Service call ends, the voice sample is deleted. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The voice sample is used by you to check and/or verify the sound quality of your Lync call based on the quality of the recording.

Choice/Control: If you do not want to record a voice sample, you can choose not to make a test call. To make a test call, click Make Test Call from Settings on a phone running Lync Phone Edition.

Call Logs

What This Feature Does: Call Logs enables the user to store a record of their Lync voice calls in a Microsoft Outlook folder.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Information about voice calls, such as the start time, end time, duration, and call participants, will be stored in the Outlook Conversation History folder. Meeting subject and location can also be logged by selecting Outlook as the personal information manager on the Personal tab of the Options dialog box. Call Logs does not store the content of voice calls. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The user can use Call Logs to track and view their call history.

Choice/Control: Call Logs is on by default. Your enterprise administrator can enable and disable the Call Logs feature for your enterprise. Call Logs are managed using the Lync desktop client.

Call Recording Status

What This Feature Does: When any presenter is recording during an audio call, “Recorded call” displays on the call ribbon of a phone running Lync Phone Edition.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: If any presenter in the call has chosen to enable recording, your audio during the call will be recorded by those presenters. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: You can use this information to determine if you want to participate in the call. However, there are certain exceptions about when this status may or may not display correctly:

  • If the administrator decides to turn off this notification feature, even if call recording is enabled by any other presenter, you will not see this status on the call ribbon.

  • If there are 25 or more participants in the call at any time, this notification feature will not work as designed. On some phones, you may not see the recording status at all. On other phones, you may see “Call might be recorded” all the time, even if no presenter is recording the call.

Choice/Control: Lync Phone Edition does not allow you to turn off call recording status. Only the enterprise administrator can control this feature.

Caller ID in the Meeting Roster

What This Feature Does: Caller ID in the Meeting Roster displays the caller ID of all meeting participants in the meeting roster.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: The caller ID of meeting participants is collected. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: When joining a meeting the participant’s caller ID is displayed in the meeting roster to the other participants.

Choice/Control: There are no end user controls for this feature; the Caller ID is received from the telephone service provider. Some providers allow the ability for users to turn off caller ID. For additional information, please contact your enterprise administrator or your telephone service provider.

Client-Side Logging

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: When Client-Side Logging is enabled specific usage information will be logged and stored on the user’s computer. For example meeting subjects and locations; session initiation protocol (SIP) messages; responses to Lync invites; information about the sender and receiver of instant messages and the route the message took; the users Contact list and presence information; the names of any applications, attachments, Microsoft PowerPoint files, whiteboards, or polls they shared to include any poll questions that were shared and an index of how they voted are all logged in the client-side logs. The contents of Lync conversations are not stored (instant messages, PowerPoint decks, whiteboard contents, notes, poll details, etc.) in the client-side logs. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The information collected in the client-side logs can be used by the user’s customer support or can be sent to Microsoft to troubleshoot Lync issues.

Choice/Control: Client-Side Logging is off by default. The enterprise administrator can enable or disable this feature for their enterprise. Client-Side Logging is managed using the Lync desktop client.

Contact Card

What This Feature Does: The Contact Card displays contact, presence, and location information about you and the people within your organization, in both Lync and recent versions of Outlook. The contact card also provides one-click access to communicate with someone. For example, you can send an instant message, start a call, or send an email message directly from someone’s contact card.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: The static information in the Contact Card is collected from the enterprise’s corporate directory (such as Active Directory). The dynamic information, such as calendar free/busy information is retrieved from Microsoft Exchange Server; location information is retrieved in several ways (see the Location section); telephone numbers can be retrieved from the corporate directory or entered manually by the user; and presence information is managed by Lync using the Outlook Calendar (if enabled by the user) or entered manually by the user. The Lync server shares this information with other people within the organization. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The Contact Card is used to view the contact, location and presence information of people within the users’ organization. The amount of information displayed to a user’s Lync and Outlook contacts can be controlled by setting “privacy relationships” and enabling or disabling Privacy Mode (see the Privacy Mode section).

Choice/Control: You cannot control any of this behavior from the phone; it is managed using the Lync desktop client.

Emergency Services (911)

What This Feature Does: When made available by the enterprise administrator Emergency Services allows Lync to transmit a location to a third-party routing service provider selected by the customer. The third-party routing service provider will then transmit the location to the emergency responders when an emergency services number is dialed (such as 911 in the United States). When enabled, the location information transmitted to emergency services personnel is the location that the enterprise administrator has assigned to each user (for example, building and office number) and entered into the location database or, if such a location is not available, the location users may have manually entered in the Location field. If a user dials emergency services while using Lync via a wireless Internet connection, while they are still in their work location, the location information transmitted to emergency responders will be merely an approximate location based on the location assigned to the wireless endpoint with which their computer is communicating. The location information of that wireless endpoint, moreover, is input manually by the enterprise administrator, and therefore, the location information transmitted to the emergency services personnel may not be the user’s actual physical location. To be fully functional this feature requires the enterprise to retain a routing service provided by certified solution providers, and the service is only available within the United States.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: The location information obtained by Lync is determined by the automatic location information populated by the Location Information Server or by the location information manually entered in the Location field by the user. This information is stored in memory on the user’s computer, so when an emergency services number is entered, this location information is transmitted with the call for the purpose of routing to the appropriate emergency services provider and providing their approximate location. Their location may also be sent using an instant message to a local security desk. For emergency calls, the call detail record will contain their location information. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: Location is used for routing the call to the appropriate emergency services provider and for dispatching emergency responders. This information can also be sent to the enterprise's security desk as a notification with the caller’s location and call back information.

Choice/Control: This feature is off by default. The enterprise administrator enables it. Check with your enterprise administrator to determine if this feature is available. There is no ability for you to control whether a location is acquired automatically or transmitted to emergency dispatchers when an emergency call is made.

Note:  The enterprise administrator can restrict the emergency calling capability to your work location, so you should check with your administrator for information about the extent to which the emergency calling functionality is available.

Location

What This Feature Does: Location displays a user’s current geographical location and time zone to other Lync users using the presence functionality of the Contact Card (See the Contact Card section). Users can control what information is shared with others by enabling Privacy Mode in their Lync desktop client.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Your geographic location data is collected by one of two mechanisms: you manually enter the data, or the enterprise Location Information Server provides the location data to Lync Phone Edition. In addition, your time zone is retrieved from the operating system running on your phone. The location data that is collected consists of a "description" string as well as formatted address information. The description is any string that would help inform others about your location (such as “Home” or “Work”), while the formatted address information is a civic address meant to locate you (such as “5678 Main St, Buffalo, NY, 98052”). No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The location description and time zone data are shared over Lync Phone Edition presence, based on how your presence privacy is configured. This information is displayed in the user’s contact card. Note that the formatted address, or civic address, is not shared over presence.

Choice/Control: If your enterprise administration has enabled location sharing and allowed you to see the full location user interface, you will have the Set Location control on the Phone Location screen. This control allows you to manually edit the text string that is shared with presence (the location description).

Meeting Dial-out

What This Feature Does: Meeting Dial-out allows Lync Phone Edition users who are present in a meeting to add a public switched telephone network (PSTN) number to an existing audio video (AV) conversation or meeting. A PSTN user can be added by calling the PSTN number from the Lync dial pad. When the PSTN user will be added when they answer the call.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: The PSTN user will see the caller ID of either the meeting organizer or the meeting participant when they receive the call inviting them into the meeting.

Use of Information: The caller ID is used to identify the caller to the person receiving the call.

Choice/Control: There is no user or enterprise administrator control for this feature.

Personal Picture

What This Feature Does: Personal Picture allows users to display their personal picture to other people within their organization in the Contact Card. If a user elects to display their personal picture in their contact card, other Lync users will be able to view the picture in their Lync contacts list using the “Show photos of contacts” option. If users choose to display their personal picture to others they can choose to display the default picture used by their organization if this capability has been enabled for the enterprise or they can upload a picture from their computer.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Personal Picture sharing preferences and any custom pictures that have been uploaded. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The information is stored on the Lync Server and used to customize the user experience and share with others.

Choice/Control: You cannot control from Lync Phone Edition it must be managed using the Lync desktop client.

Presence and Contact Information

What This Feature Does: Presence and Contact Information allows a user to view presence and contact information about other users (both inside and outside the organization), and share their own published information such as presence, status, title, phone number, location and notes. The enterprise administrator may also configure integration with Outlook and Exchange Server so that a user’s out-of-office messages and other status information (for example, when a user has a meeting scheduled in their Outlook calendar) will be displayed.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: The user’s sign-in address and password for login and authentication purposes. Any additional telephone numbers they may want to make available, information such as out-of-office messages and other status information if Outlook and Exchange Server integration has been configured by the administrator and enabled in Outlook; including any notes or availability that might have been manually by the user is made available in the Contact Card. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: Sign-in address and password are used to log in to Lync and connect to the Lync server. Based on how the user has configured their privacy settings other Lync users and programs will be able to access the presence, contact, and status information, if published, so users can better communicate with each other.

Choice/Control: Users can choose what information is published about themselves or their enterprise administrator can configure published information on their behalf. If the administrator has not disabled the ability for users to control their published information, they can change their settings at any time using the Lync desktop client.

Unified Contact Store

What This Feature Does: Unified Contact Store consists of these main features:

  • Search merge – This feature merges the Global Address list (GAL) with a user’s personal Outlook contacts so that, when a user searches for a contact, there will be only a single entry in the search results.

  • Contact merge – This feature aggregates contact information between Outlook and GAL entries using matching email and/or sign-in identifiers. Once a match is determined, Lync aggregates data from three data sources (Outlook, GAL, and presence). This aggregated data is displayed in various user interface components, including search results, your Contacts list, and a contact card.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Lync Phone Edition aggregates contact information from presence, Active Directory, and Outlook. This information is used internally by Lync Phone Edition. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: Contact information from Presence, Active Directory, and Outlook are shown in the Lync Phone Edition user interface (Contacts list, contact card, search results, and so on).

Choice/Control: The merging behavior is on by default and cannot be controlled by administrator or the user.

Voice Quality Improvements

What This Feature Does: Lync provides notifications to the user to help them improve the quality of their call if it detects device, network, or computer issues during the call.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted: Information about the end user’s audio device setup, network set up and other media connections will be collected by Lync to determine audio quality. If Lync determines that something is adversely impacting audio quality during a voice communication the end user will be informed that there is a voice quality problem. Other call participants are only shown a notification that the end users are using a device that is causing poor audio quality. They do not know what device the end user is using. No information is sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information: The information that is sent to others in the call will help them improve the quality of the call.

Choice/Control: Lync Phone Edition does not allow you to turn off call quality notifications.

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