MC275344: Microsoft 365 admin center: Reports in the Admin Center – user information pseudonymized by default

We’re making some changes to Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center. Reports found in the ‎Microsoft 365‎ admin center provide information about your organization’s usage data. By default, reports currently display information with identifiable names for users, groups, and sites. Beginning next month, user information will now be hidden by default for all reports as part of our ongoing commitment to help companies support their local Privacy laws. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 81959.

User level information contained in Microsoft 365 reports in the Admin center will be pseudonymized by default. Global administrators can revert this change for their tenant, which will be an audited event. When user identification is enabled, administrative roles and the report reader role will be able to see identifiable user level information. Global reader and Usage Summary Reports Reader roles will not have access to identifiable user information, regardless of the setting chosen.

Affected Workloads

• Microsoft 365 suite

NOTE: This change is specific to administrative and report reader roles.

When will this happen

This change will go into affect as of September 1, 2021.

How this will affect your organization

You are receiving this message because our reporting indicates one or more users in your organization are use or have access to Microsoft 365 reports in the admin center. When this change is implemented, administrative and report reader roles will not be able to see user identifiable information in the reports.

This change also affects Microsoft 365 usage reports in Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Teams analytics and reporting in the Teams Admin Center, and the reportRoot: getSharePointSiteUsageDetail API (1.0 and beta) for SharePoint site detail.

Global administrators can revert this change for their tenant and show identifiable user information if their organizations privacy practices allow. This can be achieved in the admin center by going to the Settings > Org Settings > Services page and selecting Reports. Under choose how to show user information, select Show identifiable user information in reports. Showing identifiable user information is a logged event in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center Audit log.

When user identification is enabled, administrative roles and the report reader role will be able to see identifiable user level information. Global reader and Usage Summary Reports Reader roles will not have access to identifiable user information, regardless of the setting chosen.

What you need to do to prepare

There is no specific action required. You may want to update your documentation as needed.

Learn more

• Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center

Message ID: MC275344
Published: 03 August 2021
Updated: 31 August 2021
Effective: August 1, 2021