Microsofts controversial productivity-tracking tool is back - with some key changes

▤ Summary

Its been two years since privacy advocates branded Microsofts Productivity Score dashboard a "full-fledged workplace surveillance tool" because it allowed IT admins to monitor individual employees usage of Microsoft 365 apps, such as who opened an application like Outlook or Teams, what time they had it active, and so forth. The furore over the feature happened six months into the Covid-19 pandemic, when some employers, lacking pre-pandemic oversight at the office, started using intrusive employee surveillance software. The main current feature Adoption Score is Time Trends, which helps admins understand "historical information about aggregated insights across the organization." For people experiences, Adoption Score offers Time Trends metrics for the categories Content Collaboration, Meetings, Teamwork, Mobility and Communication across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Yammer, and Skype. It doesnt say what that is, but it aims to change how IT admins and customers can "get more out of Microsoft 365, all while maintaining our commitment to user level privacy."

▦ Linked Companies

Microsoft

$1B+