Understanding Privacy with MyAnalytics

MyAnalytics is a hosted Office 365 service that uses data collected from Office 365 users to provide time management and cross-team interaction reports. While the service could help users understand their work habits and adjust their actions for better efficiency, both users and administrators should understand the privacy and employee data use implications of this offering before committing to its use.

Workday Efficiency Metrics

MyAnalytics analyzes a user’s workday activities and offers tips about how they could be more efficient. For example, a user can see how many people have opened and read recent e-mail sent by the user, how much time the user spends in meetings, or how much work the user does after hours, compared with other employees in their organization. Users can view their information through a personal dashboard provided by the service or directly within Outlook or Outlook on the Web through an add-in.

Some of the conclusions are based on set rules that may not provide an exact picture of activity. For example, MyAnalytics assumes that a user spends five minutes to write and send each e-mail, and half that time to read one. Therefore, the assumptions can’t be used to track exact information like billable hours.