On-by-Default Office 365 Features Could Pose Risks

(This report was updated in July 2019. See “On-by-Default Office 365 Features Could Pose Risks.”)

Office 365 provides online services in addition to the desktop Office 365 ProPlus application suite. When new services and features are added to subscriptions, Microsoft usually turns them on by default, sometimes with little notice. While these offerings might include technologies intended to make work more efficient for workers, they can also create management, data security, and compliance issues. Customers should be prepared to evaluate the benefits and risks of each new service and turn a service off, if necessary, until all ramifications of its use are understood.

Risks of On-by-Default Services

Microsoft launches new Office 365 services from time to time to enhance its hosted services offering. (For a list of these services, see the chart “On-by-Default Office 365 Services“.) These services often do not appear in Microsoft’s published Office 365 roadmap or elsewhere before they are launched, and the company does not maintain an “advance notice” policy for introducing services and features.