Microsoft to remove usernames from ‘Productivity Score’ feature after privacy backlash

Microsoft is announcing that it will make changes to its new productivity score feature, including removing the ability for businesses to see data on individual users, to address concerns from privacy experts that the tech giant had effectively deployed a new tool to spy on workers.

“Going forward, metrics related to communications, meetings, content collaboration, teamwork, and mobility in the productivity score will only aggregate data at the organization level, providing a clear metric. of organizational-level adoption of key features, ”wrote Jared Spataro, Microsoft 365 Enterprise. vice president, in a post this morning. “No one in the organization will be able to use the Productivity Score to access data on how an individual user uses apps and services in Microsoft 365.”

The company rolled out its new “Productivity Score” feature as part of Microsoft 365 in late October. It provides companies with data that helps them understand how workers use and adopt different forms of technology. It made headlines over the past week when reports revealed the tool allows managers to see individual user data by default.

In its initial version, Productivity Score transformed Microsoft 365 into a “full-fledged workplace monitoring tool,” wrote Wolfie Christl of the independent digital research institute Cracked Labs in Vienna, Austria. “Employers / managers can analyze employee activities at the individual level (!), For example, the number of days an employee has sent emails, using chat, using ‘mentions’ in e -mails, etc. ”

Spataro wrote this morning: “We appreciate the feedback we’ve heard over the past few days and are moving quickly to respond by removing usernames from the product entirely. This change will ensure that the Productivity Score cannot be used to monitor individual employees. “

Additionally, Microsoft is now announcing that it will update the privacy disclosures in Productivity Score and change the user interface to more clearly state that it was designed to assess the overall productivity of the organization.

“Over the last few days, we realized that there was some confusion about the capabilities of the product,” Spataro wrote. “The Productivity Score produces a score for the organization and was never intended to score individual users.”

Recent patent filings show that Microsoft has explored additional ideas for monitoring workers in the interest of organizational productivity. One dossier describes a “computerized meeting analysis system” that would generate a quality score for a meeting using data such as body language, facial expressions, room temperature, time of day and time. number of people present.

The company has not commented on the patent filings and there is no indication that the concept will be rolled out as a product.

Microsoft has an AI ethics office and company-wide committee that aims to ensure that its products adhere to its responsible AI principles, including transparency and confidentiality.