Your Privacy and M365

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) uses Microsoft 365 (M365) services.

HHS data, within the M365 environment, is managed in accordance with provincial privacy legislation, including the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA) and HHS’ acceptable use policies. HHS will undertake privacy and security assessments to protect and safeguard HHS data in the M365 environment, where required, related to the use of the M365 applications for specific purposes related to our work. For more information about Microsoft’s privacy practices related to the collection, use, storage, and retention of data held in the M365 environment, please follow the link below:

MS Privacy Statement

M365 Teams has functionalities including business messaging, calling, video meetings and file sharing. Additional features used by HHS include recording and transcription features.

If you attend an event, meeting, or training session where HHS uses MS Teams, and the encounter is to be recorded and/or transcribed using M365, you will receive a privacy notice in which you will be asked to provide consent to continue before the recording occurs.

Personal information recorded or transcribed within the M365 Teams environment relates to directly consenting participants in recorded meetings or to data where HHS has an established legal requirement for processing. In the event you do not consent to participating in the recording or having your information transcribed, you must opt out of the recorded session by leaving the meeting. Otherwise, the personal information (e.g. your name, email domain, profile picture) made available during the meeting will be collected.

The personal information collected during the recordings and transcriptions may include: your name, job title, organization, image and personal contributions to the event/purpose for which you attend. Personal health information may also be recorded in virtual care visits.

The recording could contain:

  • video stream (including images of yourself) if you choose to enable your camera during the meeting or have a photo of yourself set within your profile;
  • audio stream, if you choose to enable your microphone during the meeting, which could include any opinions you contribute and anything you say about yourself;
  • chat contributions within the meeting could also be captured as text in the meeting recording;
  • personal information; and
  • personal health information

If you have any questions regarding your privacy at HHS, please contact the Privacy office at privacy@hhsc.ca or by phone at 905-521-2100 ext. 75122.