Microsoft Intune

privacy and data protection

over view
August 2015

Microsoft Intune
Privacy and data protection overview
The Microsoft Intune service can help organizations manage and secure
mobile devices, applications, and PCs across Windows, Windows Phone,
Apple iOS, and Google Android platforms. Because it is cloud-based and
hosted in Microsofts data centers, Intune requires no additional
infrastructure, but organizations can use the service to extend existing
management infrastructure into the cloud. In addition to enhancing
device security by providing update and policy management, Intune can
help organizations give employees access on their own devices to the
apps and resources they need, making Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
programs a reality.
Relying on Microsoft Intune to
manage organizations devices
requires trust, but before
customers give that trust, they
want to know the answer to
questions like:

Is the privacy of their data

assured, and who owns their
data?

Who can access their data

and how do we use it?

Microsoft takes its

responsibility to protect
customers data seriously, and
we are committed to providing
the answers you need to trust
Intune. We have applied our
many years of cloud and onpremises experience with

Where does Microsoft store

their data?
How is their data secured in
the data center and on the
move?

What organizations have

independently verified
Microsoft Intune?

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

security and privacy to our

management of Intune.
This white paper offers an
overview of how we help secure
your data and protect its
privacy. Of course, the technical
details in this white paper are
subject to change, but our
commitment to the protection
of your data and devices will
not waver.

Microsoft Intune
Physical
security
Security for the service starts in
the data center. The Microsoft
Cloud Infrastructure and
Operations Group (MCIO)
delivers the core infrastructure
and foundational technologies
for Microsofts more than 200
online businesses, including
Bing, Hotmail, MSN, Microsoft
Office 365, Xbox Live, and the
Microsoft Azure platform.
MCIO hosts Microsoft Intune in
its data centers, which are
strategically located around the
world. It brings all of this
experience to Intune.
MCIO controls personnels
physical access to data centers
by using two-tier
authentication, including proxy
card access readers and
biometric readers. On a
quarterly basis, a Microsoft
security officer sends reports to
personnel with authority to
approve data center access.
Authorized personnel regularly
review the list to verify that all
people on that list still require
access and have the least
privileged access level
necessary to perform their job
functions.
Respected non-Microsoft
registrars and accreditation
organizations regularly audit
MCIO data centers in support

of the various certifications

MCIO undertakes for the data
centers.
These include:
ISO/IEC 27001:2005
SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 (Service
Organization Control [SOC] 1,
SOC 2, SOC 3)
FISMA
PCI data security standard
Microsoft recognizes that
security is an ongoing process,
not a steady state. Therefore,
experienced and trained
personnel constantly maintain,
enhance, and verify our
infrastructure. We use up-todate software, hardware
technologies, and processes for
designing, building, operating,

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

and supporting our services. To

learn more about MCIO, visit
http://www.microsoft.com/
datacenters

Personnel
security
Security starts with people, and
Intune is no exception.
Beginning with the hiring
process, all U.S.-based
Microsoft employees and
subcontractors with access to
customer data go through
standard background checks as
permitted by law, which include
a review of candidates
education, employment, and
criminal history. In addition to
standard background checks
for all new personnel,
personnel must undergo

Microsoft Intune
additional background checks
if they are to have access to
customer data or manage key
physical or logical access
controls. Additional verification
includes checks against export
control lists, such as the Office
of Foreign Assets Control List,
the Bureau of Industry and
Security List, and the
Directorate of Defense Trade
Controls Debarred Parties List.
To protect the privacy of its
employees and subcontractors,
Microsoft does not share the
results of background checks
with customers.
Security awareness, data
protection, and privacy are key
topics of this training. Microsoft
also requires that all personnel
complete business conduct
training each year.
We follow principles of
segregation of duties and least
privilege. Although physical
access to data centers is
generally limited to MCIO staff,
select Microsoft Intune
personnel have logical access
to the Microsoft Intune service
and data hosted in the data
centers. Employees are
accountable for their
handling of customer data.
Microsoft enforces this
accountability through a
process that includes system
controls, such as the use of
unique user names, rolebased access, and two-

factor authentication (e.g.,

smartcards and Rivest Shamir
Adleman [RSA] tokens). As with
physical access to the data
centers, we review logical
access periodically to help
ensure that only appropriate
access is granted to customer
data, such as contact
information, computer details,
and user information.

Architecture
security
The following sections offer an
overview of security for
architectural components,
including:
Client installation and
enrollment on PCs
Mobile devices, such as
Windows Phone
Account, Administrator, and
Company Portals
Identity and authentication
Microsoft System Center
2012 Configuration Manager

Client
installation
on PCs

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Mobile
devices

Client installation and

enrollment on PCs
The PC enrollment process is
documented in the article
Manage computers with
Microsoft Intune at
http://technet.microsoft.com/li
brary/dn646959.aspx. Only a
customers Intune
administrator can use the
Administrator portal to
download client software. End
users with existing Intune
accounts can download and
install client software from the
Company Portal after they
complete the self-enrollment
process.
Client installation requires
elevated permissions, which
helps protect the PC from
malicious installation. (You can
deploy the client software to
standard users by using Group
Policy or an electronic software
distribution [ESD] system like
System Center 2012
Configuration Manager.) If
organizations choose to
distribute the client software by
using a file share or an ESD
system, they should take steps
to prevent unauthorized access

Account
Identity,
System Center
Administrator, authentication Configuration
Company
Manager
Portals

Microsoft Intune
to it (e.g., use access control
lists to secure it)

https://technet.microsoft.com/l
ibrary/dn646962.aspx.

Mobile devices

Account, Administrator,
and Company Portals

Each mobile platform uses their

own proprietary processes and
security models to help secure
client installation on mobile
devices. E.g., the security
measures of the Windows
Store, Google Play, and Apple
App Store contribute to the
security of the client software.
Microsoft follows the rules each
store has set up for publishing
our Company Portal apps into
them.
For Windows Phone, Android,
and iOS mobile devices,
Microsoft uses Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) to help secure
communication between each
device and the Intune service.
Intune communicates with iOS
devices by using the Apple
Notification Service. Intune
uses a certificate, which the
administrator must download
from the Apple Push
Certificates Portal, to talk to the
Apple Mobile Device
Management service. For
Windows Phone and Windows
RT devices, it uses the Windows
Notification Service and for
Android devices, Google Cloud
Messaging is used. For more
information about planning
and setting up management of
mobile devices, see this article
on TechNet:

Intune provides the following

portals:
Account portal This portal provides the service and user
account management interface
to the Intune online service.
The account Administrator uses
this portal to manage user
accounts, user groups, domain
names, passwords (if
configured), and subscriptions
for the Intune service.
Administrator console The
Administrator console enables
administrators to set policies,
upload software and software
updates, and manage PCs
remotely.
Company portal Users can see
machine status, download
software, and contact their
companys IT support through
the web-based Company
Portal. To access the Company
Portal, a user must be granted
access by the administrator and
enroll their device.
All three portals use SSL to
secure communication with the
web browser. Sessions have an
inactivity timeoutthat is, after
a period of no activity, the
users session is ended, and the
user must sign into the portal

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

again.
NOTE Organizations can configure the Remember Me
option in Active Directory
Federation Services (AD FS) to
automatically sign users in for a
specific timeframe. This
configuration supersedes the
total timeout in Intune.

Identity and
authentication
Intune uses Azure Active
Directory (Azure AD) as its
authentication platform. To
provide users with a single
sign-on (SSO) experience,
businesses can connect their
on-premises directories with
Azure AD. The Intune
administrator then adds users
to the Intune user group, giving
them seamless access to Intune
when they sign into the
corporate network. There are
two options for authentication
when connected to Azure AD:
Federation with AD FS and
Password Sync. With AD FS,
users credentials never leave
the domain network while with
Password Sync the hash of
users passwords is
synchronized to the cloud.
Use the latest directory
integration tools from
Microsoft in order to configure
single sign for Intune. For more
information about connecting
on-premises directories to the
cloud, see this article at

Microsoft Intune
https://azure.microsoft.com/do
cumentation/articles/activedirectory-aadconnect

Configuration Manager Service

Pack 1 and more recent product
versions.

For organizations that do not

want single sign on, they can
create cloud only users and
administrators in Azure AD. For
more information about
creating cloud only users, see
this article at
https://technet.microsoft.com/l
ibrary/dn646967.aspx#Step1

This combination helps provide

a unified device management
solution that focuses on users
and the variety of devices they
employ to get their work done.

System Center 2012

Configuration Manager
Organizations can integrate
Intune with System Center 2012

In this hybrid configuration, the

System Center 2012
Configuration Manager site
initiates all communication with
Intune to push or pull data to
the service. For example, Intune
queues messages for System
Center 2012 Configuration

Data flow between the onpremises site and Microsoft Intune

From Microsoft Intune to the System Center 2012 Configuration
Manager site Data that Intune delivers to System Center 2012
Configuration Manager includes detailed inventory information
that devices report, such as installed apps and hardware
characteristics. Intune packages and forwards this information to
the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site. System Center
2012 Configuration Manager maintains the detailed information
about organizations devices and users in the customers own data
centers.
From the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager site to
Microsoft Intune The System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
site uses the Intune Connector to upload relevant data and policies
to the Intune service.
When necessary, Intune caches data for optimal transport (for
example, caching data for mobile devices when using metered
connections). The service flushes data from the cache after a set
period. For more information, see this article on TechNet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn823755

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Manager, and the site uploads

or downloads them. Intune
does not initiate
communications with System
Center 2012 Configuration
Manager.
All communications are over
SSL. An Intune certificate is
installed with the Intune
Connector role and the site
uses that certificate to
authenticate and communicate
with the connector. Intune
client software is not aware that
Intune is using a hybrid
configuration. The data flow is
the same whether the client
software is installed on a PC or
a mobile device, but the data
being distributed to the device
depends on the feature being
used (e.g., software distribution
versus policy enforcement).

Privacy
Customer Data is defined as all
data, including all text, sound,
video or image files, and
software that are provided to
Microsoft by, or on behalf of,
Customer through use of the
Online Service. For example,
this includes inventory
information from managed
devices or apps which have
been installed through Intune.
Customers can access their own
Customer Data at any at any
time and for any reason
without assistance from
Microsoft. Microsoft will not

Microsoft Intune
use Customer Data or derive
information from it for
advertising. We will use
Customer Data only to provide
the service or for purposes
compatible with providing the
service.
It is ultimately up to our
customers to evaluate our
offerings against their own
requirements, so they can
determine if our services satisfy
their regulatory needs. We are
committed to providing our
customers detailed information
about our cloud services to
help them make their own
regulatory assessments.
Microsoft does not create
customer accounts; the
customer creates the accounts
either directly in Intune
Administrator Console, or in
their local Active Directory,
where the accounts can then

be synchronized into Azure

Active Directory. For this
reason, the customer remains
responsible for the accuracy of
the user accounts they created.
Microsoft provides a coherent,
robust, and transparent privacy
policy that emphasizes
customer data ownership. The
Microsoft Online Services
Privacy Statement tells you how
we handle and use data
gathered in your companys
interactions with the Intune
service. You can view this
Privacy Statement at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink
/?LinkId=512132.
The following list summarizes
Microsofts position on
customers privacy:
Microsoft respects the
privacy of your Customer
Data.

Microsoft does not mine

your data to create
advertisement products.
Microsoft believes that
Customer Data belongs to
the customer.
Microsoft does not mingle
your data.
Microsoft will not contact
you unless we have your
permission or it is regarding
your service.
Intune enables customers to
publish company privacy
statements to their end users.
For more information about
customizing company privacy
statements, see the article
Start using Microsoft Intune
at
http://technet.microsoft.com/li
brary/dn646983.aspx

Data protection
Intune collects customer data
only to provide and troubleshoot the service. Data the
Intune service collects includes:
Device names and inventory
data used to provide the
service.
Administrator data, including
the name, address, phone
number, and email address
of the account owner and IT
administrators (Microsoft
uses this data to provide the
Online Service, complete
transactions, administer the

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Microsoft Intune
account and detect and
prevent fraud.)
There are three types of data
collected from mobile devices
managed by Intune:
1. Hardware inventory This
information is provided by the
mobile device operating
system (Windows, iOS, and
Android) and may be different
based on each OS. Such
information could include:

Name
Manufacturer
Model
Operating system
Processor
Serial number
OS version
Cellular technology
Jailbreak status
Free/Total space
Exchange Device ID
Wi-Fi MAC address
Ethernet MAC address
Device encryption status

2. App inventory There are two

types of apps which can be
installed on a mobile device.
Corporate apps are installed
through Intunes Company
Portal and are offered or
required by your companys
Intune administrator. Personal
apps are those which the user
installs on their own from the
Windows Store, Apple App
Store, or Google Play.

App Inventory includes:

Name
Version
ID
Installation location
Size

There are a few factors which

affect which apps are
inventoried.
Personal or corporate-owned
devices When Intune manages
a mobile device, it assumes the
device is personally-owned. In
the hybrid model where Intune
is connected to System Center
Configuration Manager, the
administrator can identify
specific devices as corporateowned. By default, on
personal devices, only those
apps which are installed via
Intune and the Company Portal
are inventoried, whereas on
corporate devices, all apps are
inventoried.
Compliant and non-compliant
apps When the administrator
defines compliant and noncompliant apps to define which
apps are allowed on a device in
order to be considered
compliant with corporate
policies, it is necessary to
inventory all apps, even on a
personal device, to compare
against the policies. These
personal apps are listed in
reports available to the Intune
administrators.

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

3. Policies and configurations

Device or application
management settings,
certificates, VPN and Wi-Fi
profiles are all examples of
policies and configurations
which an Intune administrator
can define and deploy. This
content, as well as the resulting
compliance information from
each managed device, is also
stored by Intune.
Intune does not collect
information specific to user
activities, including:

Phone logs
Contacts, email, calendar
information
Documents
Text (SMS) messages
Video/photos
GPS information
Web browsing history

Data locality
Microsoft has a regionalized
data center strategy. The
customers country or region,
which the customers
administrator inputs during
initial setup of the services,
determines the primary storage
location for that customers
data. For example, if a customer
in the United Kingdom creates
an Intune subscription, their
subscription will be created and
customer data stored in a
Microsoft data center located
in a European Union (EU)
country.

Microsoft Intune
To help ensure service
availability, Intune follows a
business continuity methodology that enables data center
failover within a given region:
Primary data centers A primary
data center is where the
application software and
customer data running on the
software are located. For all
customers located in North
America, the primary data
centers are located in United
States. If North American
customers access their
Microsoft Intune subscriptions
from another region, such as
the European Union, they will
still be using data stored in
North America. If you subscribe
to Intune from a region other
than North America, then the
web pages and data you view
will be hosted in that regions
data center.
Backup data centers A backup
data center is used for failover
purposes. All primary data
centers have backup data
centers in the same region. If
the primary data center ceases
to function for any reason, the
service is designed to make the
application software and
customer data available from
the backup data center.
Customers might not be
notified when failover occurs.
Depending on the particular
service that fails, failover may
not result in service

interruption.

Data disposition
Microsoft believes that
customers own their own data.
When customers do not renew
their Microsoft Intune
subscriptions (i.e., they
terminate or allow their
subscriptions to expire), their
subscriptions move through
the following states:
Warning state Their
subscriptions initially go into a
warning state during which
they can continue to use the
service and their Customer
Data is available. They have 30
days to renew their
subscriptions, and during this
time they will receive
notifications.

Suspended state If after 30

days customers do not renew
their subscription, they go into
the suspended state. They still
have rights to their Customer
Data and can continue
accessing the service, but they
cannot enroll any new devices
into the service.
Retention period At the end of
the Suspended state, customers
can continue accessing their
Customer Data for 90 days in a
limited function. If after 90 days
customers do not renew their
subscription, Customer Data is
removed within 30 days of the
end of the retention period.
Customers who actively cancel
their subscription may choose
to disable their accounts and
request deletion of their

Data disposition
90 days

Data removal

Retention
period

30 days

Expiration

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Suspended state

Warning state

Microsoft Intune
subscriber data by contacting
our Customer Support team. If
they do not provide specific
instructions to delete their data,
we follow the 90 day retention
period. There is no 30 day
suspend state or warning. At
the end of the 90 day retention
period, Intune removes
Customers Data within 30 days
of the end of the retention
period.

Independent
verification
Intune is compliant with many
world-class industry standards,
and it is verified by third
parties. Independent
verification of Intune includes:
Certified for International
Organization for
Standardization (ISO) 27001
ISO 27001 is one of the best
security benchmarks available
across the world.
Intune has implemented the
rigorous set of physical, logical,
process, and management
controls ISO 27001 defines.
Intune has also adopted the
uniform international code of
practice for cloud privacy,
ISO/IEC 27018, which governs
the processing of personal
information by cloud service
providers. ISO 27018 is the first
international set of privacy
controls in the cloud and
Microsoft was the first to adopt
its code of practice.

US to EU Safe Harbor and EU

Model Clauses Intune is
certified in the US-EU Safe
Harbor Framework, which is an
agreement between the United
States and the European Union
that enables organizations to
self-certify compliance with
data protection requirements
regarding the collection, use
and retention of data to allow
legal data transfer from the EU
to the U.S. In addition to being
certified under EU Safe Harbor,
Microsoft offers Intune
customers EU Model Clauses
which are standardized
contractual clauses that
provide contractual guarantees
around transfers of personal
data leaving the European
Economic Area (EEA).

Statements on Standards for

Attestation Engagements No.
16 (SSAE 16) SSAE 16, the
successor to Statement on
Auditing Standards (SAS) 70,
and International Standards for

Microsoft is the first company

to receive a letter of
endorsement and joint
approval from the EUs Article
29 Working Party, which
includes data protection
authorities from each of the EU
member states, for its strong
contractual commitments to
comply with EU data protection
laws regarding the
international transfer of data.
This recognition applies to
Microsofts enterprise cloud
services in particular,
Microsoft Azure, Office 365,
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and
Microsoft Intune. Learn more.

Examples of service
organizations are insurance
and medical claims processors,
hosted data centers,
application service providers,
and managed security
providers. SSAE 16 and ISAE
3402 audits are independent
verifications of compliance with
and effectiveness of security
controls.

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Attestation Engagement No.

3402 (ISAE 3402) are audit
standards established by the
American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants and the
International Auditing and
Assurance Standards Board of
the International Federation of
Accountants, respectively, and
are geared toward service
organizations typically
entities that provide
outsourcing services that affect
the control environment of
their customers.

At the conclusion of an SSAE

16/ ISAE 3402 service auditors
examination (SSAE 16 audit),
the service auditor renders an
opinion on the following
information:
Whether the service
organizations description of

10

Microsoft Intune
controls is presented fairly
Whether the service
organizations controls are
designed effectively
Whether the service
organizations controls are
placed in operation as of a
specified date
Microsofts SSAE 16/ISAE 3402
audits are conducted once per
year by an external third party
(one of the Big Four
accounting firms).
The audit report produced
includes an opinion of the
controls by the external third
party. Intune has undergone
SSAE 16 (Service Organization
Control [SOC] 1, SOC 2, SOC 3)
Type I and Type II audits. For
more information about the
standard and types of audits,
go to www.aicpa.org.
MCIO provides infrastructure
services (data centers and
networking) for both Microsoft
itself (including the Intune
service) and its customers.
MCIO is SSAE 16 (SOC 1, SOC 2,
SOC 3) Type II certified today.
The SSAE 16 report for
Microsoft Intune represents the
application layer controls for
the service. Together with the
MCIO report pertaining to the
infrastructure layer, the audit
reports provide an end-to-end
representation of controls in
place.

Health Insurance Portability

and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) Business Associate
Agreement (HIPAA BAA)
HIPAA is a U.S. law that applies
to health care entities that
governs the use, disclosure, and
safeguarding of protected
health information (PHI) and
imposes requirements on
covered entities to sign BAAs
with their vendors that use and
disclose PHI. To help Intune
customers comply with HIPAA,
Microsoft offers a HIPAA BAA
to Intune customers who have
a Volume Licensing / Enterprise
Agreement (EA).
UK Government G-Cloud
G-Cloud is a U.K. Government
initiative and Procurement
Framework to promote
government-wide adoption of
cloud computing. The G-Cloud
Framework includes a Digital
Marketplace where publicsector organizations and
eligible government-funded
independent organizations can
compare and procure cloudbased services.
Microsoft Intune is compliant
with the 14 Cloud Security
Principles, followed by a
sampled verification audit
performed by the UK
Government Digital Service
(GDS), a branch of the Cabinet
Office. Intune is available to UK
Government customers under
the latest version of the G-

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Cloud Framework (v6). As such,

UK Government customers can
utilize Intune to store and
process OFFICIAL data, which
makes up the vast majority of
UK Government data.
Intune customers throughout
the world are subject to many
different laws and regulations.
Legal requirements in one
country or industry may be
inconsistent with legal
requirements applicable
elsewhere. As a provider of
global cloud services, Microsoft
runs its services with common
operational practices and
features across multiple
jurisdictions. To help customers
comply with their own
requirements, Microsoft builds
its services with common
privacy and security
requirements in mind, and our
built-in capabilities help
customers comply with a wide
range of regulations. It is
ultimately up to customers to
evaluate our offerings against
their own requirements, so they
can determine whether Intune
satisfies their legal and
regulatory needs.

11

Microsoft Intune
Conclusion
Intune can help any business
reduce the cost and complexity
of managing PCs, mobile
devices, and applications. It can
even help businesses adapt to
entirely new scenarios, such as
BYOD. But no business can
move management into a
cloud-based service without
understanding its security
practices and technologies.
To that end, Microsoft built
Intune to meet the high bar
required to gain business
confidence and trust. Microsoft
built the service leveraging its
years of experience providing
sophisticated cloud and onpremises solutions. Intune
makes it easy for businesses to
access and use its services while
helping keep their data private
and secure in its data centers.
To learn more about Intune,
visit
http://www.microsoft.com/
intune

Additional
resources
To learn more about Intune
security in the data center, see:
Microsoft Intune Trust Center
Frequently Asked Questions
at
http://aka.ms/intunetrustcen
terfaq
Microsoft Online Services at
http://www.microsoft.com/
online
Microsoft MCIO at
http://www.microsoft.com/
datacenters
Microsoft Trustworthy
Computing at http://www.
microsoft.com/twc

MICROSOFT INTUNE PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

12

Microsoft Intune

2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This document is for informational purposes only and is provided as is. Views
expressed in this document, including URL and any other Internet Web site
references, may change without notice. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.