My head is recovering from something of a pivot.

You see, a couple of weeks ago Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared, in an interview with the Financial Times, that Teams could soon be a digital platform as important as the internet browser. Yes, Microsoft Teams.

This startled me a touch. The world seems to have moved rather quickly of late.

I thought of all those working-from-home employees, real people who have been thrust onto Teams. I wondered if they like it. I also wondered just how much it records what they do.

You see, this became an especially poignant issue when Microsoft slipped into a puddle of controversy with its 365 Productivity Score feature — since modified — one that seemed to rate individual employees for their alleged output.

So I scuttled off to find details of how Teams captures data and delivers it to customers — and to look at the nuances from the perspective of employees.

Teaming With Information.

As far back as June, Microsoft explained in somewhat legalistic terms that it’s happily recording so much Teams activity for the benefit of employers and it’s up to them what they do with it.

Sample wording from Redmond’s fine lawyers: “Our customers are controllers for the data provided to Microsoft, as set forth in the Online Services Terms, and they determine legal bases of processing.”

From what I could see, Teams hoovers up all your chats, voicemails, shared meetings, files, transcriptions, your profile details including your email address and phone number, and a detailed analysis of what you were wearing on the call. (I may have made up that last one.)

Cut to September and Microsoft offered a little more about the Teams Activity Report (since updated). Here’s a sentence that’s unsurprising but still a touch uncomfortable: “The table gives you a breakdown of usage by user.”