UITS SharePoint Online services acceptable use agreement

• About the agreement
• Usage responsibilities
• Sanctions
• Assent

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About the agreement

SharePoint Online services are integral to the operation of the university, and security and privacy laws and other institutional policies protect much of the information. Therefore, to be granted access, first read and agree to follow these acceptable usage standards, and accept responsibility to preserve the security and confidentiality of information that you store, post, or access.

SharePoint Online services are designed to facilitate appropriate access to information and to foster collaboration at Indiana University. They may also replace a unit's file server as the official storage location for unit documents. Use of these services requires thoughtful analysis, planning, and, in many cases, governance and oversight by the management of the relevant unit, in much the same way that a unit would manage a local file server.

For this reason, your request may be forwarded to your unit IT management or SharePoint administrator. They may provide a site to you from within their pre-existing site collection or they may pass the request back to UITS as a request for a stand-alone site.

Usage responsibilities

You agree to:

• Learn about your unit's SharePoint architecture by consulting with your local IT provider and/or unit administration prior to building a site.
• Abide by your unit's designated SharePoint architecture for all work in support of unit business.
• Configure the site to provide access to your supervisor or other unit administration, as determined by your unit.
• Understand the Classification levels of institutional data and maintain the appropriate safeguards to protect the data.
• Continuously monitor your security settings to make sure you are exposing information to only the intended audience.
• Understand the backup and recovery strategy of SharePoint Online. Instead of regular backups, SharePoint Online offers file versioning and a recycle bin. If this strategy does not meet your data retention needs, then you may need to take additional action. For more about file versioning and file, subsite, and site restores, search Microsoft 365 Help and Training.
• Abide by the responsibilities outlined in the Acceptable Use Agreement for access to technology and information resources at IU.
• Adhere to established university information and technology policies and guidelines, available at Information & IT Policies.
• Be responsible for any sub-sites created under this site.

Sanctions

IU deals seriously with failure to uphold these standards. Violators can face disciplinary procedures in accordance with university policy, including sanctions relating to use of information or IT resources (such as suspension or termination of access, or removal of online material); employment (up to and including immediate termination of employment); or studies within the university (such as student discipline). Illegal acts involving IU information or IT may also be subject to prosecution by state or federal authorities and may result in civil or criminal liability.

Assent

Although UITS applies technical controls to the SharePoint environment, users are responsible for configuring their sites and managing their data appropriately. You are required to accept these responsibilities and standards of acceptable use. By accepting these terms, you agree to follow these rules in all of your interactions with the SharePoint Online service.

If you choose not to accept these standards of behavior, you may be denied access to the service.