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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Privacy Statement

Last updated: September 2011

Microsoft is committed to protecting your privacy, while delivering software that brings you the performance, power, and convenience you desire in your personal computing. This privacy statement explains many of the data collection and use practices of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 (“CRM”), both the client-based and Online versions. It does not apply to other online or offline Microsoft sites, products, or services.

CRM allows you to build customer loyalty to drive repeat business. Used by leading companies worldwide, business solutions from Microsoft Dynamics CRM are: Flexible, with options for deployment, purchase, and access; familiar and easy to use because it works like other Microsoft products; and designed to fit your business through extensive customization and partner offerings.

Collection and Use of Your Information

When you set up and use CRM, personal information such as e-mail addresses, names, home or work addresses, and telephone numbers will be collected within CRM, and some of that information will be sent to Microsoft. This information will be used by Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates to enable the features you are using and provide the service(s) or carry out the transaction(s) you have requested or authorized. It may also be used to analyze and improve Microsoft products and services.

In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with Microsoft, information collected through one Microsoft service may be combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services. We may also supplement the information we collect with information obtained from other companies. For example, we may use services from other companies that enable us to derive a general geographic area based on your IP address in order to customize certain services to your geographic area.

Except as described in this statement, personal information you provide will not be transferred to third parties without your consent. We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as packaging, sending and delivering purchases and other mailings, answering customer questions about products or services, processing event registration, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service, and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

Microsoft may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public. We may also disclose personal information as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.

Information that is collected by or sent to Microsoft by CRM may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers maintain facilities. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland.

Collection and Use of Information About Your Computer

When you use software with Internet-enabled features, information about your computer (“standard computer information”) is sent to the Web sites you visit and online services you use. Microsoft uses standard computer information to provide you Internet-enabled services, to help improve our products and services, and for statistical analysis. Standard computer information typically includes information such as your IP address, operating system version, browser version, and regional and language settings. In some cases, standard computer information may also include hardware ID, which indicates the device manufacturer, device name, and version. If a particular feature or service sends information to Microsoft, standard computer information will be sent as well.

The privacy details for each CRM feature, software or service listed in this privacy statement describe what additional information is collected and how it is used.

Security of Your Information

Microsoft is committed to helping protect the security of your information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.

Changes to This Privacy Statement

We will occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in our products, services, and customer feedback. When we post changes, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of this statement. If there are material changes to this statement or in how Microsoft will use your personal information, we will notify you either by posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing the change or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.

For More Information

Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement or believe that we have not adhered to it, please contact us:

Microsoft Privacy
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 USA

If you have a technical or general support question, please visit http://support.microsoft.com to learn more about Microsoft Support offerings.

Specific Features for CRM Online and CRM Client-Based Versions

This section of the privacy statement addresses the following specific features for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, both the Online and client-based versions:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for Microsoft Office Outlook (“Outlook Client”) lets you track CRM-related information automatically, including e-mail, contacts, tasks, and appointments.

In order to use the Outlook Client you will be asked to sign in with your credentials (an e-mail address and password). You may choose to save this information locally so that you are not asked for your credentials each time you open Microsoft Outlook. If you choose to save this information your Outlook Client will automatically connect to CRM every time you open Microsoft Outlook.

After the first time you sign in and use the Outlook Client the connection between your computer and CRM will always be open when you have access to the Internet. This enables you to sign in to and use CRM more quickly. You may choose to turn off the connection between your computer and CRM through the Options area of the Outlook Client. If you choose to de-select this option, the Outlook Client may suffer from decreased performance.

You can use the Outlook Client to track e-mail in CRM. If you do, the e-mail thread will be visible to the users in your organization who have permission to view it. You can track your e-mail in CRM in four ways:

  • (1) Automatically tracking only the responses to the e-mails currently being tracked,
  • (2) automatically tracking all e-mail that you send and receive,
  • (3) automatically tracking only e-mails from CRM contacts, accounts, leads, etc., and
  • (4) automatically tracking all e-mail messages from CRM records that are e-mail enabled.

You can change the tracking mechanism by going to the personal settings area in the Outlook Client. Your system administrator can also set this setting for you. Option 1 is the default option – in other words, by default, only the responses to the e-mails you have chosen to track are tracked in CRM. All responses (by you and others) will be tracked until you choose to stop tracking a particular e-mail thread. Once you stop tracking an e-mail thread, the previously sent or received e-mails that were tracked in CRM will remain in CRM unless you delete them manually.

For every e-mail you receive, the Outlook Client will send CRM the sender’s e-mail address, the recipient’s e-mail address and the subject line of the message. This enables CRM to validate whether any particular mail should be stored by the CRM service. For e-mail that you, another CRM user in your organization or an administrator has chosen to track, the service will, after validating, request the Outlook Client to send the entire e-mail to CRM. E-mails created by CRM (e.g. a workflow action sending e-mail on your behalf or e-mails you sent via the CRM web application, if you choose to enable this feature) may be submitted/sent via Outlook Client.

Even if you choose not to track a particular item (e-mail, appointment, or task) in CRM, the item may still be tracked by CRM if any of the people on the sender or recipient list of that item have opted to track it. If an item is being tracked by CRM, Microsoft Outlook will display a different icon than the icon usually displayed for that type of item (e-mail, appointment, etc.).

The Outlook Client also lets you track other Microsoft Outlook items like contacts, appointments, and tasks. You may track any of the items by clicking the “Track to CRM” button on the toolbar in that item. If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007, an item may be untracked from CRM by using the same button. Once an item is tracked, a copy of that item will be maintained by the CRM service and will be visible to the other users in your organization who have right permissions. If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007, when an item is untracked, that copy is automatically deleted from the CRM service only if that item is owned by you.

The Outlook Client Laptop version lets you take your CRM data offline. The functionality can be used by clicking the button “Go Offline” on the Outlook Client toolbar in Microsoft Outlook. This functionality is not related to the connection of Microsoft Outlook with Microsoft Exchange, or your browser’s functionality.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 E-Mail Router

Like the Outlook Client, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-Mail Router (“E-mail Router”) lets you track CRM-related information automatically. The e-mail tracking functionality in the E-mail Router operates in the manner described above in the Outlook Client section. The E-mail Router also lets you send and receive e-mails via the browser-based CRM Online.

Microsoft Update

What This Feature Does:

Microsoft Update is a service that provides Windows updates as well as updates for other Microsoft software.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:

For details about what information is collected and how it is used, see the Update Services Privacy Statement at http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/privacy.aspx?ln=en-us.

Use of Information:

For details about what information is collected and how it is used, see the Update Services Privacy Statement at http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/privacy.aspx?ln=en-us.

Choice/Control:

The Preference page does not have any option selected (there are two radio buttons, one for Accept and one for Decline—neither is selected by default). Once the user has made a selection, the Next button is enabled and the user may proceed with setup. If the setup is cancelled before getting to the installation step the Microsoft Update setting is not saved. If the user completes the install, then Microsoft Update is turned on for the machine if the user selected Accept..

Since this is a machine level setting, to turn Microsoft Update off later, the system administrator can use the standard Windows preference UI for Microsoft Update. You only see Microsoft Update on the initial CRM install (again only if Microsoft Update is not currently enabled for the machine).

Customer Experience Improvement Program

You have the option of joining our Customer Experience Improvement Program to improve the quality, reliability, and performance of Microsoft software and services.

If you join, Microsoft will collect information about your hardware configuration and how you use the product to identify trends and usage patterns.

What This Feature Does:

The Customer Experience Improvement Program (“CEIP”) collects basic information about your hardware configuration and how you use our software and services in order to identify trends and usage patterns. CEIP also collects the type and number of errors you encounter, software and hardware performance, and the speed of services. We will not collect your name, address, or other contact information.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:

The feature does not collect your name, address, or any other contact information. For more information and a complete privacy statement for the Customer Experience Improvement Program, view the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. For more information about the information collected, processed, or transmitted by CEIP, see the CEIP privacy statement at http://www.microsoft.com/products/ceip/EN-US/privacypolicy.mspx.

Use of Information:

We use this information to improve the quality, reliability, and performance of Microsoft software and services.

For CRM Online it is not possible to opt out from the CEIP data collection. In the CRM client application, the administrator opts in by setting both the CEIP setting in the deployment administrator under the Properties page of the root node and the organization administration setting in Settings > Administration > Privacy > Usage Reporting tab.

Error Reporting

The Error Reporting feature allows users to report to Microsoft the errors they encounter while using the CRM client application. When an error occurs you can immediately report it to Microsoft, if you have an Internet connection. By default, you are prompted each time an error occurs to send an error report to Microsoft. In the CRM client application, under the Privacy tab of the personal settings area (select Tools > Options… and click on Privacy), you have the option to automatically send error reports to Microsoft.

Error reports may include the error description, the URL of the Web page where the error occurred, a unique identifier for your organization, the version of CRM you are using, standard computer information (see above), and your organization’s name as it is registered with CRM. Although error reports do not intentionally collect personal information, it is possible that such information may inadvertently be captured in the report. If present, Microsoft will not use this information to identify or contact you. The administrator can overwrite the error reporting setting on the client from Settings > Administration > Privacy > Error Reporting tab.

We use error reports to help improve our software and services. Microsoft employees and contractors may be provided access to error reports. If an error report indicates that one or more third-party products were involved in causing the problem, Microsoft may send the report to those third parties. However, they may use the information only to repair or improve the products that they publish or manufacture.

Help

Help for CRM Online is hosted by Microsoft as part of the subscription-based service. Help for the on-premise version of the product is hosted by the customer. When any user working with CRM for Outlook goes offline, a local copy of Help is provided from their computer.

Help for CRM Online includes code that enables Microsoft to learn about aggregate usage patterns across the content. As part of this code, a cookie may be installed on the user’s system. No personally identifiable information is collected from CRM Online users. This code is not present in the on-premise version of the product hosted by the customer, nor in the Help integrated with CRM for Outlook when offline.

Help for both CRM Online and the client application include a feedback form. This feedback form opens the user’s e-mail application and enables the user to send Microsoft feedback about the content. To provide additional support for the content that customers use, Microsoft may reply to these e-mail messages and interact with individual users. Any personally identifiable information collected from individual users will not be used to contact them for any purposes other than to provide this additional support, and to improve future versions of Help and other User Assistance.

Specific Features for CRM Online

This section of the privacy statement addresses the following specific features for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online:

Collection and Use of Your Information

We may send certain mandatory service communications such as welcome letters, billing reminders, information on technical service issues, and security announcements. Some Microsoft services may send periodic member letters that are considered part of the service. We may occasionally request your feedback, invite you to participate in surveys, or send you promotional mailings to inform you of other products or services available from Microsoft and its affiliates.

CRM Online

In order to use some of the CRM Online functionality (e.g.: Outlook Client, and dynamic export to Excel), you will be asked to sign in with your Windows Live ID credentials (an e-mail address and password—for additional information please see “Windows Live™ ID” below). You may choose to save this information locally so that you are not asked for your credentials each time you try to access CRM Online. If you choose to save this information, your CRM Online component will automatically connect to CRM Online every time you open the component.

Windows Live™ ID

To sign in to CRM Online you will be asked to enter an e-mail address and password, which we refer to as your Windows Live ID. After you create your Windows Live ID, you can use the same credentials to sign in to many different Microsoft sites and services, as well as those of select Microsoft partners that display the Windows Live ID logo. By signing in on one Microsoft site or service, you may be automatically signed in when you visit other Microsoft sites and services. To learn more about how your credential information is used when you sign in to participating sites, please read the Microsoft Online Privacy Statement at http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/fullnotice.mspx.

When you make requests to the CRM Online system, the client component authenticates under encryption with Windows Live ID (WLID), which returns a token to the client application. The encrypted request sent to the WLID server contains the credentials as described, and the token sent to the CRM server contains the user’s PUID in the form of a User Principle Name (UPN). The token is encrypted.

Display of Advertising (Opt-Out)

Many of the Web sites and online services we offer, as well as those of our partners, are supported by advertising. Through the Microsoft Advertising Platform, we may display ads on our own sites and the sites of our advertising partners.

When we display online advertisements to you, we will place a one or more persistent cookies on your computer in order to recognize your computer each time we display an ad to you. The cookies we use for advertising have an expiry date of no more than 2 years. Because we may serve advertisements on many different Web sites, we are able to compile information over time about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw and/or clicked on the advertisements we display. We use this information to make predictions about your characteristics, interests or preferences and to display targeted advertisements that we believe may be of interest to you. We may also associate this information with your subsequent visit, purchase or other activity on participating advertisers’ Web sites in order to determine the effectiveness of the advertisements.

While we may use some of the information we collect in order to personalize the ads we show you, we designed our systems to select ads based only on data that does not personally and directly identify you. For example, we may select the ads we display according to certain general interest categories or segments that we have inferred based on (a) demographic or interest data, including any you may have provided when creating an account (e.g. age, zip or postal code, gender), demographic or interest data acquired from other companies, and a general geographic location derived from your IP address, (b) the pages you view and links you click when using Microsoft’s and its advertising partners’ Web sites and services, and (c) the search terms you enter when using Microsoft’s Internet search services, such as Bing, and (d) information about the users you most frequently interact with through Microsoft’s communications or social networking services, such as Messenger. For more information about how we target ads, visit Personalized Advertising from Microsoft.

When we display personalized targeted ads, we take a number of steps designed to protect your privacy. For example, we store page views, clicks and search terms used for ad personalization targeting separately from your contact information or other data that directly identifies you (such as your name, e-mail address, etc.). Further, we have built in technological and process safeguards designed to prevent the unauthorized correlation of this data. We also give you the ability to opt-out of personalized targeted ads. For more information or to use the opt-out feature, you may visit our opt-out page. In addition, you can go to the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt-out of ad targeting from member companies. We also provide third party ad delivery through our Atlas subsidiary. For more information, visit the Atlas website at: http://www.atlassolutions.com/.

Although the majority of the online advertisements on Microsoft sites are displayed by Microsoft, we also allow third-party ad serving companies, including other ad networks, to display advertisements on our sites. These companies currently include, but are not limited to: 24/7 Real Media, aCerno Inc, AdBlade, AdConion, AdFusion, Advertising.com, Bane Media, Brand.net, CasaleMedia, Collective Media, Fox Interactive, Interclick, Millennial, PrecisionClick, ROI Media, Social Media, SpecificMedia, TrafficMarketplace, Tribal Fusion, ValueClick, and YuMe.

These companies may offer you a way to opt-out of ad targeting based on their cookies, and some of them are also members of the Network Advertising Initiative. You may find more information by clicking on the company names above and following the links to the Web sites of each company.

Use of Cookies

Microsoft Web sites use "cookies" to enable you to sign in to our services and to help personalize your online experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies contain information that can later be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to store your preferences and other information on your computer in order to save you time by eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same information and to display your personalized content and appropriate advertising on your later visits to these sites. Microsoft Web sites also use cookies as described in the Collection of your Information and Display of Advertising sections of this privacy statement.

When you sign in to a site using your Windows Live ID or Microsoft Passport Network credentials, we store your unique ID number, and the time you signed in, in an encrypted cookie on your hard disk. This cookie allows you to move from page to page at the site without having to sign in again on each page. When you sign out, these cookies are deleted from your computer. We also use cookies to improve the sign in experience. For example, your e-mail address may be stored in a cookie that will remain on your computer after you sign out. This cookie allows your e-mail address to be pre-populated, so that you will only need to type your password the next time you sign in. If you are using a public computer or do not otherwise want this information to be stored, you can select the appropriate radio button on the sign-in page, and this cookie will not be used.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use other interactive features of Microsoft sites and services that depend on cookies, and some advertising preferences that are dependent on cookies may not be able to be respected.

If you choose to accept cookies, you also have the ability to later delete cookies that you have accepted. In Internet Explorer 7, you can delete cookies by selecting “Tools”, “Delete browsing history” and clicking the “Delete Cookies” button. If you choose to delete cookies, any settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including advertising preferences, will be deleted and may need to be recreated.

Use of Web Beacons

Microsoft Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in delivering cookies on our sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

Microsoft may also employ Web beacons from third parties in order to help us compile aggregated statistics regarding the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns or other operations of our sites. We prohibit Web beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.

Finally, we may work with other companies that advertise on Microsoft sites to place Web beacons on their sites in order to allow us to develop statistics on how often clicking on an advertisement on a Microsoft site results in a purchase or other action on the advertiser's site.

User Invitation

When a new user is invited to CRM Online an invitation e-mail is sent to the new user. The invited user must then accept the invitation in CRM Online using a Windows Live ID profile that is associated with the e-mail address to which the invitation was sent.

Application for Invoicing

Microsoft uses the information you provide in the Application for Invoicing form for credit evaluation and account set up. Microsoft will not share the information you provide with third parties without your permission except where necessary to complete the services or transactions you have requested, or as required by law. Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Your personal information is never shared outside the company without your permission, except under conditions explained above.

Data Export to Microsoft Office Excel

CRM Online allows you to export your CRM data from CRM Online to Microsoft Office Excel (“Excel”). There are two different methods of exporting data: You may export data as a static worksheet, or as a dynamic worksheet/pivot table. During static export a local copy of the data being exported is created and stored on your machine. No connection is maintained between this local copy and the CRM Online Service. The data is transferred from CRM Online to your computer via secure SSL connection.

During dynamic export a link is maintained between the Excel worksheet and the CRM Online service. Every time a dynamically exported worksheet is refreshed the user opening that file will be authenticated with CRM Online using the user’s credentials. CRM Online only allows the users to see the data that they have permissions to view.

An administrator may determine whether your organization’s users are permitted to export the data to Excel by changing the users’ security roles. This can be done via the settings area in CRM Online.

Import/Export Customizations

You can import and export your CRM Online customizations to and from CRM Online. When you do so, the customizations, which may contain your name or other personal information, are transferred over an secured SSL connection between your computer and Microsoft’s servers.

Internet Lead Capture

The Internet Lead Capture feature enables you to create landing pages for your advertisements. Your landing page can collect information that has been submitted by search users via text entry fields, thus generating an internet lead. You can assign the internet lead to other users for further follow up. Internet lead capture is only available for customers with the English base language in the United States and Canada.

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