Terms of Use for the Microsoft 365 Cloud Services at the University of Mannheim
These terms of use inform the employees and doctoral students of the University of Mannheim about the license terms and conditions, the use and period of use as well as the relevant information on data protection and specify the data that may be used and exchanged in Microsoft 365 to create the basis for using Microsoft 365 as a collaboration tool at work. All employees and doctoral students eligible to use the services and software must comply with these terms of use.
The use of the Microsoft 365 cloud services is subject to the guideline for approved cloud services.
In addition to the provisions of the guideline for approved cloud services, the following additional terms and conditions apply to the use of the Microsoft 365 cloud services:
Please note the additional provisions applicable during leaves of absence and after transition to retirement.
License terms and conditions
Using the Microsoft services is subject to the license terms and conditions of the service provider. These license terms and conditions may be retrieved from the official Microsoft website.
Use for university purposes and end devices
The software and services may only be used for university purposes and within the scope of an employment or doctoral studies at the University of Mannheim. However, when employees or doctoral students collaborate with persons not employed by the University of Mannheim, they can invite them as guests or external participants. Office may be installed from the cloud on up to five desktop computers or notebooks, five additional tablets, and five additional mobile end devices (smartphones). This permission also applies to private end devices, however, the Microsoft services may only be used for university purposes. Please note that confidentiality of the data has to be ensured, even when using private end devices.
Period of use
Only employees or doctoral students at the University of Mannheim are eligible to use the services and software. If the user is no longer an employee or doctoral student at the University of Mannheim, all data in the user’s personal cloud storage will be deleted. Software products and university data that are used on private devices for the purpose of fulfilling work duties must be uninstalled or deleted when the employment relationship ends. Department-specific backup and storage structures have to ensure that university data required for work purposes are available at all times.
Information on data protection
When providing the Microsoft cloud services, the University of Mannheim follows the data minimization principle, which means that only the data strictly required for operating the service will be transferred to the service provider. The University of Mannheim’s information on data protection regarding the use of Microsoft 365 products is set out on the relevant data protection policy page.
Data classification
The storage and processing of data in the Microsoft 365 cloud are subject to the TLP provisions set out in the guideline for approved cloud services. Only data up to TLP green may be processed. Processing of personal data is prohibited.
Data security
Microsoft as provider fulfills the requirements (C5) of the Federal Office for Information Security for secure cloud computing. The data are processed in accordance with the state of the art (Art. 32 GDPR), and there are backups by the University of Mannheim to secure the central data storage. The data are deleted in accordance with the statutory regulations and after corresponding approval by the internal archive of the University IT.
How can I store my data with encryption?
For data encryption, we recommend the free application Cryptomator. Information on how to use this application can be found in our instructions for Cryptomator.