When to Create a Public or Private Microsoft Team

 

What is a Public Team?

A public team is a team that everyone in the organization (including students) can see and join without approval from the owner.  When a user joins, they will have access to all parts of the team – conversations, public channels, folders and files, and SharePoint site.

What is it good for?

Since everything is accessible by everyone, you should consider creating a public team:

  • When there won’t be sensitive data that could cause a data breach (personal information about employees, students, donors, etc.)
  • For educational purposes and sharing knowledge
  • When there is a common interest in a specific topic

The most significant advantage of a public team is collaboration, but you need to be careful as everyone can see everything.

 

What is a Private Team?

Private Teams are permission-based. Users can join only after the team owner lets them in. Private team membership is controlled in one of two ways: Team owners can add members, or another member can invite others to join.  A request is sent to the team owner who needs to approve it.  Users cannot see private Teams when they go to the “Join or create a team“ inside Microsoft Teams.

 

What is it good for?

As private teams can be accessed only by members and owners, they are more secure. You consider using a private team:

  • When there will be sensitive data not allowed to be seen by everyone
  • For working on a project with specific people, both from the organization and outside the organization.
  • For different departments across the organization

 

 

We hope that this helps to explain this important difference between public and private teams and how they should be used.