SharePoint Online: private vs public office 365 groups in SharePoint online site

SharePoint Online: Discover private vs public office 365 groups in SharePoint online site security

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Discover private vs public office 365 groups on SharePoint online site โ€“ when we create a SharePoint modern team site, we can see the โ€œPrivate groupโ€ or โ€œPublic groupโ€ tag beneath the site name (example below). In this article, I will explain what these are โ€œPrivate groupsโ€ or โ€œPublic groupsโ€ are in the modern SharePoint Online team site.

Key Highlights: Private vs Public office 365 groups

  • What is the โ€œPrivate โ€“ Office 365 groupโ€?
  • What is the โ€œPublic โ€“ Office 365 groupโ€?
  • What is the difference between private and public groups in office 365 (Public vs Private Groups)?
  • How to change privacy settings in office 365 โ€“ in the modern SharePoint team site?

Private group tag in modern SharePoint Online team site:

We can see the โ€œPrivate groupโ€ tag just under the site name.

Private group tag in the modern SharePoint Online team site
Private group tag in the modern SharePoint Online team site

Public group tag in modern SharePoint Online team site:

We can see the โ€œPublic groupโ€ tag just under the site name.

Public group tag in modern SharePoint Online team site
The Public group tag in the modern SharePoint Online team site

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Why do we see the โ€œPrivate groupโ€ or โ€œPubic groupโ€ beneath the SharePoint team site name (SharePoint site Public vs Private)?

Well, these are privacy settings applied during creating the SharePoint modern team site โ€“ in the โ€œGet a team site connected to Office 365 Groupsโ€ screen, we have the option to select โ€œPrivacy settingsโ€ under the โ€œAdvanced settingsโ€ section.

We can have the below โ€œPrivacy settingsโ€:

  • Public โ€“ anyone in the organization can access this site.
  • Private โ€“ only members can access this site.

Note:

  • By default office 365ย  privacy setting is โ€œPrivate โ€“ only members can access this siteโ€. as the name implies, meaning no one can join the office 365 group until the group owner(site owner)ย  allow them to in, on the other hand in a public group anyone can join to the group without group owner approval โ€“ meaning, any member can join and have Add/Edit/Delete access to all the assets of an Office 365 Group (SharePoint Site, Planner, Calendar, Teams) but this access cannot be granted to anyone without group owner approval in case private group.

Get a team site connected to Office 365 Groups - Privacy settings

Get a team site connected to Office 365 Groups โ€“ Privacy settings

Private vs Public office 365 groups (SharePoint site public vs private) โ€“ description

Details description about the Office 365 public and private group (office 365 public vs private group)

SharePoint Online: private vs public office 365 groups in SharePoint online site
SharePoint Online: private vs public office 365 groups on SharePoint online site

Private Office 365 group

The private group suggests that the current site (above the Custom Search RND) is permission restricted by your tenant and only those who have been granted access to this site can view the contents.

Basically what it means is the Group Owners control access to an Office 365 Group. You as a user or employee wonโ€™t be able to join or access the site until the group owners let you into the group or grant access to the site. As a best practice, the majority of the sites from your tenant will be Private.ย 

Public Office 365 group

As the name implies it is public to all employees in your tenant โ€“ who can join the group without the group ownerโ€™s permission. Any member can join and have Add/Edit/Delete access to all the assets of an Office 365 Group (SharePoint Site, Planner, Calendar, Teams). As a result, anyone can access this site from your organization.ย 

How to change privacy settings in office 365 โ€“ in the modern SharePoint team site (change privacy settings office 365)?

By now we have learned about what is the โ€œPrivate groupโ€ and โ€œPublic groupโ€ in the office 365 modern SharePoint Online team site. Due to some business reasons, if we want to change the privacy settings in office 365 what can we do? So, in this section, we will see how to change privacy settings in office 365 โ€“ on the modern SharePoint team site.

We can change the Privacy settings of a team site via Settings > Site information > Privacy settings.

How to change privacy settings in office 365 - in the modern SharePoint team site?
How to change privacy settings in office 365 โ€“ in the modern SharePoint team site?

Note:

These โ€œPrivate groupsโ€ or โ€œPublic groupsโ€ tags only appear in the modern SharePoint team sites, they will not appear on a communication site.

Summary: Private vs Public Office 365 groups (SharePoint site Public vs Private)

Thus, in this article โ€“ we have learned the below with respect to โ€œPrivate groupsโ€ or โ€œPublic groupsโ€ in the Office 365 privacy settings:

  • What is the โ€œPrivate โ€“ Office 365 groupโ€?
  • What is the โ€œPublic โ€“ Office 365 groupโ€?
  • What is the difference between private and public groups in office 365 (Public vs Private Groups)?
  • How to change privacy settings in office 365 โ€“ in the modern SharePoint team site?

See Also: SharePoint Online tutorial

You may also like the following SharePoint tutorials:

Download SharePoint Online PDF Book

Download SharePoint Online & Office 365 Administration eBook

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