eDiscovery Premium: Teams Chat & Private Channel Search – Detailed Instruction Manual

Introduction

Microsoft Teams integrates communication with chatting, meeting and file sharing, making it a one-stop solution for business communication. eDiscovery Premium, which is a component of Microsoft Purview, comes with powerful features to monitor, store and export data from Teams for legal, regulatory, or internal investigations that organizations conduct.

This guide covers:

Integration of eDiscovery Premium with Microsoft Teams

Restoration of deleted and archived chats

Relevant compliance and legal requirements

By the end of the guide, you will learn how to leverage eDiscovery Premium for data discovery on Teams to comply with necessary legal and regulatory checks.

How eDiscovery Premium Works with Microsoft Teams

1. Understanding eDiscovery Premium

eDiscovery Premium is one of the features of Microsoft Purview, created with the intent to facilitate eDiscovery with business communications. With eDiscovery Premium, an organization is able to:

Conduct searches on private channels, Teams chats and shared files.

Place legal holds on data to protect it from being tampered with.

Provide data in legally acceptable formats for submission during a trial or hearing if needed.

What Information May Be Found in Teams?

eDiscovery Premium has a wide array of supported data types in Teams, including:

Messages in channels (both private and standard)

Chat messages in groups and one-on-one sessions

Messages that have been deleted or modified (if retention settings are enabled)

Documents and files exchanged within chat sessions (available in SharePoint and OneDrive)

Meeting conversations and their recordings (provided they are retained)

How eDiscovery Premium Uses Teams Data

Steps include:
A. Setting Up a Case in the Compliance Portal
Go to Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal > eDiscovery Premium.
Create a new case such as “Legal Investigation – Employee Departure.”

1. Assigning Custodians and Data Sources
   Assign custodians (users whose data is relevant).
   Specify collections (Teams chat, SharePoint, and Exchange).
2. Performing Advanced Searches
   Utilize KQL for specific searches.
   Refine criteria by:
   Date ranges
   Participants
   Types of messages (chat and channel messages)
   Messages with files
3. Export and Review Results
   Results can be filtered prior to exporting.
   Export in PST files (for emails and chats)
   Documents in her native formats, and
   Load files for document review tools such as Relativity™ Legal-ready files: documents prepared for submission

Retrieving Deleted and Archived Chats in Teams

1. Chat Retention Default Setting in Teams
   Deleted chat messages are available for recovery for 21 days at the user level.
   They are irrecoverable after 21 days if there are no retention settings in place.
2. The Process of Recovering Deleted Chats using eDiscovery Premium

For compliance and legal reasons, eDiscovery Premium is capable of recovering supposedly “deleted” chats if:

Retention Policies for Microsoft 365 are set. Legal hold has been placed on user(s).

Steps to Recover Deleted Teams Chats

Check Retention Policies:

Navigate to Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal > Data Lifecycle Management.

Confirm a retention policy is enabled for Teams data.

Apply a Legal Hold:

In eDiscovery Premium, place a legal hold on custodians.

This stops permanent deletion.

Use eDiscovery to search with date ranges and prolific “soft-deleted” items.

Inclusion of soft-deleted items in the search scope is necessary.

1. Challenges of Restoring Deleted chats

Without a retention policy in place, deleted chats older than 21 days are completely unrecoverable.

Some messages such as ephemeral messages like “Meet Now” chats may not be stored.

Messages from third-party applications such as Slack and Zoom integrations may not be documented.

Legal and Compliance Approaches

1. Regulatory and Legal Obligations

Organizations are obliged to follow:

EU GDPR – Right to erase and access personal information. SEC/FINRA (Financial Industry) – Keeping of business correspondence. HIPAA (Health Sector) – Safe keeping of confidential and sensitive patient information.

1. Compliance Fundamentals with eDiscovery Premium

Legal Hold

Stops the alteration or destruction of data (even when users erase chats).

Holds can be added to certain members, groups, or entire Teams.

1. Audit Logging

In Microsoft 365, all eDiscovery activities are captured in the audit log.

This maintains a chain of custody for legal provability.

1. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Data can only be accessed by specific roles such as eDiscovery Managers and Compliance Officers.

Sensitive chats will not be accessible to unauthorized users.

1. Best Practices for Compliance

1. Proactive Retention Policies

Create default retention policies for Teams.

Example: Retain all Teams chats for 7 years to maintain financial compliance.

1. Employee Awareness & Training

Inform users that Teams chats are subject to eDiscovery.

Develop policies on the appropriate use of business communications.

1. Regular eDiscovery Testing

Carry out test searches to validate that the policies will function as intended.

Check the application of legal holds.

1. Potential Legal Risks

Failure to Preserve Data: Legal sanctions such as spoliation might become a concern.

Over-Retention: Keeping data that does not need to be retained heightens privacy risks.

Unauthorized Access: Breaching access to employee chats can infringe on labor rights.

Conclusion

Microsoft eDiscovery Premium is an invaluable resource for organizations seeking to manage, search, and export Teams data for legal and compliance purposes. Important reminders include:

✅ eDiscovery Premium allows detailed searching of Teams chats, private channels, and associated files.

✅ If retention policies and legal holds are in place, deleted chats can be recovered.

Compliance, as framed in legislation, stipulates that policies including retention schedules and access control must be implemented proactively.

For companies in legally regulated sectors, enforcing strong eDiscovery workflows is more than just a best practice; it is a legal requirement. Organizations can ensure compliance and at the same time have good data governance by using the tools offered with Microsoft Purview.

Next Steps

Check retention policies for meetings in Teams for the required compliance.

Educate IT and legal staff on the eDiscovery Premium workflow training guide.

Confirm your configuration by attempting to restore deleted chat messages.

These measures will enable your organization to confidently address the legal and regulatory dependencies regarding data held within Teams.