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  "description": "Starting July 2026, admins can permanently delete all People Skills data from their Microsoft 365 tenant via a new removal control. This affects skills data used in Copilot, profile cards, Viva, and more. Deletion is irreversible, admin-initiated, and supports compliance and offboarding needs.",
  "path": "/m365-message-center/message/mc1393801/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-17T00:00:06.000Z",
  "site": "https://blog.tophhie.cloud",
  "tags": [
    "People Skills",
    "565905",
    "Where does People Skills data appear",
    "our documentation",
    "Overview of People Skills | Microsoft Learn",
    "Manage your skills library in People Skills | Microsoft Learn",
    "Set up People Skills | Microsoft Learn"
  ],
  "textContent": "🚨\n\n**Major Update:** This post contains a significant change that may impact your organisation.\n\n**[What and Why:]**\n\nStarting July 2026, we're introducing a new **People Skills removal and deletion** admin control. This feature enables administrators to permanently remove all People Skills data from their tenant.\n\nThis update gives organizations greater control over their Microsoft 365 data by supporting offboarding scenarios for People Skills and helping meet enterprise data governance and compliance needs. People Skills is an AI-powered service that creates and uses skills data across Microsoft 365 experiences such as Copilot, profile cards, and Viva. Learn more about People Skills.\n\nThis message is associated with Roadmap ID 565905.\n\n**[Rollout Schedule:]**\n\nGeneral Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in **mid-July 2026** and is expected to complete by **early August 2026**.\n\n**[Impact on Your Organization:]**\n\n**Who is affected:**\n\nTenants that have already deployed People Skills and those who will deploy it in the future can use this new feature, including those with:\n\n  * People Skills Foundation service plan\n  * People Skills Advanced service plan\n  * Microsoft 365 Copilot in Productivity Apps\n\n\n\n**Platforms/Services where skills data appears:**\n\n  * Microsoft 365 profile card\n  * Microsoft 365 Copilot\n  * Viva Insights\n  * Viva Learning\n  * Org Explorer and People experiences\n\n\n\n**What will happen:**\n\n  * A new **People Skills removal and deletion** control will be available in admin settings.\n  * This feature is **admin-initiated only**.\n  * When initiated:\n    * The organization’s skills library and all associated data will be permanently deleted.\n    * All user skills (confirmed, inferred, imported) will be permanently deleted.\n    * Skills will no longer appear on profile cards.\n    * Skills data will no longer be used in Copilot, Viva Insights, or other experiences. For details, refer to: Where does People Skills data appear.\n    * Deleted data cannot be restored.\n  * **Deletion timing:**\n    * **Most data deleted within 48–72 hours**\n    * **Viva Learning data removed within up to 7 days**\n\n\n\n**[Action Required / Recommendations:]**\n\n**No immediate action is required.**\n\nIf your organization needs to remove People Skills (for example, to meet compliance or governance requirements):\n\n  * Navigate to: **Microsoft Admin Center > People Skills > Manage People Skills for your organization > Settings > People Skills removal and deletion. **Refer to our documentation for detailed instructions\n  * Review your organization’s **data retention and compliance policies** before initiating deletion.\n  * Communicate this change to relevant stakeholders (IT, compliance, helpdesk).\n  * If you plan to re-enable People Skills later:\n    * Reconfiguration is required using **Set up People Skills**.\n    * We recommend you wait at least **7 days** before re-enabling to ensure previous data is fully removed.\n    * Previously deleted data **won’t be restored**.\n\n\n\n**Learn more**\n\n  * Overview of People Skills | Microsoft Learn\n  * Manage your skills library in People Skills | Microsoft Learn\n  * Set up People Skills | Microsoft Learn\n\n\n\n**[Compliance considerations:]**\n\n**Consideration** | **Assessment**\n---|---\nDoes the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? | Introduces a tenant-level capability to permanently delete People Skills data, including skills library and user skills.\nDoes the change modify how users can access, export, delete, or correct their personal data (GDPR)? | Enables administrators to permanently delete all user skills data at the tenant level.\nDoes the change include an admin control? | New admin setting in People Skills configuration allows removal and deletion.\nDoes the change alter how admins can monitor, report on, or demonstrate compliance activities? | Depending on audit/logging coverage for deletion events, this could impact compliance tracking.\nDoes the change modify retention policies, holds, or deletion workflows? | Permanent deletion of skills data may interact with organizational retention strategies.\nDoes the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML capabilities interacting with customer data? | Removing People Skills data impacts AI-driven experiences (e.g., Copilot skill-based insights).",
  "title": "MC1393801: People Skills: New admin setting to delete skills data",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-17T00:00:06.273Z"
}