How does Einstein Activity Capture work and what are its sync and exclusion settings?

Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) automatically logs emails and calendar events between a connected email/calendar account (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) and Salesforce records, reducing manual data entry. Key configuration:

1. Connected Accounts: Each user connects their email/calendar in their personal settings; admins can deploy connections org-wide via a configuration in Setup.
2. Sync Settings: Control direction — Salesforce to email/calendar, email/calendar to Salesforce, or bidirectional — separately for events and contacts.
3. Sharing Settings: Activities captured by EAC are stored in a separate data store (not standard Activity object) by default; enabling the "Share Activities" setting makes them visible on record timelines to other users.
4. Exclude Rules: Admins configure email/domain exclusions (e.g., internal company domain, personal emails) so private or irrelevant communications are not logged.
5. EAC does not create editable Task/Event records by default — use Inbox or custom flows for writeback if needed.