Are you in the office or not?
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Oh dear — Microsoft has some bad news for millions of employees the world over, and it’s an object lesson for big tech: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
A simple Microsoft 365 Roadmap update will now generate a raft of unhappy headlines. The idea is simple. “When users connect to their organization’s Wi-Fi, Teams will automatically set their work location to reflect the building they are working in.”
Forget the locational anonymity of a Teams virtual background. Teams will update your location when connected to your company’s WiFi. On video, you may have your usual background complete with company logo. But your boss will know you’re not in work.
Conversely, if you are in work and fancied some quiet time without interruption, Tech Radar which spotted the overreach, warns “trying to get some peace in the office to get some work done might soon be a thing of the past.”
Location data is the gorilla in the cage when it comes to sensitive data collection. And while on the surface it’s easy to use WiFi to detect when an employee is logged into the system as well as the building they’ve logged in from, pulling this data into Teams in such a way as to present it to others could create some awkward conversations.
Microsoft has already warned this type of monitoring is now rolling out. “When you connect to peripherals in a bring your own device (BYOD) room or at a bookable desk, your workplace presence in Teams will automatically be set to the building level”
Per Windows Reports, “we can tell that Microsoft is aiming to make collaboration more seamless by ensuring colleagues always know where team members are working from.’”
Microsoft says this will rollout from December. “Once released,” Windows Report says, “it will be available for Teams users on both Windows and Mac worldwide.”
Just in time for the holidays.
