SahwaTeams’ invasive Wi‑Fi tracking sparks backlash as users say Microsoft crossed a line — “There must be a team at Microsoft tasked with making Teams worse”
DevolutionProbably the same pick me they put in charge of Xbox.
fyf
DaveThey have achieved higher productivity by not using teams themselves.
TheTechnician27You’ve got it reversed. Switching to Teams greatly hastened development, as the team’s newfound vitriol and frustration could be channeled toward the end user in a neverending feedback loop.
Literally! They were told to return to office to achieve higher productivity (it was circling the news around September?)
It was obviously just a corpo stealth layoff but imagine being told as a Teams developer that Teams is not good enough for remote work
Zoom literally did this already
forbes.com/…/zoom-gave-up-on-remote-work---but-re…
But zoom sucks worse than Teams so I don’t blame them
Yes they had an all hands Teams Meeting to say that the Teams Team could no longer work on Teams using Teams remotely from home. Now they need to be part of a team by working in Teams on Teams remotely all over the world from a corporate location.
Morphit I read this in the Denholm Reynholm voice: youtube.com/watch?v=ejjtlnZOdgo
IT Crowd - Team
yaeh… team Microsoft…
They are called stakeholders.
Honestly, I would screen potential employers by whether they are a Microsoft shop or not. Fuck ‘em.
colei thought the same, but now working at a place using google/slack isn’t much better.
artyomThis is what I gathered on the subject, feel free to correct if anything is wrong:
The WiFi tracking works by scanning for nearby WiFi networks, identifying which routers are nearby and their signal strengths, matching those against their database of known WiFi access points, and using that data to estimate your location.
For now the feature will be off by default, first has to be enabled by your company, and then the user has to opt in for it to be used.
For those who are required to use Microsoft products, it can by bypassed by using a wired Ethernet connection and not using Teams on any devices using a wireless connection.
same go for the web browser based teams, or is this just the “app”?
The browser version shouldn’t be able to access this info.
Unlikely, browser vendors are very careful adding such APIs, and MS doesn’t have the pull Google does.
A simple fix is, of course, not to use Edge.
So basically the same every Android phone does. Google had done this kind of tracking since 2007
Windows itself already does this type of tracking to determine your time zone.
Yes but now it reports to your employer.
I don’t see the uproar for this.
The issue is your employees trying to force RTO. Whether this goes through or is cancelled - your employer will still want to track your RTO.
The only solution, if you are privileged enough, is to work somewhere else.
I look forward to this feature being deployed in hospitals. It’s going to fail so hard and generate so many tickets.
Why?
Is it important that their team’s location be up to date?
Surely a hospital has better methods for tracking independently of teams
That doesn’t at all match the documentation.
The organization will configure a list of Wi-Fi SSIDs. When your device connects to one of those, the Teams location would be updated to “in the office”.
That’s it. No complex triangulation, no pinpoint locating. Just “are you connected to the office network or not”.
Also, if you don’t want to be tracked in this way, just don’t participate. If your organization sets a policy to opt you in automatically, click the option to opt out. If they give the offer to opt in, just don’t.
I know it’s hip to hate on Microsoft, but we should at least discuss things based on the truth, not wild assumptions and misinformation.
Thanks for the clarification. I wrongly assumed Microsoft was using Wi-Fi positioning systems (which is used for geolocation, just not in this particular case) instead of reading their documentation.
I’ll update the comment.
I also don’t think most workplaces are going to punish you for opting out of this feature even if organizational policy requires it to be enabled.
Please add _nomap to the end of your SSID (the name of your wifi network) if you don’t want Google to use it in their tracking mechanisms.
Please add _optout anywhere in your SSID if you don’t want Microsoft to use it in their tracking mechanisms.
If your SSID is Network change it to Network_optout_nomap
Ridiculous as fuck, but that’s what they came up with. I have no idea what other services use to block their Wifi collectors, but these 2 are very prominent anyway.
Having Teams remind you that, during session recordings, your video and what you say can be used by Microsoft for what purpose they want, including (but not limited to) training AI.
This wasn’t the line that was crossed? Seeing/hearing your likeness in the next generated AI / copilot commercial, because you needed to consent in order to work. This is “fine” /s
… but having Microsoft know that you’re answering Teams messages while on the toilet… yeah, that’s where “the line gets crossed” (eyeroll)
We need to wake-up and drop this technological cancer.
tourist“It’s okay, because it’s Microsoft” is management’s response when I raise a concern at work.
Heaven forbid you use an open source tool that isn’t on the software whitelist yet
“It’s okay, because it’s Microsoft”
"You mean the mass surveillance corporation now under the control of the nazis?
Big TTeams comes pre installed with windows these days.
I recommend KDE Plasma on any linux distribution that comes with it for people interested in recovering their digital sovereignty.
If people moved to Linux and used FOSS software, these privacy violations wouldn’t even be a problem.
If people moved to Linux
When users connect to their organization’s WiFi…
You think my employer would let me use Linux? Creeping on employees is how management feels important.
I wouldn’t use Teams personally unless under extreme duress. Unfortunately professionally it is the norm.
Disable your laptop webcam and microphone, use headset instead. I’ll be looking to see if I can switch to Teams web.
I remember how a subcontractor’s company called me with a lot of private information I assume the subcontractor had spoken to them about. The subcontractor had no clue about it, which completely changed how I had been perceiving the situation. The problem is companies are using the excuse of keeping tabs on their workers to perform outright continuous surveillance on them and try to see how they can exploit any and all information they can salvage for their benefit, which becomes a problem when there is no clear division between personal and professional space.
Yeah, of course.
RivalarrivalFor the next year or so.
State law in California (and soon, Colorado), as well as UK and EU laws, are beginning to require OSs to spy on users and developers. Privacy-focused Linux and FOSS software will soon be deemed illegal in these jurisdictions. Which will make it a liability for companies, and force them back to shitty commercial offerings.
Appoxo
AnafabulaYou can’t even install it on Linux, they killed the native app years ago and now tell you to use the browser version
The Linux client never worked in my experience anyway. In no coincidence, their Teams in browser never seemed to work in Linux either until a little after they killed the native app. I wonder if there were enough important clients that needed support for it and they caved and made it work.
Of course there is, this guy leads it
A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
Digital products and services keep getting worse. In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council ha...
lumettaria“Tenant admins will decide whether to enable it and require end-users to opt-in.”
If you require someone to opt-in, they’re no longer “opting in”
But you clicked the terms and conditions popup, so you are our slave now.
Corporations have done this for decades. Literally.
This entire thread is “tell me you’ve never worked with an ocio in operations” without saying the words. Clearly none of you work in technology and probably screech every time there is a big privacy breach. Location contextual requests are basic shit that nearly every company dealing with any sort of technology compliance does.