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Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

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Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#231

Post by inkyoto »

tw04 wrote: post #191
miki123211 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who completely misunderstand the value of friction, and those who depend on friction too heavily; GP clearly falls into the former group. This feature provides value because it increases friction. It won't stop really determined and motivated users from leaking, but it'll make leaks, especially accidental leaks / those due to hacks, a lot less common. The same applies…

I work in security. I have had customers request this feature. I have asked them to do an anonymous survey of users to ask what action they would take if they were blocked from taking screenshots and users universally say they’d take a picture of their screen with their phone. I don’t underestimate friction, I just know even my grandma would reach for her camera for a picture of her screen and she doesn’t even know w…

> I would FAR prefer recording who took a screenshot than blocking it as a presenter.

It would be surprising if Teams does not already capture that kind of event in its user activity event trail[0].

The amount of privacy-invasive capturing and reporting that Teams does is so staggering that it can probably rival surveillance that of North Korea on its own citizens.

[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/activi...

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#232

Post by dheerajvs »

asadotzler wrote: post #82
johnnyo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This feature will be available on Teams desktop applications (both Windows and Mac) and Teams mobile applications (both iOS and Android)." Seems like it’s even easier, just join the meeting via browser. I’m not familiar with a way to enforce this type of restriction in the browser.

Browser DRM like WideVine and PlayReady do the enforcing

I've disabled DRM on my Firefox browser.

Sheesh, we've come to a state where browsers can no longer be referred to as "user agents".

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#233

Post by AStonesThrow »

It's sort of amazing how there is a flood of replies in this thread from people who would never hesitate to override/bypass the protection by using "the analog hole" or some other workaround.

And this just goes to show you how easily "Shadow IT" can arise in a place of business.

My previous employer subscribed to Google Workspaces, and we used it for Docs and Sheets and Gmail; standard type uses. We also used Slack a lot. Now there were a lot of areas that were clearly off-limits to me as a user. For example, the Google Play Store was completely empty for my account -- I couldn't install any mobile apps at all. This hindered me from creating a separate user on my smartphone just for work.

Also, entire Google properties were off-limits, such as Maps. We didn't need or use those in our work there. There was a lot locked down, but there were a lot of things left open around the edges.

Now I have a "hacker mindset" where if something isn't working, I'll immediately consider it a glitch or bug, and try to work around it. If I can't sign in to something it's probably a "me" problem and I hammer on the door a bit. Basically the last thing on my mind is security restrictions. And for many of us working with computers, there's just the question of the supervisor asking us to get something done, and we go and try to do it, and that's how rogue WAPs show up in corporate networks; that's how backdoors show up on our desktop PCs, etc.

Indeed, many features on Android or Chrome these days are removed due to security trouble. I often realize this after-the-fact, when I think about the implications of using such a feature. Sure, it's a good thing the product is made more secure, but this feature has vanished, usually without adequate explanation, and so my workflow suffers.

https://m.xkcd.com/1172/

So the next time I am tempted to just do a workaround for some glitch I perceive, I'm going to ponder it a little more deeply and consider whether there are security implications.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#234

Post by chii »

lolinder wrote: post #156
cma wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, there are threat models that won't be stopped here Like running windows in a VM or using an HDMI capture card. And are they going to break running teams meetings when using moonlight etc. with this? If you are OBS capturing during the meeting does it get blacked out or just breaks your recording?

You don't need to elaborate on mechanisms for bypassing because you're already imagining a threat actor that is out of scope. This is primarily about blocking accidental leaks by regular employees who were asked to not record but ignored it. This kind of reuse of content happens all the time in companies of any significant size and isn't entirely stopped by simple requests or watermarks. This tool gives companies one…

> regular employees who were asked to not record

i think this should not be possible to be asked.

For example, an employee might want to record to cover their own ass (e.g., if being asked to do some morally questional things, which the employee could record then use as protection against the company going back on their word).

Having the ability to _control_ whether an employee can keep records independently of the company only serves to move more control away from the employee.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#235

Post by avs733 »

Aurornis wrote: post #200
tw04 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it’s literally the dumbest feature ever. There’s absolutely nothing preventing a user from pulling out their phone and taking a picture of any slide they want. Or having a camera recording the whole session out of view of their webcam. It is security theater at its peak.

I think it’s funny that so many of these comments assume the person clicking the “enable screenshot protection” checkbox will be unaware that participants might have camera phones. It’s equally funny to read the comments imagining participants with elaborate pre-built workarounds like hidden pinhole cameras or pre-configured HDMI splitters going into full-screen video capture on another system. The people using this…

The funniest part to me is these comments exclude something even more basic: joining a teams meeting on your phone. Notice the platforms mentioned ITA?

I regularly, as do many of the people here, join meetings from my phone. I often do so so I can squeeze a run in. I especially do so in the types of all hands or large meetings where I’m in listen only mode and things are shared that would be hard to trace back to any individual in the room.

I’m not carrying a second phone to take a picture of a slide - but I regularly take screenshots in those meetings to remind myself of something or to show someone when bitching.

The relevant xkcd here is decryption by wrench (538) - the problem being solved is not battling 1337 hackers, it’s herding normally distributed loan officers at a mid regional bank.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#236

Post by avs733 »

Derbasti wrote: post #218
fifticon wrote: post #12

Interesting how this will stop me from taking a picture with my mobile phone. The amount of effort people will go to, to make people's work more cumbersome. I am not screenshotting for espionage, I am screenshotting to accomplish my job.

Could you trivially circumvent this by running Teams in the browser?

>to Android, desktop, iOS, and *web users* worldwide in July 2025.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#237

Post by Aeolun »

stevage wrote: post #165
Aeolun wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s because what the users want isn’t actually being secure. They want to be able to say they did everything in their power to stop people from capturing sensitive info. It’s all about diffusing that responsibility.

It reduces the risk, it doesn't completely eliminate it, and that's fine. Not everything was to be 100%.

I think I’m just fundamentally against any corporate functionality that reduces the employees to grade schoolers.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#239

Post by luke727 »

tw04 wrote: post #123
Aurornis wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All these are due to laws and regulations that are there to protect the big companies and don’t take into consideration users This feature is not due to laws and regulations. The user in this case is the presenter who clicks the button to enable screenshot protection on their meeting. This is Microsoft trying to deliver a feature their users want , not laws and regulations making them do something their users don’t…

But it’s literally the dumbest feature ever. There’s absolutely nothing preventing a user from pulling out their phone and taking a picture of any slide they want. Or having a camera recording the whole session out of view of their webcam. It is security theater at its peak.

> But it’s literally the dumbest feature ever.

My company recently configured Slack for mobile to disallow copying text.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#240

Post by no_time »

waltbosz wrote: post #122

I wonder how it will work. The article sounds like it just overrides the print screen button. But what about screen recording apps like OBS? Seems like Teams would need to inject some code deep into the os to block that.

Windows does have an API for this that is not tied to the DRM protected video path I think.

My guess comes from the fact that KeepassXC turns black/totally transparent when viewed through a VNC server on windows.

Edit: here it is https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/...

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