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Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

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Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#141

Post by SoftTalker »

alistairSH wrote: post #107

Assuming your office has entry gated with a badge (which I assume most do in 2026), don't they already know when you're physically at the office? Heck, my employer's entry system was already coupled to my phone's location (optional, but meant I didn't have to reserve a desk manually). So, I already looked like I was coming to the office on weekends because the grocery store is next door. EDIT: not to mention Teams al…

Yep there are so many ways an employer can know if you're coming to the office or not, if they really care.

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#142

Post by scottyah »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #124
bnchrch wrote: post #99

I truly believe our industry needs to elevate our own anti-awards, like others have (Razzies, Worst Game of the Year, etc.) to shame those responsible for building the regressive tech that corporations and governments push. There's already the Big Brother Awards [0] and EFF's smattering of Worst Government and Worst Data Breach articles each year. [1] But I think we need more. Personally I would love to nominate: - M…

We are way past shame being an effective tool to regulate behavior.

It just has to come from people they care about. These days random people will try to shame you for so many things it's just overload.

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#143

Post by re-lre-l »

In my opinion, if I want to install any work-related software on my personal devices, it means I’m so excited about the job that I honestly don’t care whether a manager sees where and what I’m doing - just as a manager usually doesn’t care either. I mean, there’s no reason at all to install anything on personal devices unless you actually care about the business.

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#144

Post by EvanAnderson »

ablob wrote: post #108
semiquaver wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what building you're in at the office This makes no sense. Every multi-building campus I’ve ever seen uses the same SSID for all APs across buildings.

For meshed networks there is a secondary ID (with a name I do not know) that is used to distinguish between APs, since your device should only talk to at most one AP at a time. It wouldn't be surprising if they used that for finding the location, but marketing sells it as SSID matching as the people they want to sell it to are most likely not experts in networking.

The ESSID (Extended Service Set Identifier) is the human-readable thing you see. There is an underlying BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier) that includes the unique identifier for the AP (its MAC address) your mobile unit is associated with.

On Windows you can see this (from an elevated context and, in newer versions, with location services enabled) by running: "netsh wlan show interfaces"

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#145

Post by OtomotO »

bnchrch wrote: post #99

I truly believe our industry needs to elevate our own anti-awards, like others have (Razzies, Worst Game of the Year, etc.) to shame those responsible for building the regressive tech that corporations and governments push. There's already the Big Brother Awards [0] and EFF's smattering of Worst Government and Worst Data Breach articles each year. [1] But I think we need more. Personally I would love to nominate: - M…

https://scheisstool.de/site/

Should issue the award!

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#146

Post by gruez »

kotaKat wrote: post #132
bri3d wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I couldn't find any sources that weren't rage-bait either. Honestly, to me the feature seems so incredibly low-functionality that I'm surprised they're pushing it forward after all of the controversy it's generated. Like, sure, it might be nice to see if someone was out to lunch or in Building 17 or whatever without needing to message them, but at the cost of the whole "teams is spying on you" narrative and yuc…

Hell, if you're using Teams PSTN calling, your location has to be pulled in by Teams for e911 compliance anyways down to the building. It updates automatically already, even!

What happens if you deny location permissions? Why doesn't every other VOIP app require your live location, and instead are fine with a random address you manually entered?

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#147

Post by kubeliv »

ablob wrote: post #108
semiquaver wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what building you're in at the office This makes no sense. Every multi-building campus I’ve ever seen uses the same SSID for all APs across buildings.

For meshed networks there is a secondary ID (with a name I do not know) that is used to distinguish between APs, since your device should only talk to at most one AP at a time. It wouldn't be surprising if they used that for finding the location, but marketing sells it as SSID matching as the people they want to sell it to are most likely not experts in networking.

They could use the BSSID, which is unique per physical access point.

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#148

Post by storus »

It seems like the worst practices from Trilogy/Crossover are leaking all over the industry. First the crunch at all times at FAANG, next tracking everyone in a few minute intervals, ending up with real-time video tracking at all times, all spawned by the desire of inept top management to run software development as a manual factory with predictable assembly lines and not an intellectual pursuit.

Re: Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

#149

Post by uean »

bri3d wrote: post #11

Here's the actual "roadmap" feature (scroll to the bottom where the filtered list is): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?search... The actual feature brief is: "When users connect to their organization's Wi-Fi, Teams will soon be able to automatically update their work location to reflect the building they're working from. This feature will be off by default. Tenant admins will decide whether to e…

Working on the systems/security/infrastructure side, we can already do this. Endpoint management systems already report wifi-ssid, internal-IP, whether you are using a vpn to try and hide info. SASE/ZTNA solutions provide location data, username, device used, connection details. Conditional access policies in the tenant already do checks against all of this anyway.

The roadmap just makes the whole thing user-facing so there's a status in Teams of where you currently are. But IT knew all along. And if IT didn't have tools deployed to get this info already count yourself lucky to work at an immature org security-wise.

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