Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

by imalerba on 1/30/2026, 5:12:39 PM

Comments

by: charles_f

I work on Teams (I know, I know... please don't hit me, it's not my fault)1. I don't speak authoritatively and2. I don't have knowledge of the whole product - there's always a rogue team here and there doing stuff.We've had that feature turned on at MSFT for some time now. It does not allow your manager to see that you're at Starbucks, at home, on the shitter or anything like that. There's a new toggle in the calendar settings called "Share location with my organization", and the settings are: "all details: building, desk, etc.", "general location: office or remote", "can't view any location information". What it does when turned on is just adding, at the top of your calendar, icons that tell you which of your colleagues are in office, and if they share and you click on someone's picture, what building they're in (when it works).The whole "it will tell your manager what your wifi is" is just baseless extrapolation, and plainly false from what I can tell.

1/30/2026, 6:54:14 PM

by: bri3d

Here's the actual "roadmap" feature (scroll to the bottom where the filtered list is):<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?searchterms=when+users+connect+to+their+organization%27s+Wi-Fi" rel="nofollow">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?search...</a>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 enable it and require end-users to opt-in."Yuck.

1/30/2026, 5:39:17 PM

by: triceratops

FTA> Remember when you could text Dave from the office to turn your PC on because you were stuck in traffic?I honestly don't. This was a thing? Why?> So if you decide to take a "working lunch" and connect to "Starbucks_Guest_WiFi", your boss sees it instantly.I would have a lot of fun with "creative" names for my Wi-fi network.

1/30/2026, 5:42:18 PM

by: black_puppydog

I'm surprised this would be even legal in most European countries... Then again, MS might not care any more. Companies who are not looking for alternatives today won't ever be looking.

1/30/2026, 5:40:03 PM

by: bnchrch

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:- Mark Stefik and Brad Cox for their contributions to DRM- Erick Lavoie for his work on Wildvine DRM- Vern Paxson for his contributions to DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)- Latanya Sweeney and Alexandre de Montjoye for their contributions to re-identification of anonymized data- Steven J. Murdoch and George Danezis for their work on de-anonymization attacks[0]<a href="http://www.bigbrotherawards.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bigbrotherawards.org/</a>[1]<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/breachies-2025-worst-weirdest-most-impactful-data-breaches-year" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/breachies-2025-worst-w...</a>

1/30/2026, 6:05:24 PM

by: voldemolt

There was an article here not too long ago about someone decrying a fellow cow-worker for their rather liberal usage of AI and how their manager would see it and promote it, changing company process in the meantime. The writer found this revulsive. But what I found interesting is what was not discussed. This “Microsoft just did X” is another entry in that.Folks, let’s not beat around the bush: if you’re not your own boss, you don’t have agency and ultimately you have no control over the situation. The frustration is rooted in the lack of control, or at the very least in the lack of perception of cooperation that is a temporary substitute for agency and control (until the rug gets pulled from underneath them). It’s not Microsoft, it’s not Teams, it’s not AI. It’s not the person being promoted for doing this. It’s you. If it was your company, you could have put an end to it and changed the processes immediately. But it isn’t. So for having the privilege of working at whatever company you’re at, and getting paid whatever money you’re paid, you have to eat shit. This is the price you pay.If you don’t want to eat shit from your bosses, you have to be your own boss. I think that’s as succinct and straightforward of a solution to things like these that you can find.

1/30/2026, 7:09:06 PM

by: kevinh

This article is like 300 words. Would it have killed them to not generate it using AI?

1/30/2026, 5:40:55 PM

by: BrouteMinou

I think the only outrageous people here are the paranoid and the slackers...My manager has called me when I was doing a mid-day grocery and I just told him: "sorry for the noise, I am at the grocery store at the moment". This is absolutely no problem at all, he asked if I wanted to call back when I got home...It's pretty much making a storm in a glass of water here.That's karma farming by bitching the ebil Microsoft...

1/30/2026, 7:08:10 PM

by: xcf_seetan

Does it works both ways? Does it also tracks where the boss is? To be fair to the employee, he should be able to see where the boss is at any time.

1/30/2026, 5:58:38 PM

by: smeej

> Remember when you could text Dave from the office to turn your PC on because you were stuck in traffic?I don't understand why this doesn't still work. If Dave from the office has access to your PC, presumably Dave and your PC are in the office, connected to your office's network, and thus it would appear that you are in the office?Or is the assumption that you're carrying another device with you that would give you away? In which case, shouldn't the complaint be more about being forced to perform some kind of work task (like carrying/being accessible by your phone) when you're off the clock...which is hardly a new issue/complaint?

1/30/2026, 6:36:42 PM

by: samch

Some of this could be related to laws that necessitate updated location data for emergency calling. Since a common component of Teams is Teams Phone, there can be a compliance gap. I’m sure this isn’t the whole story, but it is likely one facet: <a href="https://www.911.gov/issues/legislation-and-policy/kari-s-law-and-ray-baum-s-act/" rel="nofollow">https://www.911.gov/issues/legislation-and-policy/kari-s-law...</a>

1/30/2026, 5:56:30 PM

by: al_borland

It looks like MS Teams will never be getting installed on my phone.I don’t even allow location sharing with my own family on and ongoing basis.

1/30/2026, 5:20:32 PM

by: djha-skin

> If you connect to a Wi-Fi network that isn't your company's, Teams will simply display the name of that network. So if you decide to take a "working lunch" and connect to "Starbucks_Guest_WiFi", your boss sees it instantly.Looks like I need to rename my home wifi to "Corporate Network."

1/30/2026, 5:52:28 PM

by: dleslie

For what it's worth, unless it can be conclusively argued that surveillance is necessary for the task to be done this sort of continuous surveillance is illegal in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. It violates the privacy of employees.

1/30/2026, 6:51:42 PM

by: alistairSH

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 already shows your status as "Away" if you don't type for 5 minutes. Sitting there reading a document - yep, you're clearly smoking in the parking lot or wandering around gossiping.

1/30/2026, 6:09:18 PM

by: midtake

Most middle managers will either not require this, or require it but find ways to themselves avoid being tagged as logging into their home wifi. The prevailing culture around middle-management is one of inefficiency and rule avoidance. Middle managers need to be replaced by AI already.

1/30/2026, 6:29:18 PM

by: bambax

> If you connect to a Wi-Fi network that isn't your company's, Teams will simply display the name of that network. So if you decide to take a "working lunch" and connect to "Starbucks_Guest_WiFi", your boss sees it instantlyBut what if I have a secondary wifi network in my home that says "BigCorpSuperSecureWifi", wouldn't that work? What if that's the name of my phone's hotspot?

1/30/2026, 5:57:43 PM

by: parliament32

AI slop.> If you connect to a Wi-Fi network that isn't your company's, Teams will simply display the name of that network.This is hallucinated. The actual change: <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?id=488800" rel="nofollow">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?id=488...</a>IF your 365 admins add a list of WiFi SSIDs to Teams, Teams will (optionally, opt-in by user) toggle your work location. It will not report not-known SSIDs to your manager or display it in Teams (but note your 365 admins have always been able to see this in the first place, in call/connectivity troubleshooting).

1/30/2026, 7:20:16 PM

by: palmotea

> Microsoft confirmed that starting March 2026 (delayed from January), managers will be able to see your real-time location. And no, disconnecting from the office Wi-Fi won't save you.Is there anything more than the Wifi SSID stuff below?> If you connect to a Wi-Fi network that isn't your company's, Teams will simply display the name of that network. So if you decide to take a "working lunch" and connect to "Starbucks_Guest_WiFi", your boss sees it instantly. You can’t hide behind a generic "Remote" status anymore.So how exactly does this work? It'd be pretty trivial setup my access point to provide a work SSID? How much access does Teams really have to get info to discern your location?

1/30/2026, 6:11:09 PM

by: y-curious

Can I kill this via pihole somehow? My wife uses teams. This is a sick “tool” that will be wielded asymmetrically by middle management to fire people

1/30/2026, 5:39:01 PM

by: WalterBright

I'd have two phones (and two laptops). One for work only, the other for everything else.

1/30/2026, 7:18:53 PM

by: lastofthemojito

Some of my neighbors have some rather colorful Wifi SSIDs. I've seen some silly ones like "FBI SURVEILLANCE" as well as at least one crudely expressing their opinion of the current US President. Probably won't be long now before we see someone get fired because their boss saw the name of their home Wifi network.

1/30/2026, 5:43:08 PM

by: dehrmann

> Teams on Mac> And obviously, the mobile app (your pocket spy).Don't these ask for location permissions? This story is light on details.

1/30/2026, 5:40:31 PM

by: antaviana

When I started working at a time with no mobiles and no remote, calling or being called to the office for personal reasons was seen with disrespect from your coworkers. At work you were supposed to be working, and outside of work you were supposed not to be working. Pretty much as in the Severance series, but without the forgetting. With mobiles and connectivity, everything changed, I'm unsure if for better. Now you can work 24/7 or slack all day as if there were no tomorrow.

1/30/2026, 6:12:22 PM

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.

1/30/2026, 6:23:20 PM

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.

1/30/2026, 6:22:43 PM

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1/30/2026, 6:28:38 PM

by: uberman

I feel like if they want to track my phone using an app then they owe me a phone. Their laptop is in theory theirs but not my phone

1/30/2026, 6:53:12 PM

by: assaddayinh

Society feels like a prison and the warden is watching.

1/30/2026, 5:48:53 PM

by: aquir

So looks like feature is not working in the web client? One more reason to to use that instead. Also, I will uninstall Teams from my phone for sure.

1/30/2026, 5:48:05 PM

by: navane

Buy a burner phone. Plug it in at your office for charge. Put teams app on it. Bam you're in the office 24/7.

1/30/2026, 6:50:31 PM

by: treetalker

Elsewhere in the news (including HN): "Microsoft is working to rebuild trust in Windows".

1/30/2026, 6:49:51 PM

by: ngetchell

This screams E911 compliance than stalker-ware but I could definitely be wrong.I know E911 was a big deal in the telephony world and since Teams is a phone service, this makes sense.I don't like it but it makes sense.

1/30/2026, 6:15:52 PM

by: mixmastamyk

Mr. Doctorow calls this “Bossware.” ;-)

1/30/2026, 5:40:33 PM

by: swgeek

If they really care every large company already knows what building you are in just by tracking your badge info. This was transparent: I could check my own badge history anytime.What this does is track when you are not working in the office.

1/30/2026, 5:56:02 PM

by: tiku

Run it from a VM, use a hotspot named the same as your home connection. Lots of options!

1/30/2026, 6:45:30 PM

by: entuno

I wondered why the Teams Android app suddenly decided to ask for location permissions today.Denied.

1/30/2026, 5:47:55 PM

by: api

Microsoft really seems to be tripling and quadrupling down on total surveillance of the user's "own" system. If you haven't ditched MS yet, I'd consider it now.Linux is becoming more and more viable for a gaming PC. For business uses a Linux desktop is usable but probably not ideal, but you also have macOS. I'd pick anything but Windows and MS stuff.

1/30/2026, 7:14:33 PM

by: stego-tech

Disgusting, and a potential legal liability for employers if they turn it on. Not in the “invasion of privacy” sense, but the “there was a crime committed in area X and now the cops want our Teams logs from the employees who were there that Microsoft disclosed to them.”The more data you collect, the bigger your legal liability when something inevitably goes pear-shaped.Stop treating workers like grifters or prisoners and you won’t have nearly as many problems.

1/30/2026, 5:43:24 PM

by: cheema33

I don't get it. People complain when they have to go to the office. And then some are given the option to work from home. Then they complain their boss can find out where they are during work hours. What on Earth are you complaining about?Just go to the damn office already!!!

1/30/2026, 6:41:41 PM

by: Detrytus

OK, I’m renaming my home WiFi to “Riverside_Strip_Club” :-)

1/30/2026, 6:07:35 PM

by: jerlam

Most MDM software would already have access to your location. This might make it available to a lower level of management.

1/30/2026, 5:57:36 PM

by: mahirsaid

the people that sacrificed years of education and hardship to be employed by a company and have a boss in the end of the day your still back to the same predicament. A plumber, electrician, carpenter, has more autonomy than any profession in the US. A surgeon after years of schooling and experience still has to answer to a director or board, wrong doing will lose all of their credentials and revoked in due time.

1/30/2026, 6:49:28 PM

by: lpcvoid

Microslop doing Microslop things

1/30/2026, 5:49:36 PM

by: marekful

It's so pathetic that people actually put up with this. There are so many ways to stop that tracking from working and no, your boss doesn't have the right to track you.

1/30/2026, 5:17:29 PM

by: jollyllama

Hmm, what if you're using the browser app?

1/30/2026, 5:57:02 PM

by: dlenski

<a href="https://ztechtalk.com/microsoft-teams#:~:text=obviously%2C%20the%20mobile%20app%20(your%20pocket%20spy)" rel="nofollow">https://ztechtalk.com/microsoft-teams#:~:text=obviously%2C%2...</a>Add this to the infinite list of reasons why I don't put company-issued spyware on my personal devices. If Slack/Teams/Outlook/whatever wants to "administer" my personal device in any way, it's a hard no for me.

1/30/2026, 6:26:05 PM

by: xyst

This is why unions in the workplace are a good thing. It would prevent management from enabling these god awful policies by using collective bargaining.Yet the contrarians here will always say "iTs bEtTeR wItHoUt uNiOn cuz I nEgoTiaTe beTtEr"

1/30/2026, 5:52:43 PM

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1/30/2026, 6:03:54 PM

by: lenerdenator

Hmmm.Looks like I need to remove Teams from my phone.

1/30/2026, 6:26:08 PM

by: observationist

Installed Linux on my work computer, completely uninstalled microsoft software from my phone. I'm deliberately excluding Microsoft wherever possible.Switch to Linux, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. Say it's a security measure against spyware by malicious and hostile entities online.

1/30/2026, 5:43:20 PM

by: Insanity

Wow, what a dystopian feature. One more reason to stay away from Microsoft products as far as possible.

1/30/2026, 6:38:11 PM

by: echelon_musk

> managers will be able to see your real-time location. And no, disconnecting from the office Wi-Fi won't save you.Huh? If you're in the office already then your real time location is... the office. Makes 0 sense to me.

1/30/2026, 5:42:56 PM

by: varispeed

Microsoft is building better chains for corporate slaves.

1/30/2026, 5:59:00 PM

by: rapsacnz

I use Little Snitch and block every phone home feature. Works great.

1/30/2026, 5:56:21 PM

by: reactordev

Another reason to avoid ever working for a company that uses Teams.

1/30/2026, 5:41:12 PM

by: newsoftheday

"Here is the scary part""The Bottom Line"It reads like AI generated content, is it just me?

1/30/2026, 6:33:43 PM

by: outside1234

This can't be legal in the EU, right?

1/30/2026, 5:44:15 PM

by: buckle8017

So get a separate work phone and turn it off.

1/30/2026, 5:40:27 PM

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1/30/2026, 5:18:15 PM

by: gblar

The Brahmin wants to track the commoners. The market isn't very happy with MSFT's AI bubble and dumped the stock yesterday. 50% more to go down!

1/30/2026, 6:28:51 PM

by: everdrive

One more reason not to use WiFi but to use ethernet.

1/30/2026, 5:56:43 PM

by: Jamesbeam

I don’t get it. What is this good for?If this is for people physically working at some place they have access controls and will see if you left the building, when and for how long.So this is only good to track when your company phone leaves to the toilet. I imagine if they want to get rid of you they just set up a WiFi access point in the toilet and track your poop time. Then tell you to "optimize" your diet so you are more productive or get fired.I mean it’s Microsoft the king of shitty features.If this is for catching people working from home, just clone the WiFi and Mac on an OpenWRT 5g mobile router and take it with you and enjoy laughing at your boss while brunching with the whole team on company time.Sometimes I think people forget that you borrow the company your (life)time and skills for the agreed terms. You’re not some kind of pig that is tracked until you’re fat enough to get butchered.If your company turns this on, just look for a better workplace immediately that is actually respecting you as a human being and not "human capital" and tell them to get fucked.

1/30/2026, 6:41:10 PM

by: eboy

[dead]

1/30/2026, 7:29:21 PM

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1/30/2026, 5:43:33 PM

by: SoftTalker

Heh. A lot of panic over this one.

1/30/2026, 5:51:44 PM

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