Microsoft Teams is rolling out a new update in December that will allow the platform to track a user’s location to determine whether or not they are in the office, automatically notifying their manager when they leave the building.
The update will enable the platform to automatically update a worker’s location status based on whether their device connects to their company’s Wi-Fi network. When a user enters the office, Teams will detect the connection and mark them as on-site. When they disconnect, it will change their status to reflect that they are working remotely or off-site, per Mashable.
The feature is set to be off by default, but admins will have the ability to enable it and require users to opt in, leaving the decision up to bosses.
“When users connect to their organization’s [wifi], 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,” Microsoft stated.
The new feature comes amid a broader trend of companies embracing a hybrid of employees that work both remote and in-office. Alongside location tracking, the December update will also add other features, such as the ability to save messages within chat threads for later reference.
Some managers see location tracking as a convenient way to know which employees are in the office without physically checking, but critics have already noted flaws in such systems. A report by Mashable noted how Amazon faced criticism after it implemented a comparable monitoring system, which resulted in employees spoofing their home Wi-Fi SSIDs to mimic the company’s network in order to trick the system into thinking they were on-site.