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Microsoft Rolls Out Teams Feature That Detects Employees’ Office and Workstation Locations

Signals from company-managed devices and networks power the feature, raising new questions about workplace surveillance.

Overview

  • Microsoft began rolling the workplace-location feature to Teams Windows and macOS clients on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, and plans to finish the global rollout by the end of June 2026.
  • The feature infers a person’s building or assigned workstation by mapping company-managed device signals such as Wi‑Fi SSIDs and fixed company hardware to office locations that IT administrators configure.
  • The capability is off by default and must be enabled by a company’s IT administrators, who also select consent settings that can require explicit employee opt-in or set location updates to on with an option to object.
  • Microsoft says the system only uses signals from corporate-managed devices and infrastructure, records updates only during logged work hours, and deletes stored workplace locations at the end of each workday.
  • Privacy advocates warn that administrator-controlled defaults and company policies could limit real employee choice and expand employer tracking, a worry reinforced by recent industry disputes over internal data collection.