Submitted 13 hours ago by Beep@lemmus.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.ztechtalk.com/microsoft-tracking.html
Look, we all knew it was coming, but now it’s official. Microsoft just handed middle managers the ultimate weapon. Their new update for Microsoft 365 allows companies to track exactly where you are, and the days of pretending to be at your desk are over.
This is what many of us warned against already 20 years ago. It’s one of the inherent dangers of proprietary software.
Back then most people didn’t believe it, now that such dangers are out in the open, nothing continues to happen about it.
Member when “the government is listening!” Was ‘just crazy paranoids’?
Yeah.
Back then the reality was more “the government wish they had the power to listen to everything” and now that they have the power, no one believes it because it was previously ridiculous to think they were already doing it.
The conspiracy was just ahead of its time.
Microsnitch
Narkoslop
This shit makes my job harder. I am required by law to provide a PSAP with the location data of any 911 caller (within a pretty tight radius). I have to use software in concert with softphones which requires the user enter their location when logging in the phone on their computer, just in case it is used to dial 911. This isn’t optional, we could face serious legal penalties if a user dials 911 and the response is delayed because the responders go to the wrong place.
My stuff is only used for 911. We don’t keep track. Really. There’s not even a mechanism to do that.
But when MS pulls this invasive bullshit it makes people afraid that my 911 software is doing the same thing. It makes them lie on the form or refuse to put anything in it. It makes them less safe and it makes my life difficult trying to convince them that the software we are using really is just for safety and that nobody, not even me, has access to it.
It doesn’t help that pretty much every single thing that has ever been done in the name of “safety” in America has eventually been used to rip us off or harm us in some way, and that isn’t even counting the fake shit that was a fraud from the get-go (like the patriot act and the like).
But when MS pulls this invasive bullshit it makes people afraid that my 911 software is doing the same thing.
How’s that?
Because if middle managers even in other companies are tracking people’s locations then people are more likely to think that my software that asks for their location will be used to track them even though it doesn’t.
That sounds like such a drain.
Use Teams in the web browser instead of the Edge Webview wrapper client?
It’s trivial to set your SSID and AP’s MAC address to match whatever they’re looking for.
The lack of a source in that article led me to go looking for something official. Here’s the MS article on the feature: …microsoft.com/…/configure-auto-detect-work-locat…
What jumped out at me (called out twice in dedicated boxes):
By default, users are opted out of work location detection. Users are prompted to provide consent for automatic location detection in the Teams desktop client on Windows or macOS. It is not possible for admins to consent on users’ behalf.
This just doesn’t seem like as big of a deal as some are making it sound.
By default users are opted out…
… unless your company admin overrides that choice with a policy and force enables it.
I don't think it's wise to believe tech oligarchs saying that orwellian surveillance tech cannot be exploited for orwellian surveillance.
Besides companies can just require employees to opt in - "we just built this fresh horror, how companies use it is up to them" doesn't really fly.
Why is it a bad thing that employees can't pretend to do something they're not?
If you're doing a good job, managers don't care if you spend the afternoon at a café.
/ex manager
good managers don’t care.
I’ve been in software development for 15 years and never had a manager that wasn’t at least a little bit of a micromanager. The reality is that it rarely takes 8 hours or more to do the things that need to be done in a day but the expectation most often is still that if my AuDHD ass isn’t in my often windowless office for 9 hours a day then I must not be working.
Except your managers might think it’s important, or you’re a shitty manager trying to fill their time and look important by micromanaging your employees.
That’s why you leave your work laptop at work and tunnel in from home!
This has been in Teams for years. Let’s be serious if your boss actually cares then get a different job or a different fucking boss.
My work/manager has the best possible way of managing: get your work done, dont make drama, work as little or much as you need. We have to try to get 45 hours but almost no one does or they pad their timesheet. But then there’s weeks you travel and work 60 hours (but its actually work not wasting time)
Works great for people like me who are useless from 1 pm to about 3 pm, but really able to get a lot of work done from 5 to 7 ish. Unless youre missing meetings, no one cares where you are. I could go to Hawaii tomorrow with my laptop and do the exact same work I do now.
Uninstalled. You can use these apps in a chromium browser, where you control what it can use.
Exactly. When I have to interact with Microsoft, I feel best keeping it in a browser.
For work/school I keep it all in Edge. So I keep all the garbage in the same bin 🤣
Good thing my manager isn’t a piece of shit.
Also, I have it blocked on all my stuff because fuck off with your tracking.
how block? Firewall rules?
Gtreat job. This is illegal here.
Looks like a broken link.
I edited it, thank you for alerting me.
So it
I'll either deny permission or straight up fucking uninstall it.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
While making this easier to access isn’t a positive, there are a ton of ways that this can, and already is, being done at companies that actually care about this shit.
Yeah you’re totally in the office, but your laptop just magically has an IP from the subnet for devices connected over VPN 🙄
Once again I must insist that people need to stop expecting any privacy on work devices. It is possible to find out anything on them, including location, it’s just a matter of how much effort your workplace is willing to expend on looking.
mrnobody@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
Thank God my company is so antiquated they don’t even know about half the tech that exists to spy on employees. Thankfully I’m also head of IT so imma keep them in the dark about that loll. Every time I upgrade the simplest things it’s like I’ve shit out actual magic. It’s great!
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Any company going this far will almost certainly be requiring device management on whatever device you put your work email on. So if you have your email on your personal phone the likelihood that they can already track your location 24/7 using your phone’s gps is extremely high.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 hours ago
You don’t know how Cisco is triangulating your laptop’s position from APs in range, do ya? It’s 2015 tech, and it’s insane.
Being able to see where everyone’s cell phone is in the middle of an open-air concert … and whether and where it has been on the muni network since … has been valuable for cops looking to question a potential witness.
But yeah, if you’re reading this in the company loo, your IT people probably know, if they cared. They don’t care.
Hell, knowing when the boss’s phone lights up on the site wifi was great for ambushing him with a purc req first-thing. …or so I hear.
TL;DR: they don’t need to know which IP range you’re on, as their layer-1 has already ratted you out.
hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
my direct boss has showed me what access he has to wireless client information, which includes client position. At first I thought this was really weird, even though I was paranoid enough to know that an SSID can track you in the general vicinity through roaming. But exact location is just so weird.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
just use vpn all the time, even when at your desk in the office
TipRing@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
This will break a lot of applications.
socsa@piefed.social 9 hours ago
Our VPN gateway is different if you are already on the internal network.
chocrates@piefed.world 11 hours ago
I’m more worried about them listening to my mic and recording my camera at this point.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 8 hours ago
That’s why mine’s pointed at my dick 24/7. Wouldn’t want them to miss anything.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
That’s why I send passive aggressive messages about my company on my work computer. Hopefully they see me laughing at their incompetence and obvious nepotism.