Teams’ invasive Wi‑Fi tracking sparks backlash as users say Microsoft crossed a line — “There must be a team at Microsoft tasked with making Teams worse”

Last year, I reported on a new Microsoft Teams feature, which raised controversy and privacy concerns among most users. The feature in question automatically updates a user's work location when their device is connected to an office Wi-Fi network — becoming your boss's lapdog, by snitching on your live location.

Shortly after the post became viral, Microsoft quietly changed how the feature works, as highlighted below:

"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."

While this might be a long shot, I speculated that the feature incidentally aligns with Microsoft's return-to-office (RTO) plan. For context, Microsoft employees working within 50 miles of a Microsoft office will be expected to work onsite for at least three days per week by the end of this month.

To that end, it's anyone's guess whether Microsoft's controversial Teams feature shipping to broad availability around the same time its RTO plan is taking shape is a mere coincidence or a deliberate attempt to intensify workplace surveillance and micromanagement.

But as you may know, Microsoft has changed the rollout timeline for the controversial Teams feature multiple times. It was initially expected to ship in December 2025, but the software giant changed the rollout to January 2026.

More recently, the company changed the rollout time for the controversial Wi-Fi location tracking feature to mid-March this year. The company didn't provide any details about the reason behind the delayed rollout of the feature.

Windows Central conducted a poll to gauge readers’ opinions on the controversial feature. The results showed that nearly half of the respondents (47%) believe the feature should be removed entirely.

27% of the participants indicated that the feature felt invasive and like surveillance, while just 12% said it's useful for workplace efficiency and safety.

Teams' new Wi-FI location tracking feature feels almost comical, blurring the line between useful and invasive

It's apparent that the new Teams feature is unpopular among most users if the sentiments shared across social media are anything to go by. According to mister_empty_pants on Reddit:

"Microsoft is blurring the lines between coworker collaboration and IT oversight.

IT wise, yes the info was always there. But nobody is asking IT to snitch on you. The entire point of this is that your boss just has to click your name on Teams and now they know where you are. No IT requests, no privacy/ethics concerns, no breach of trust. It's just right there at any time.

What's the next step? The same tracking but for your phone? Microsoft letting your boss look at your screen? Sending your boss daily reports on click rates, words typed, program usage, etc?"

Microsoft Teams is about to become a lapdog for your boss — automatically snitching on your live location when connected to the office wi-fi from r/technology

Interestingly, some users seem unfazed by the change, claiming that most Microsoft products and services already ship with this feature in some shape or form. "Most Microsoft products already meet the criteria for what we'd normally call spyware. What's another drop in a flooded bucket?" a Reddit user indicated.

Some users came up with some interesting ideas on how to bypass the new Teams feature's invasive nature, suggesting using a wired connection at the office instead of Wi-Fi. "I just won’t install teams on my phone then, and when I’m working remote they can’t find me anyway they can just message me and I’ll answer from the laptop," another Reddit user indicated.

On the other hand, some users suggested that Microsoft's efforts were seemingly misplaced and indicated that it should redirect them to fix some UI and UX elements in its Windows operating system. "God forbid they spend time to make the Windows search actually search my computer again," a user indicated.

After reviewing hundreds of comments, it’s clear that users either want the feature scrapped entirely or simply don’t care, since many work remotely. "I swear there must be a team at MS that is just tasked with making Teams worse," a user indicated on Reddit.

💬 How do you feel about Teams’ new Wi‑Fi tracking feature?

Teams’ latest Wi‑Fi tracking tool has raised real questions about privacy, boundaries, and how far workplace software should go. We want to hear your take. Does this cross a line, or is it just another “productivity” feature in a modern office?

Drop your thoughts below and join the discussion!

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