In the era of hybrid work, many organisations are grappling with how to strike the right balance between flexibility and oversight, independent work and teamwork. Now, with the upcoming update to Microsoft Teams that introduces automatic office-presence detection, this tension is likely to ramp up.
This blog explores what that change means for people working for companies that use Microsoft packages, why it matters for both employers and employees, and how more flexible alternatives like Digital Samba may offer a different path. Whether you’re a CTO, DPO or Product Owner in an EU-based SMB, or an HR/IT decision-maker reviewing your collaboration stack, these insights here are timely.
Table of contents
- What’s changing in Teams (December 2025 rollout)
- How the Wi-Fi-based location tracking works
- Why Microsoft claims this is necessary
- Implications for employers and employees
- Why some organisations may rethink their collaboration stack
- A look at the alternative: Digital Samba
- Conclusion
What’s changing in Teams (December 2025 rollout)
As announced, in December 2025, Microsoft will begin rolling out a new feature in Teams that automatically updates a user’s work location based on their connection to the organisation’s Wi-Fi network.
The feature is listed on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap as follows:
“When users connect to their organisation’s Wi-Fi, Teams will automatically set their work location to reflect the building they are working in.”
According to Microsoft documentation, automatic detection of work location can be triggered by either connection to a wireless network or plugging into a desk peripheral at your workplace. At present, the wireless network method is in preview and will become widely available in due course. Administrators must enable the policy, and users must opt in because it is off by default.
How the Wi-Fi-based location tracking works
Here’s a short breakdown (and mini sidebar) of how the feature is technically planned to operate:
What the update says
- The organisation configures the SSIDs (and optionally BSSIDs) of the corporate Wi-Fi networks mapped to building locations
- When a user signs into Teams on Windows or macOS and connects to one of those Wi-Fi networks (or desk peripheral), then Teams updates their “work location” status automatically to “In the office” or the specific building.
- This update only occurs during the user’s defined working hours. If the connection happens outside work hours, it may not trigger a location update.
- Users must consent to location detection; by default, they are opted out. Admins cannot give blanket consent on behalf of employees.
This method offers more automation for hybrid-work visibility, but as we’ll explore below, it also raises certain questions.
Why Microsoft claims this is necessary
Microsoft positions this feature as a productivity and collaboration improvement for hybrid environments. According to the company and coverage of the update:
- It addresses the perennial problem of hybrid teams: who’s in the office and when? According to industry commentary, this update “aspire[s] to change that”.
- It aims to reduce confusion around where colleagues are working from, making ad-hoc face-to-face interactions easier in large campuses or multi-building offices.
- From an IT/admin perspective, it affords an additional signal for workplace analytics, desk-booking optimisation and managing hot-desking resources.
In short, Microsoft’s rationale is that automated presence detection via Wi-Fi provides smoother hybrid coordination, better space utilisation, and richer context for teams. On paper, that is a valid objective; in practice, the broader implications matter a great deal. Any system that passively collects behavioural data, however well-intentioned, inevitably raises questions about consent, proportionality, and long-term trust within the workforce.
Implications for employers and employees
With this feature on the horizon, both employers and employees in EU-based SMBs must consider not just the opportunities but also the risks of this update regarding privacy and security policies.
Employer-side benefits
- Greater real-time visibility of employee presence in office buildings (or absence thereof) as inputs to hybrid work policy enforcement.
- Better data for utilisation of office real estate (desk booking, building occupancy, resource allocation).
- Reduced administrative overhead: fewer manual status updates, fewer back-and-forths to check who is on-site.
- Potential integration with wider workplace analytics (space usage, movement flows, hybrid policies) for strategic planning.
- Enhanced coordination for on-site collaboration: knowing who is physically present can accelerate informal face-to-face moments.
Employee/culture & compliance risks
- Perception (or reality) of increased surveillance: The automation of presence detection might erode trust and change the culture from “flex-first” to “watch-first” because the employees will feel observed every time they are in the office.
- Privacy and data-protection implications, especially under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe: location data tied to individuals can trigger high compliance burdens. This is primarily grounded in Recital 30 and Article 4(1) of the GDPR, and supported by further interpretation from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
In short, under GDPR, any system that collects or infers an employee’s physical presence through Wi-Fi networks or device identifiers is processing personal data, and if that data reveals workplace behaviour, it can indeed trigger higher compliance burdens such as DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) requirements under Article 35.
- Hybrid work flexibility may be undermined: If presence becomes the metric rather than output, remote-first or flexible arrangements could be discouraged implicitly or completely abolished.
- Risk of misinterpretation or misuse of data: For example, connecting via Wi-Fi doesn’t necessarily equal productive presence; yet, policy may treat it as such.
- Employee experience: Some may feel compelled to be physically in the office (or at least hooked into office Wi-Fi) just to show attendance, which may reflect poorly on autonomy and morale.
The automatic update of work location underscores the growing tension between automation and autonomy. Also, while employers gain stronger signals and information about their workforce behaviour, employees may feel under increasing scrutiny.
Why some organisations may rethink their collaboration stack
For many EU-based SMBs, the arrival of such automated attendance-tracking via Microsoft Teams is a strategic moment. It may prompt reconsideration of whether your collaboration platform truly aligns with your hybrid-work, culture and compliance imperatives. Key reasons include:
- Need for genuinely flexible hybrid work: Organisations increasingly recognise that hybrid doesn’t mean fixed “on-site vs remote” attendance, but fluid, trust-based working. Such a system that automates presence detection may shift that balance.
- Culture of trust vs culture of surveillance: If employees feel monitored rather than trusted, the long-term employee experience and retention risks may outweigh the short-term coordination benefits.
- Data residency and sovereignty: Especially in the EU, handling of workplace analytics and location data may raise specific legal and data-governance questions (e.g., where data is stored, who processes it, cross-border transfers). If your collaboration stack pushes you into grey zones, that can be a red flag.
- Developer-friendly integrations and extensibility: If you’re a product owner or CTO wanting to embed collaboration into your product workflows (e.g., via SDKs, APIs), you might want a platform that is open, modular and easily customisable—not one that primarily pushes monitoring features.
- Evaluating true business outcomes, not just presence metrics: Productivity, creativity and employee wellbeing matter—not just whether someone has connected to a Wi-Fi network at 9 am. If your platform encourages output-centric metrics rather than attendance tracking, you may gain a strategic edge.
In this context, some decision-makers may take a fresh look at alternatives to Microsoft Teams - particularly where hybrid-work culture, data-protection and custom integration requirements are high.
A look at the alternative: Digital Samba
If you’re exploring a collaboration platform beyond Microsoft Teams, it’s worth considering our Digital Samba video conferencing API. Here’s how our software addresses many of the concerns we’ve outlined above:
What is Digital Samba?
Digital Samba is a European-based video-conferencing and collaboration platform designed with hybrid work, privacy and developer-friendliness in mind. Its core differentiators include flexible attendance logic (rather than automating presence detection purely via Wi-Fi), less invasive tracking, and a strong SDK/API ecosystem for embedding into workflows.
How it addresses risks:
- It does not rely on automatic office Wi-Fi location detection as the primary mechanism for presence. Instead, it offers user-centric, flexible attendance logic that respects hybrid work norms.
- Data-residency options: Because many European SMBs are sensitive to where data lives and how it is processed, Digital Samba offers EU-based hosting and compliance-aware data governance.
- Developer-friendly: If you’re a Product Owner or CTO looking to embed collaboration into your product, Digital Samba’s SDK and API capabilities give you more control and customisation.
- Culture-first design: Instead of nudging employees into the office via location tracking, Digital Samba supports trust-based work, enabling remote, hybrid and on-site participants to collaborate seamlessly without built-in “attendance policing”. Thanks to its feature-rich set up, it can be used for different types of remote work, from one-on-one meetings to webinars, big meetings and training sessions.
If you’d like to evaluate how Digital Samba stacks up as a Microsoft Teams alternative, you can visit the landing page.
Conclusion
The upcoming automatic Wi-Fi-based work-location detection feature in Microsoft Teams marks a significant evolution - one that offers real coordination benefits but simultaneously raises fundamental questions about hybrid-work culture, privacy and strategic flexibility. For EU-based SMBs, especially where data-protection, trust and developer extensibility matter. This may be a timely trigger to evaluate whether Teams remains the optimal platform for your company.
If you’re in the decision funnel, weighing whether to stay with Microsoft Teams or explore other options, we encourage you to visit the landing page Microsoft Teams alternative to compare platforms and see whether a more hybrid-native, privacy-respecting solution like Digital Samba might better align with your long-term hybrid work and integration goals. Or talk to our sales team to get an individualised offer.
References
- Cyber Press. (27 October 2025). Microsoft Teams to Detect Work Location via Wi-Fi Networks. Cyber Press.
- Doffman, Z. (22 October 2025). Microsoft Teams Starts Telling Your Company If You’re Not At Work. Forbes.
- Devlin, K. (23 October 2025). Microsoft Teams Adds Smart Location Detection for Hybrid Work. UC Today.
- Heise Online. (25 October 2025). Microsoft Teams can record office presence from December. heise online.
- Microsoft. (2025). Microsoft 365 Roadmap: Microsoft Teams – Automatically update your work location via your organisation’s Wi-Fi. Microsoft.
- Microsoft. (19 June 2025). Configure automatic detection of work location in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Learn.
- Mukherjee, A. (27 October 2025). Microsoft Teams to automatically detect when you’re in office: Here’s what it means. Moneycontrol.
- HRK Katha. (27 October 2025). Microsoft Teams’ new Wi-Fi detection feature sparks debate on employee privacy. HRK News.
- Killian, Z. (25 October 2025). Microsoft Teams Could Soon Rat You Out To Your Boss With Your Live Location. HotHardware.