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Comment by Esophagus4 | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure who would really care about this feature.

We can usually tell based on your background. And the people that have to be in office are tracked typically with badge swipes. And if you’re really that determined to work remote and your company doesn’t support it, wouldn’t it be better just to find a company that does rather than sneaking around?

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I think it can and willl be used more statistically. Yes, from your background you will get a sense and form an opinion, but with this, you can generate a report that says with high accuracy where you have spent every hour. This will be more sharp ammunition in case the employer want to use it against you.

If it goes by WIFI and not the wired network it'll be rather of useless in every enterprise organisation I've ever worked in. I'm not sure I've even worked in a place where the WIFI wasn't a guest network. Don't get me wrong, I'd like the feature. I work in a fully flexible place, but part of that is setting your status to be "working from outside the office" when you're not there. If that could happen automatically that'd be great.

Most likely the article is glossing over details. It probably works by the network your connected to (wired or wifi).

> We can usually tell based on your background.

Not really. Decent tele-conference platforms can automatically replace your background. I have a corporate-provided background in google meet, for example.

> And the people that have to be in office are tracked typically with badge swipes.

Often badges are just for automatic doors, not really connected to any real information / data collection system. Not all companies are data-collecting monsters. The company I work for, as an example, has no badges at all (but has people at the reception).

> And if you’re really that determined to work remote and your company doesn’t support it, wouldn’t it be better just to find a company that does rather than sneaking around?

Agree on this.

But the sad truth is that not everybody has all the necessary degrees of freedom to do that.

I might (and I would). But then again, I'm 33, single, no spouse and no kids. I don't have those responsibilities and I can take the risks. People with kids for example would be (understandably) more cautious.

> Not all companies are data-collecting monsters

Plus, in the EU, it is unlikely to be legal to use badge-swipe data for attendance tracking (I think this is prevailing opinion rather than legally tested so far).

The charitable interpretation is that this feature is just so your coworkers can tell if you are in the office so they know if they should go find you or have a call.

I think I believe this explanation. And that would imply that the author is either paranoid or trying to make a more salacious story.

My cynicism makes me think it’s the latter.

There are an array of devices you can buy online that automatically jiggle the mouse cursor to prevent idling, because supervisors are using Microsoft teams to determine if someone is working.

Even if the charitable interpretation was Microsoft's intent, managers put a lot of weight behind the Team's status icon.

Reading more about technologies like this it seems to create a unique profile of your usual type and style of usage (clicking, scrolling, typing) which can then be compared against.

Not condoning cheating - the point about just finding another job is it might not be that easy for people depending on what they do, what industry it's in, the number of jobs accessible to them at any given time, or average for those skills.

People with the most in demand skills already are able to do that and companies still are confused why they can't find the skilled labor they desire.

No companies are confused.

Some are doing RTO. Most people are coming back. Some are quitting and finding other jobs. And that’s fine for both parties.

Nobody is sticking it to anybody.

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