New Senate Bill Would Require Zoom and Teams to be Interoperable
The US Senate has proposed a new bill requiring UC and collaboration platforms used by the US federal government to be more secure and interoperable, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
As first shared by The Verge, the Secure and Interoperable Government Collaboration Technology Act, brought forward by US Senator for Oregon Ron Wyden, would require government tools to communicate with each other, even if made by competitors. It would likewise establish high standards of cybersecurity, including end-to-end encryption protocols.
Wyden commented on the bill in a statement:
The Secure and Interoperable Government Collaboration Technology Act would ensure the federal government is procuring and using collaboration technology that is based on interoperable, secure standards – meaning an employee from an agency using Teams could call someone from an agency using Zoom, or send a message to another agency that uses Slack.”
Wyden stressed that the bill establishes the adoption of end-to-end encryption technology to safeguard government communications from foreign surveillance. However, Wyden says this technology has not been consistently integrated across major video-calling platforms leveraged by government agencies.
The bill also stipulates that collaboration software used by the government must enforce compliance with federal record-keeping regulations, addressing the emerging importance of maintaining official records within constantly changing collaboration platforms.
Microsoft Is Bringing Desk Booking Features and Call Record Insights to Teams
Microsoft is introducing desk booking functionality to its Teams communications and collaboration platform.
In a welcome update adjusting to hybrid working as the new normal, users will soon be able to reserve desks as soon as they get into either their company office or a shared workspace and log into the Teams platform. The service will illustrate all available desks for the workday ahead, empowering hybrid workers to take control over their desks and work management without having to rely on management to organise it for them.
Additionally, IT admins will be able to monitor the booked desks within the new capability, enabling them to collect critical insights and develop future structures or systems based on this data.
The feature will be generally available in May for desktop users, as well as Teams and Surface devices.
In other Teams news, Microsoft has announced “Call Record Insights” for Teams to help businesses effectively interpret and act upon call data within the Teams platform.
Call Record Insights includes automated call record retrieval, simplified data transformation, secure storage, no-code deployment, powerful analytic capabilities, and more. It offers full sovereignty over user data, including End User Identifiable Information. All storage and processing also take place within Azure subscriptions.
Google Upgrades Meet With AI Notes and Translation Features, Launches Vids Productivity App in Workspace
Google Meet has upgraded its service with AI note-taking and translation capabilities — although it requires an extra subscription cost.
