Enhancing Privacy with Microsoft Teams Premium: Introducing the Feature to Hide Attendee Names in Webinars

As part of Microsoft's commitment to improve user experience and maintain confidentiality during webinars, they are set to release a feature that will allow webinar organizers to hide the names of attendees. The implementation is part of a broader array of privacy-ensuring features offered exclusively in the Microsoft Teams Premium package.

Feature Overview

As of today, attendees in Microsoft Teams webinars can view the names, emails, and profile photos of all other participants. However, the newly introduced feature will mask these identifiers, promoting greater privacy within the virtual event. This privacy extends across various sections, including the participant pane, chat, and stage. Nonetheless, the organizer, co-organizers, and presenters will retain the ability to view each participant's identity.

Timeline

The rollout of this feature is expected to commence in early July 2023 and conclude by mid-July 2023 for standard users. For government users, the feature rollout will begin in mid-November 2023 and conclude by mid-May 2024.

Impact on Organizations

To use this feature, organizers must activate the "Hide attendee names" option in the Meeting Options before starting the webinar. Upon activation, attendees will see their names and those of other attendees masked as "Attendee" on stage, chat, and the roster. However, they can still view the names and profile photos of organizers, co-organizers, and presenters.

From the perspective of the organizer, co-organizers, and presenters, the names of all attendees will appear as "Attendee (Full Name)" on the stage, chat, and roster.

Once this feature is rolled out, it will be enabled by default for administrators. If they wish to disable it, they must use PowerShell to set the AttendeeIdentityMasking policy as Disabled.

Teams Premium Advantages

This feature is an addition to the expansive list of features that set Microsoft Teams Premium apart from the standard Teams. Customers who purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription receive Teams licenses for their users. However, the Teams Premium add-on license grants admins and users access to extra features beyond those included with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Some of the exclusive Teams Premium features include setting up a green room for webinar presenters, managing attendees’ views, sending reminder emails to registrants, creating a webinar wait list, manually approving registrants, and limiting the day and time for registration.

Licensing and Configuration

The Teams Premium license is available on a per-user subscription basis. An organization should assign a Teams Premium user subscription license to every user they wish to extend Teams Premium features to. Furthermore, several Teams Premium features require IT admin configuration before users can access them. This configuration includes enabling end-to-end encryption for meetings, adding watermarks to meetings, customizing backgrounds, and much more.

With the new addition of the attendee name masking feature, Microsoft Teams Premium continues to raise the bar for webinar privacy and experience. Prepare for the rollout and make the most of this novel feature by updating your Teams Premium package.