Everything You Should Stop Doing on Your Work Computer
The employee monitoring software that you can safely expect to have installed on your work computer allows your workplace to view every website you visit, every email you send, and even all the personal passwords you save. You may have come to terms with the fact that privacy hopes are all but eradicated. However, it’s hardly a good idea to give your employer easy access to every unproductive moment of your day or every dirty joke you make on Slack. Here’s what you need to know about how most work laptops are monitored and what that means for your privacy as an employee.
You are being watched , if not in real time
According to the security experts in this Wirecutter article , you have to assume that yes, you are indeed being followed on your work laptop. However, they argue that for most of us, the fear of being subjected to harsh surveillance at work is unfounded.
Chances are when you got your work laptop it came with surveillance and security software. However, the extent to which you are being monitored depends on factors such as the size of your company, the resources they allocate to monitoring, and the type of information you process for your work. For example, Wirecutter notes that if you work with medical records, financial data, or government contracts, you can expect your employer to keep a close eye on what you do.
From G Suite to personal desktop folders, your employer can see it all
Business News Daily notes that “It’s important to remember that the work device is not your property – it belongs to the company.” Work under the assumption that everything you do on your work device can be legally recorded by your employer and that it’s incredibly easy for IT to access it.
Browsing history: not private
Be careful when doing personal activities like browsing social media, working part-time, or looking for a new job on your work laptop. Your employer’s access to this online behavior could backfire, says Joe Reyeski , CEO and founder of the avenue X group, Glassdoor . “Even if your colleagues are doing some crazy things on their work computers, you can be the one who is being held up as an example.”
Google Docs: Not Private
The Freedom of the Press Foundation looks at the reasons why you shouldn’t use a Google corporate account to store your personal data: namely, a G Suite Enterprise administrator can search employees’ emails and documents for specific phrases, and employers can “configure auditing to be notified.” about suspicious behavior, and create your own scripts to save the data.”
Messaging with colleagues: not private
Is this lack of privacy annoying you? Be careful talking about this via Slack. It’s easy to feel like Slack and similar messaging apps are private conversations with your colleagues, but those messages are stored on the server and are easy to retrieve. Slack “has access to all of your chats,” Trevor Timm tells Fast Company , “[as well as] any internal communication that you might not want in public,” including private conversations. Wirecutter recommends a third party app (like Signal ) on your personal phone for all your third party conversation needs.
Desktop folders: you guessed it, not personal
Again, remember that your work laptop is not your property. Reyeski tells Glassdoor of a company that went out of business and decided that “securely deleting personal data from work computers is not a top management priority.” Former employees had no idea what had happened to their computers or the information stored on them, such as folders with tax returns, family photos, and other personal data.
What not to do on a work laptop
So what does all this observation mean for your laptop habits? Here is some general protocol of what should be avoided on production devices.
- Do not store personal passwords or store personal information in keychains. In theory, your employer can access and/or delete them at any time.
- Don’t browse social media , don’t watch Netflix, and don’t do anything unproductive that could backfire on you.
- Don’t talk nasty things on Slack and don’t send messages that you don’t want your employer to see.
- Don’t look for new job openings as your current employer can see your browsing habits.
- Don’t work on the side , unless you want HR to note the fact that you work for someone else during work hours.
- Do not try to remove the employee monitoring program yourself. This may be a tempting act of resistance, but it will only draw attention to you.
Recommendations for your work laptop
Here’s what else you can do to minimize employer surveillance.
- Turn off your computer after work.
- Cover your webcam when not in use .
- To avoid being heard, here’s a tip from this Reddit thread : “Buy crappy headphones with a mic and cut the cable. Plug it into your laptop.” You can also purchase your own headset with a hardware mute button and leave it muted until you need to speak.
- Type more often to make it look like you’re working .
- To protect data for both yourself and your workplace, always make sure you’re signed in to a secure, password-protected Internet connection. Never leave your laptop unattended or open in public places, especially if you work with confidential information.
bottom line
You don’t have to assume that human eyes are on you all the time. However, if your employer needs to find a valid reason to fire you (for example, in the event of a termination), they have access to a large amount of data about your daily activities, which they can look at retroactively. Fortunately, knowing how you are being followed, you can act on the specific tips above.
As a matter of radical openness, I want to reveal the fact that I checked Twitter about forty times in the time it took me to research and write this article. Yes, on my work laptop. Irony does sometimes elude me.