Tracy Maleeff, an information security analyst at The New York Times, pointed to security concerns as well: “From the employer's perspective, it just adds to the threat model of potential infected documents.” If you’re fired, your laptop is usually the first thing it’ll take from you, and if your company ends up in a lawsuit, any files on your laptop or desktop are fair game. Don’t store personal files on your work-issued laptop or phoneĮvery security expert I spoke with mentioned one no-no: storing personal files on an employer-issued phone or computer.

Here are some less obvious tasks you should be mindful of. That being said, almost all large companies have a targeted program for doing this, especially for dealing with suspected insider threat or fraud.”Įven if your every move isn’t being watched, it’s still best to assume your work computer is monitored and act accordingly. It tends to generate a lot of useless data, rope the employer into liability issues, and generally make the team that monitors these surveillance systems miserable. Jesse Krembs, senior information security analyst at The New York Times, said, “Without supporting evidence, at scale this is pretty rare. If you work with sensitive materials, such as health records, financial data, or government contracts, you can count on your employer keeping a careful eye on what you do.įor most of us, the fear of being heavily surveilled at work is unwarranted. What type of surveillance and security software is installed on your company computer is often based on two factors: how large the company is (and what resources it has to dedicate to this) and what type of information you deal with in your role. In the most watchful of workplaces, this may include keyloggers that can see everything you type or screenshot tools that track your productivity. You probably shouldn’t do any of this on a computer provided by your employer.Įmployers can install software to monitor what you do on your work-issued laptop or desktop.

If you use a work-issued laptop or desktop computer, you’ve likely been tempted to check your personal email, store private files on the company’s Google Drive, or avoid work entirely by diving into a research rabbit hole that has absolutely nothing to do with your job.

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