HACKER Q&A
📣 anticonformist

Thoughts on Corporate Spyware on WFH Laptops?


In the past, I've always thought it was reasonable that the corp I work for have spyware on their laptop. It is theirs after all.

But, now that it lives in my house, my thinking has changed.

Now I think the corporation should be required by law to not have any kind of remote access to a computer used for WFH purposes.

Any thoughts? Any ideas how to get this change at my job?

  👤 robmerki Accepted Answer ✓
I would look for a new job if my employer was pushing productivity surveillance software on any equipment I was using.

Generally if you think monitoring your employees' work habits is going to boost productivity, you have larger issues within your company.

👤 dylz
My work machine has most things physically shuttered (like a camera cover), and runs on its own network connection. I have the onboard mic disabled in software and use an external USB headset when needed.

I think the bare minimum is that work should pay for a separate connection or hotspot.

Edit: Wait, are we talking "required by regulations/insurance/etc"-type antivirus and/or data loss prevention software or are we talking TAKE SCREENSHOTS EVERY 30 SECONDS TO ENSURE YOU ARE WORKING PRODUCTIVELY AND SEND THEM TO YOUR BOSS software.

👤 the_hoser
I only use my work laptop for work, and gets to live on the DMZ of my home network. I tape over the camera when I'm not using it and I don't care what they put on there.
👤 wdroz
A compromise could be that you use a dedicated virtual machine for work, so you can install corporate softwares on that VM. When you stop to work, you can simply shutdown/freeze the instance. That way, you can be sure that corporate softwares and your personal usage will never interact.
👤 detaro
Curious what particular aspect caused that change in thinking for you?/What kind of software you are now worried about you weren't before?
👤 uberman
Would this include legally mandated things, remote install and management or are you talking about screen scrapers ?

Personally I would think that anything supported at the office is fair game for the wfh office, with some reservation for recording of audio and video.

If you do feel that audio and video are off limits then what is your views on face recognition to unlock your phone and Alexa and her peers?

👤 Trias11
I use my own laptop with VPN installed. Done.