To start of, I’m not a tech person in the least. I work remotely for an insurance company. I don’t do anything on my work computer that I wouldn’t want my employer to know about. However, I do notice that when I Google something on my work computer, I immediately start getting ads for the product on my personal iPhone (they are on the same Wi-Fi, but I’ve never plugged any personal devices into my laptop). I’m curious how this happens and whether my employer may be able to see other things my family does at home. Are there any things I should or shouldn’t do to protect my privacy?
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Regarding your work computer, likely yes, your employer can know everything you do. Your employer likely sent you a remote work policy, read it closely as it should tell you how much/often they’re watching you. From a practical standpoint, there’s likely not someone watching your every move. Rather, it’s all logged and if something bad happens, they’ll go back and check their logs.
There are some genuine benefits to this system. If you call your IT help desk to fix something, and someone on the phone asks to take control of your desktop, the same software they’re using to control your screen to fix problems and push out updates, is likely the company spyware.
Google and other online advertisers have made it their priority to track you individually across as many systems as possible. The easiest way to do this is to ask you to login. Did you login to a personal gmail on your work system? Then any system where you’re logged in knows that you are you.
Outside of this, they’ve started setting up rather complicated systems of “fingerprinting”. This is a fancier way of the login system. The login system is cookies.
Fingerprinting is the combined use of other identifiers to uniquely identify users. This is proprietary and an active area of research, so I can’t reasonably give you all their tricks. For example, your IP address can identify your approximate geographic location. Your typing speed, exact jiggle pattern of your mouse could separate you from another user in your household. The fact that you’re searching for crochet patterns vs football scores might indicate a probability of your gender. The fact you clicked on a Game of Thrones ad identifies some of your interests. Maybe you entered your age on a form.
So if the IP address says you’re in New York City, has narrowed you down to 8.8 million people. If you’re in the 34-44 age bracket you’re narrowed down to 1.1 million. If you’re female you’re narrowed down to half of that for 550 thousand. Narrow it further by Game of Thrones interest, typing speed, mouse jiggle pattern, or other unknown factors and companies can get scarily good at targeting you down to ONE person. Without logging in.
There’s no way to protect your privacy from your work system. Only use it for work purposes and do NOT install any work software on your personal systems, especially your phone. Assume all work software is spyware and request dedicated work hardware. The last thing you want is your personal phone getting confiscated and your naked selfies being part of a court exhibit because your CEO got sued for fraud and your phone gets subpoenaed for a text message.
For general tech tracking, you want to use a browser that submits as little metadata as possible. Firefox is currently the best choice, though that can change on year to year basis. Don’t click on weird links, ensure you see the “https:” instead of “http: when browsing, and don’t login to services unless you need to. EU GDPR has actively improved privacy world wide, so vote for politics that protect privacy.
Regarding your work computer, likely yes, your employer can know everything you do. Your employer likely sent you a remote work policy, read it closely as it should tell you how much/often they’re watching you. From a practical standpoint, there’s likely not someone watching your every move. Rather, it’s all logged and if something bad happens, they’ll go back and check their logs.
There are some genuine benefits to this system. If you call your IT help desk to fix something, and someone on the phone asks to take control of your desktop, the same software they’re using to control your screen to fix problems and push out updates, is likely the company spyware.
Google and other online advertisers have made it their priority to track you individually across as many systems as possible. The easiest way to do this is to ask you to login. Did you login to a personal gmail on your work system? Then any system where you’re logged in knows that you are you.
Outside of this, they’ve started setting up rather complicated systems of “fingerprinting”. This is a fancier way of the login system. The login system is cookies.
Fingerprinting is the combined use of other identifiers to uniquely identify users. This is proprietary and an active area of research, so I can’t reasonably give you all their tricks. For example, your IP address can identify your approximate geographic location. Your typing speed, exact jiggle pattern of your mouse could separate you from another user in your household. The fact that you’re searching for crochet patterns vs football scores might indicate a probability of your gender. The fact you clicked on a Game of Thrones ad identifies some of your interests. Maybe you entered your age on a form.
So if the IP address says you’re in New York City, has narrowed you down to 8.8 million people. If you’re in the 34-44 age bracket you’re narrowed down to 1.1 million. If you’re female you’re narrowed down to half of that for 550 thousand. Narrow it further by Game of Thrones interest, typing speed, mouse jiggle pattern, or other unknown factors and companies can get scarily good at targeting you down to ONE person. Without logging in.
There’s no way to protect your privacy from your work system. Only use it for work purposes and do NOT install any work software on your personal systems, especially your phone. Assume all work software is spyware and request dedicated work hardware. The last thing you want is your personal phone getting confiscated and your naked selfies being part of a court exhibit because your CEO got sued for fraud and your phone gets subpoenaed for a text message.
For general tech tracking, you want to use a browser that submits as little metadata as possible. Firefox is currently the best choice, though that can change on year to year basis. Don’t click on weird links, ensure you see the “https:” instead of “http: when browsing, and don’t login to services unless you need to. EU GDPR has actively improved privacy world wide, so vote for politics that protect privacy.
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