Never do anything on work machines/networks you don't want to have to explain to hr/legal.
Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Sr. Systems Admin here. IT does not give 2 shits about what you browse UNLESS something is reported or something trips our Alerts (has to be something major like Child Porn).
We don't sit there and actively monitor and watch what you are browsing. We investigate when something is reported by a worker or an Alert/Filter gets tripped
HR also doesn't know unless we tell them.
Second. I once had a staff member come to me all embarrassed because someone sent a dick pick via some dating app while they was on our corporate wifi. I was like, "I promise we don't care".
I mean, its HTTPS right?
Https is no match for work monitoring: pre-installed software, certs.
Depends on the company size and the people above IT. Sometimes the boss is a chode and demands everyone be supervised like children constantly.
Also do some really weird things that are innocuous so the HR lady looks at you weird from now on.
Examples please?
Everybody has a cell phone nowadays. There's no excuse not to use your cell phone for private stuff. In fact don't use the company Wi-Fi. You must use the company Wi-Fi then you must use a VPN
But no excuse anymore not to use your phone, you don't need to use the word computer to browse, send emails, flirt, whatever
Everybody has a cell phone
All of my colleagues have work provided phones and laptops. They do all their personal shit on these devices (they don't have their own)
They think i'm a huge weirdo for having my own personal devices.... "Why waste money? Work gives us computer/phone... Lol, you carry two phones like a drug dealer?"
Just tell them "I don't want to spend company's resources for my own private life."
The only way is to give them back that guilt and fear they are feeling.
They see and scan all traffic, even what doesn't go through the browser.
No one should use work laptops other than for work
I never browse personal stuff on a company device. That's what phones are for. I also don't connect to company Wi-Fi on any personal device, because my company makes me sign in with my company's credentials. This should be common sense.
Anyone that uses work equipment for personal stuff deserves to be found out
Of course they can, they literally own the machine. You don't own it, so don't treat it like it's your own private job hunting platform or porn viewer.
Yea, this regular "surprise" that work computers are... IDK... owned by work and are configured as the owner requires... is so strange to me.
Your work can also read your private Slack messages. You have been warned.
I used TOR at work once, to download some RPMs. Corp IT had a fucking meltdown
I can't imagine why
Until you get asked by HR why you're breaking their policies by clearing history and why you're doing it. If it's a work device that's not yours, don't expect privacy. It's their property.
They don't need the computer to see everywhere you've gone. I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for clearing their history, but lots of people who have had problems visiting questionable sites.
I work in cybersec - I’m not going to speak for all businesses or individuals but I will give you my perspective.
Sometimes we need to see browser history to help with timeline correlation, it’s mainly to see “how did this file get here, was it downloaded etc.
Sometimes the investigators need to check out the things they need to check out, BUT
BUT
It needs to be done precisely and sparingly where needed only. This means instead of going through the entire history file, or doing unrelated correlation work (spying on you without cause) you are going to only grab specific timeframes from things you suspect explicitly to prevent any overreach. It’s a tricky balance to hold but also why it’s so important for people in tech to be privacy advocates as well.
There’s a difference between searching for answers to a problem that arose and looking for/predicting problems (thought crime detected!)
Oh no, my employer might find out I'm looking for other jobs after being overloaded for a year and a half and constantly having my concerns/feedback/process improvement initiatives brushed aside.
I’m an infrastructure analyst and at my workplace I implement such rules for specific reasons: 1) we need to be able to have evidence should an employee act maliciously with a company device. We do also monitor all queries but it’s passive. We can drill into your browsing history in great detail but won’t unless we have to (speaking personally here as I follow the code). 2) people will do dumb shit. And will lie to get support. Now, having been on the other end of a support ticket, I get it. Unless you lie a little, you may not get support promptly. Therefore, it’s part of my job to check what’s the lie and what’s the actual issue, which includes being able to see the download history. I would not be surprised if malware is accidentally downloaded and then it autonomously removes itself from the download history as It has happened before. Strictly speaking, this is done for both your safety as well as that of the company. And generally speaking, you should NEVER use your work laptop/phone/iPad for personal use because of all of the above.
Forget chrome management. Any IT shop worth their salt is protecting their egress with a proxy, explicitly or transparently set.
Don't browse the net on your employer's network or devices. Use your phone. Get on 4G/5G.
So only watch mainstream porn on work computers, got it.
I've always assumed work will be looking at the browser history. Anyone who assumes they won't is an idiot.
I mean, MS can literally track you between Windows installs, as long as you're on the same hardware. No surprises here.
your work
There's a big difference between a giant corporation (that wants you to continue using its products) seeing every site you've visited, and your fucking employer, source of not being homeless and starving to death.
My work has a 100% mandatory vpn and mitm proxy for ssl scanning. I just use parsec to view my laptop from my desktop and browse what I want on my actual personal computer
My work has a 100% mandatory vpn and mitm proxy for ssl scanning
These are worse than useless. They are anti safety. If this box or its private keys get compromised ALL tls traffic of all employees is immediately plaintext.
Any company that buys one of these appliances from mcafee or whatever is asking for it (losing most/all their secrets)