Ask HN: Thoughts on Corporate Spyware on WFH Laptops?

4 points by anticonformist 5 years ago | 10 comments

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 5 years ago |

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 5 years ago |

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 5 years ago |

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.

duxup 5 years ago | |

Same here, the work laptop is for work, otherwise it is lava.

And that's ok with me, it's work's laptop, not mine.

uberman 5 years ago | |

This is my mode as well.

wdroz 5 years ago |

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 5 years ago |

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 5 years ago |

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?

idunno246 5 years ago | |

My reaction to this was it’s their laptop, and wfh doesn’t really change that. I don’t even care about network sniffing, but man camera and mic access seems iffy. At least camera I can physically block.

I do think there’s a difference between an Alexa and my employer getting 24 access to my mic. By being in more people’s houses Alexa is much more likely to be detected if doing something nefarious, and the choice to risk it is entirely up to me. Find a new job is much harder than the alternative to voice command

Trias11 5 years ago |

I use my own laptop with VPN installed. Done.