
Ask HN: Thoughts on Corporate Spyware on WFH Laptops? - anticonformist
In the past, I&#x27;ve always thought it was reasonable that the corp I work for have spyware on their laptop. It is theirs after all.<p>But, now that it lives in my house, my thinking has changed.<p>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.<p>Any thoughts? Any ideas how to get this change at my job?
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robmerki
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.

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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.

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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.

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duxup
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.

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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.

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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?

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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?

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idunno246
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

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

