They provide a laptop not on your personal machine because you other client data, right
Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
41–50 of 506 posts
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#42Install it on a spare laptop.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#43[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#44Anything corporate software is a no go on my personal devices. I like to draw a clear line between work and personal life. The only exception I made is having google authenticator on my cellphone, I feel like I would have been unreasonable to ask a company provided phone for this application only...
kvm switch are great to be able to re-use your input/output devices without mixing up personal and corporate stuff... this is what I use... A physical button to separate the 2 environments.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#45If you are a freelancer then your contract should allow you to do work for others. In which case, your response to this client has to be "Sorry, but my business laptop potentially has data from other clients on it. I can't let you install this monitoring agent without violating my contractual confidentially agreement with those other clients. I always maintain client confidentiality and will do the same for you. If you want to ship me a dedicated laptop for your engagement, I would be happy to install whatever you want on it."
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#46I know people who work for Fortune 500 companies who don't have such crap installed in their company laptops, and they mainly work remotely. I also work remotely and I dont have such thing installed either.
Installing agents is a sign that the company doesn't value trust with their employees and treats them as liabilities. Companies that made me an offer who had asked me if I would have an issue installing an agent just got rejected from my employer list. If they don't trust me doing my job why should I trust them doing their job. Why not install an agent to the CEO's computer as well? After all I should trust him that he's doing his job well enough for us not to lose our jobs. I'm also dependant on him after all. These are all relationships where trust plays a major role.
After all, if you think an employee isn't performing you can just have an annual PDR (Performance and Development Review) and figure out if you have to get rid of that employee or talk to him. Why spy on all of employees? Agents are just an excuse, not the means. It's a disgusting in my opinion excuse to spy on everyone.
Whatever the case or how common this is, I won't ever accept agents to spy on me. You do you but I think everyone should do the same. I demand your respect to be mutual to my and your privacy and sense of trust. Agents are harming the remote development space and skew the perception of what it means to have a healthy team.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#47I would decline. There are other jobs out there. Another alternative might be to install it into a VM or old but freshly-paved computer.
So far my strategy is to just ignore it and pray that the problem goes away by itself. If I have to deal with it eventually - quitting is the most appealing option. However, the reason I asked here is to get a feeling about how common this thing is. Is this normal? Am I the rat in the lab, or am I just late to the party?
This is spreading but still we must try to stop it. We will fail as we have failed so many times in the past but still we must try.
Say, we fought against DRM and while the music industry have completely abandoned it, that victory turns out to be useless because the video streaming industry have embraced it total and there's not even resistance against it this time.
I am so, so tired of fighting against these. I translated Doctorow's anti DRM speech in 2004 into my native tongue as one of my last acts as a Hungarian journalist. We have been fighting for so long. And the DRM war is lost.
Nonetheless , we need to stand. We, who have the privilege to be able to say "meh, I quit" because we know the next job is just days away. We need to for the sake of all those who do not have such a privilege.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#48Do you object outright to spyware, or to the client wanting to run their spyware on your equipment?
It sounds like the spyware is non negotiable and I personally wouldn’t have issue with it if the client also provides a laptop on which to run it. The client is free to do whatever the hell they like with their own hardware.
What’s objectionable about situations like this is the client wanting to have their spyware cake and eat it on someone else’s computer. That’s a great deal for them — why pay $5k for a laptop when you can just pay $100 for the spyware license instead?!
I realize the economics aren’t exactly on point, but I tend to view situations like this as them stealing $5000 — my laptop — from me.
So moving forward:
1/ you are “happy to help them reach their compliance goal and move to a Drata controlled environment”
2/ to do so you “will need to isolate them, as a client, to an airgapped environment solely for their work”
3/ which will need “$5k up front and a lead time of a week to order new hardware, or for the client to ship you a preconfigured laptop with configuration X Y and Z.”
Saying yes with principled conditions is always a good route forward. Yes-but instead of no-but.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#49If you are a freelancer then your contract should allow you to do work for others. In which case, your response to this client has to be "Sorry, but my business laptop potentially has data from other clients on it. I can't let you install this monitoring agent without violating my contractual confidentially agreement with those other clients. I always maintain client confidentiality and will do the same for you. If y…
> If you want to ship me a dedicated laptop for your engagement, I would be happy to install whatever you want on it
And they will install a trojan which would eavesdrop your talks, scan your home network and analyze its traffic.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#50Somewhat tangentially: I note that most managers seem to equate hours at the keyboard with productivity. I have heard of some employees being monitored via the notebook's video camera. Is it so difficult to define deliverables and pay for completed and tested work? The business value of any given function point is the same whether it took 100 hours to develop or 10 hours. Of course, more productive programmers would…
> Is it so difficult to define deliverables and pay for completed and tested work
It is? It's a problem as old as the hills — how do you measure the amount of work done? I can churn out several new features in very short time, but then spend two days chasing a bug which results in a single-line fix. From the management POV this looks like I've been very productive for a few hours and then spent two days doing fuck all.