I am seriously baffled at how normal it seems for americans to put up with this. This is illegal in germany. If i would find out about this behaviour i would instantly quit, warn my colleagues, turn to press and the police. Otherwise such things would be considered only a small offense at privacy if you act like this is normal.
Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
81–90 of 128 posts
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#82Hypothetical question: if your employer offered you the option of extra compensation to install keyloggers/screen capture software on your work computer, and you know that the logs are only being used for aggregate productivity statistics of the firm (de-anonymized), how much do you think would be a fair price? Assumption: you use a separate computer for your personal computing needs not related to work.
If it's aggregate stats (assume you meant anonymized), I wouldn't care very much.
If someone was watching me without my knowledge, I'd like quit when I found out. (Or perhaps make their life hell.)
Employers should just fess up and state clearly that they are doing this. It's the coverup that's the problem.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#83This [1] is a good read on what you can expect as remote work becomes widespread in a competitive job market. [1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/upwork...
This seems pretty easy to game for a software engineer: 1. Write code for the project and record mouse clicks and keystrokes 2. Replay keystrokes at .5 speed inside a mirrored VM a more sophisticated tool could also vary speed and add typos.
Or hire a sidekick from India to slowly and circuitously type it all in.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#84The trouble with taking screenshots is then you have to employ people to spend their day examining and evaluating the screenshots. Before computers could transcribe voice, the limiting factor of wiretapping is needing some poor schmuck who had to listen to all those utterly banal conversations, which has to be one of the worst jobs ever.
In general, the screenshot trace will only actually be looked at when someone decides that they want your ass for other reasons.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#85Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#86This makes me really glad that our company policy thus far has been giving employees new machines and have them set them up themselves. I know my work laptop has no spyware because I didn't install any.
I guessed my company's admin password and erased their partition. If I get laid off (they're cutting 20% of the workforce next week), then I consider the computer my severance pay. If they press the issue, they can come to my house and collect the machine. But I'll lick every part of it before I hand it over. Childish? Oh, heck yeah. But when I see my own company screwing over its employees and customers to protect t…
I wouldn’t so much consider this childish, as I would consider it criminal. You may feel justified in doing it, but don’t fool yourself: this would be theft.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#87This makes me really glad that our company policy thus far has been giving employees new machines and have them set them up themselves. I know my work laptop has no spyware because I didn't install any.
And you installed no internal apps at all? How did you get on the corporate Wi-Fi? How do you send print jobs to the office printer? It's quite rare for company-owned macs to be completely unmanaged. Usually the installation method for common corporate utilities is an MDM solution like Jamf (Self Service), which also transmits logs - for example how long each app was in the foreground[1] and what times you're using y…
I have work at multiple start ups, many of which I have been with as a grown from 5 to 500 people. A few have gone public
None of them do any sort of monitoring like this.
At some of them, I have lead the security team. and others, I have been in charge of IT.
Even at the ones where its not my job to handle that, I am supremely confident that we use no such software.
Beyond the policy problems that it would cause (private keys and customer data could be viewed, requiring very broad access roles), it would also be next to impossible to implement from a technological standpoint.
At every company that I've worked at in the last 12 years, engineers have had the ability to wipe their machine and reinstall.
In most cases, they have the ability to swap out hard drives and other components, Bring them to Apple stores for repair, etc.
No one that I know of users custom VPN software, or closed source Cisco stuff anymore.
I think you are dramatically overestimating how common this sort of thing is.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I wonder is the best way to determine whether this is going on and if so what it is doing exactly (or in broad terms)
If it's on a computer built for you by work / owned by work, all bets are off. Even if they're not taking screenshots, they can be logging keystrokes or web traffic or anything. If it's on a device you own: - Do not install software from your employer that requires admin permissions (i.e., requires typing your password). - If you're on recent versions of Windows or macOS, various powerful actions like taking screensh…
Thank you very much for the detailed answer.
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I wonder is the best way to determine whether this is going on and if so what it is doing exactly (or in broad terms)
If it's on a computer built for you by work / owned by work, all bets are off. Even if they're not taking screenshots, they can be logging keystrokes or web traffic or anything. If it's on a device you own: - Do not install software from your employer that requires admin permissions (i.e., requires typing your password). - If you're on recent versions of Windows or macOS, various powerful actions like taking screensh…
In germany, this would be highly illegal though. (screenshots, keystrokes)
Re: Employers who use software to take screenshots of workers’ computers
#90As a company owner, I've resisted the temptation to do this. We did make it easy for our employees to behave themselves by making it very easy to 'clock in' and 'clock out.' I told everybody that this is a time to be close to family - if your child wants to play ball in the middle of the day, then go ahead! Just clock out before you do. Get your 8 hours in and document your work. Thankfully everybody has responded we…
Why is it tied to time, instead of deliverables? I mean, if I work extra hard to get the days work done in 4 hours, why can’t I leave early compared to a co-worker who is working less focused and more slowly? I get that it’s not easy to set good milestones, and to keep it fair in terms of making sure everyone has approximately equal work, but I feel the same problems exist with required work “time” especially since i…
Most of the jobs with well-defined deliverables that can be completed in a few hours are pretty tedious, and they are the sort of job whose workers are most easily exploited with sweatshop tactics and in the gig economy.