The same goes for chat software, including Slack.
There’s only a select few people, but nothing is technically not viewable.” Due to the risk of sharing insider information, the number of individuals who have access to employee emails is usually small. Blum told me, “We can see people’s emails.
If you’ve ever considered drafting a resignation email calling your boss a jerk, do so elsewhere.Īs for non-Gmail employee email accounts, you can safely assume they’re being monitored too. Employers can set up audits to be notified of suspicious behaviour and create custom scripts for retaining data.įor example, an employer could establish a process by which your email drafts are saved even if they’re never sent. But the Freedom of the Press Foundation notes several reasons why you shouldn’t use a company-issued Google account to store your private data.Īdministrative users with G Suite Enterprise can search for specific phrases in an employee’s emails and documents, just like you can in your own account.
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Since it’s online and not software installed on our computers, it’s easy to think of G Suite, which includes services like Gmail, Google Docs, and Sheets, as private productivity software. Don’t use Google Docs, Slack, or similar tools for anything you don’t want your employer to see If your computer gets infected with malware, the security measures taken to try to get rid of problems might clear out your personal files, too. “Some of these tools, if they detect a breach, they’ll start wiping files,” Blum said. Isaac Blum, director of applications and system services at logistics real estate company Prologis, added that even if you feel like you have job security, you might not have data security, depending on the security tools your company uses. Tracy Maleeff, an information security analyst at The New York Times, pointed to security concerns as well: “From the employer's perspective, it just adds to the threat model of potential infected documents.” If you’re fired, your laptop is usually the first thing it’ll take from you, and if your company ends up in a lawsuit, any files on your laptop or desktop are fair game. Don’t store personal files on your work-issued laptop or phoneĮvery security expert I spoke with mentioned one no-no: storing personal files on an employer-issued phone or computer. Here are some less obvious tasks you should be mindful of. That being said, almost all large companies have a targeted program for doing this, especially for dealing with suspected insider threat or fraud.”Įven if your every move isn’t being watched, it’s still best to assume your work computer is monitored and act accordingly. It tends to generate a lot of useless data, rope the employer into liability issues, and generally make the team that monitors these surveillance systems miserable. Jesse Krembs, senior information security analyst at The New York Times, said, “Without supporting evidence, at scale this is pretty rare. If you work with sensitive materials, such as health records, financial data, or government contracts, you can count on your employer keeping a careful eye on what you do.įor most of us, the fear of being heavily surveilled at work is unwarranted. What type of surveillance and security software is installed on your company computer is often based on two factors: how large the company is (and what resources it has to dedicate to this) and what type of information you deal with in your role. In the most watchful of workplaces, this may include keyloggers that can see everything you type or screenshot tools that track your productivity.
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You probably shouldn’t do any of this on a computer provided by your employer.Įmployers can install software to monitor what you do on your work-issued laptop or desktop. If you use a work-issued laptop or desktop computer, you’ve likely been tempted to check your personal email, store private files on the company’s Google Drive, or avoid work entirely by diving into a research rabbit hole that has absolutely nothing to do with your job.