Your employer might be spying on your tech. Here’s how to check. 13JUN24

 IT is no surprise employers spy on their employees, through the employee's own phones, tablets, laptops and computers that employees may be required to use for work from home, business traveling and even in the office.  I have only used my phone for work and only because we are required to download an app to sign in to for security on company equipment. HUH? you ask? many of us employees ask the same. Check this out from the Washington Post .....

Your employer might be spying on your tech. Here’s how to check.

Six things you can do to get a sense of whether your employer is watching what you do on your devices.

By Danielle Abril

June 13, 2024 

Your employer may be able to see everything you’re doing on your phone or computer. They might know you’re reading this article right now. (Hi!) But how can you be sure?

Companies have a growing number of ways to keep tabs on workers. They can gather details from common workplace apps and use special monitoring software to see what’s happening on the company’s WiFi. The goal may be to protect sensitive company information or track employee performance, but there are bigger privacy implications for the people being watched.

“There’s little transparency,” said Hayley Tsukayama, associate director of legislative activism at the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “Even figuring out what is on your computer can be a huge step to figuring out how you want to deal with it.”

While there’s no foolproof way to know whether you’re being monitored, some techniques could provide insight, according to privacy and security experts.

Know what tech is riskiest

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You’re at a higher risk for spying if you’re using a company-issued device, which offers the least privacy and will ultimately return to your employer, experts say. But you also could be exposed if you downloaded work software on your personal device or use their networks. To be safe, do these checks on any device or network you use for work.

Check your devices for tracking software

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There are a few settings on your smartphones and computers that may allow for your workplace to remotely monitor you.

Check to see whether your device has mobile device management software, or MDM, installed. That allows your employer to remotely monitor your activities and take control of the devices. On an iPhone, go to Settings → General → VPN → Device Management. You should see a profile listed if your employer is using the software. On an Android, search for a setting called Device Admin Apps (the setting name may differ slightly depending on your device). On a Windows laptop, go to Settings → Accounts → Access Work or School. It’s under Privacy & Security → Profiles on a Mac.

Another way to check for software that employers use — also called “bossware” — is to review what’s running in the background on your laptop by checking your task manager or activity monitor, Tsukayama said. For quick access on PCs, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete. On a Mac, you can access the activity monitor by clicking on Utilities in your apps folder. Scroll through the list of running apps and Google the ones you don’t recognize.

Coworker.org, an organization that aims to support workers, offers a list of bossware and employment tech for which to look. Note that some programs may be invisible to you, Tsukayama said, citing EFF research.

Look for remote sharing settings, which would allow your employer to remotely control your device, including the microphone and camera, advises privacy researchers Diana Freed, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and Julio Poveda, a PhD student at the University of Maryland. On Macs, it will be under System Settings → General → Sharing. On Windows, it should be under Settings → System.

Finally, check to see whether you are the administrative account for your device. Start-up screens may ask you to log in as a separate user than the administrator, or your computer may prompt you for an administrative password anytime you try to download an app. That could indicate your employer has control of your device, Tsukayama said.

Inspect your extensions and apps

 It’s not just hidden apps and settings that are tracking you. Scroll through all of the applications installed on your laptop and research any you don’t know. Which are regularly asking you to install updates? Are you familiar with what those apps do? Were you ever asked to install an app for troubleshooting with your IT department?

“Be curious,” Tsukayama advised. “Also look for the marketing material for the app you find. They will often list, as features, the things they can do.”  

Check your web browser extensions, recommends Mark Ostrowski, an engineering lead at cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies. If you have browser extensions that are part of your company’s security tools, they will probably make themselves known, he added. A pop-up might warn you not to put patient information into ChatGPT, for example. Or it may say that it’s checking files you download for malicious content.

While these extensions usually monitor for security issues, things such as malware or the release of sensitive data, they can also track user habits. If the company decided to audit you, they may see that you’ve been spending half the day shopping on Amazon, Ostrowski said.

Also avoid downloading personal extensions on the same browser licensed to, he added. Don’t download the Garmin web extension to your company-provided Chrome browser if you don’t want your employer to be able to access your workout activities.                          

Understand your network

Using your company’s WiFi or virtual private network (VPN) could also leave you exposed.

Even if you’re on a personal device on a work network, your employer may be able to see activities including messages, browsing activity and social media posts, Ostrowski said. Any traffic flowing through a company VPN, which companies often use for security purposes, can also potentially be monitored, Freed and Poveda said. Use your personal hotspot over company connections for personal activities. You can also use a personal VPN on a personal laptop without company software on the work WiFi, Ostrowski said. 

Don’t trust apps you use for work

A lot of what you do is collected by your workplace apps. Even if you don’t use company devices or networks, your boss still may be able to get a sense of what you’re typing, searching or saying.

Tools like Microsoft Office, Slack, Google Workplace and Zoom often track user activity for safety, security or compliance. But they also allow administrator accounts (that’s your employer) to retrieve information in some cases.

“If I [an employer] want to look at the content of the email that you're sending through the corporate account, that can be done today directly between the [software provider] and the company’s security team,” Ostrowski said. “There’s no way for the employee to see that.”

That means your employer may be able to see an email you sent your doctor or a message to your colleague criticizing your boss. They could see how many meetings you attended and whether you had your camera or microphone on during them.

New AI technologies are coming that can offer companies new, more thorough opportunities for surveillance in the future.

A majority of Americans oppose the use of AI to evaluate performance (39 percent), track what people are doing on their computers (51 percent), and whether workers are at their desks (56 percent), according to a survey from Pew Research Center.

Know your rights

 “Workers don’t have a lot of legal rights [here],” Tsukayama said. “So you don’t have much ground to push back.”

What can you do? Review your workplace policies. Not all employers will outline the surveillance they use, but some do, Tsukayama said. If you are part of a union, ask for guidance and rely on them when you have concerns. You can also ask the IT department directly.

The best protection? Keep your personal and work data separate. If you’re worried about your employer seeing your child’s baby pictures, sensitive medical information or flirtatious text messages to your partner, keep them off the devices you use for work, if possible. Even if it means carrying two phones.

“Once you put it out there, just assume it can be seen,” Ostrowski said.         

SMASH CISPA...AN UPDATE & CALL TO ACTION 27APR13

UPDATE! VIDEO FROM THE YOUNG TURKS, CISPA defeated in the US Senate!!! This issue is not dead, it keeps showing up in legislation, so it is important to click the link below and tell your Senators to continue to oppose CISPA...

http://youtu.be/ke-tk1q08uo

THE US House passed CISPA this week, but there are multiple groups fighting this legislation in the US Senate and Pres Obama has pledged to veto any legislation including CISPA that comes to his desk. From the ACLU followed by links to e mail your Senators to tell them to vote no on legislation including CISPA

Thanks to tens of thousands of ACLU supporters and donors like you, last week we published a full-page ad in Politico opposing CISPA, modeled after classic horror movie posters of the 1950s. 

It sent an unmistakable signal to Capitol Hill that CISPA is a dangerous threat to our freedom we refuse to tolerate. And President Obama swiftly agreed, issuing a veto threat against CISPA the very next day, just like we called for in our massive petition—an incredible victory! 

But the US House of Reps went rogue, passing the bill anyway—with virtually none of the amendments proposed to protect our privacy. It looks like the bill may be dead in the Senate, but some key senators are talking about measures that are even worse than CISPA. 

In response, we’re mailing posters of the CISPA ad to powerful players on the Senate Intelligence Committee in D.C. so they understand that CISPA, or anything like it, is unacceptable. And we need to keep spreading the word about the threat to our online privacy to the public, too
FROM Demand Progress...

Here we go again.

Last week, a majority of representatives in the House voted in favor of CISPA, and therefore in favor of allowing companies to share your personal data with other firms, the US government, and the NSA--all without a warrant and with legal impunity.

But now the fight moves to the Senate, where we have some of our staunchest allies and where we won this fight last year.

Click here to urge your Senators to oppose any cyber security legislation that doesn't protect our right to privacy. 

The Obama administration once again heard our voices and threatened to veto CISPA if the legislation did not more "carefully safeguard privacy and civil liberties."

But the fight is far from over. CISPA's corporate backers--IBM, Intel, Verizon, and AT&T--are spending millions lobbying in support of the bill precisely because it empowers them to share your private data with government agencies and the military while safeguarding themselves from legal action.

The big corporations are going to keep pushing for CISPA at the expense of their users' privacy and liberties. Tell your Senators to oppose anti-privacy cyber-security legislation now. 

Indeed, IBM's VP of government affairs admitted last week that his company intended to use CISPA to "work directly and share information directly" with the National Security Agency.

Now, as before, we cannot sacrifice our hard-won liberties and privacy rights in the pursuit of a misguided and overbroad conception of "cyber-security."

Click here to tell your Senators to oppose CISPA and any other "cyber-security" legislation that doesn't safeguard our privacy rights.

Please urge your friends to take action by forwarding this email or using these links:

	If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
	If you're already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet

Thanks,

Demand Progress

Tell President Obama: Protect My Privacy, Veto CISPA 6MAR13

CISPA is back on the legislative agenda, Congress just refuses to believe the American people actually expect their rights to be protected. Please sign the petition from the ACLU telling Pres Obama to veto any legislation including cispa, click this link https://www.aclu.org/secure/tell-obama-veto-CISPA 

The feds know exactly what you bought last night—or they could very soon, thanks to a proposed law that encourages companies to share data with government agencies like the CIA or NSA for cybersecurity purposes. So get ready for powerful people in secret places to access your personal details on anything from the websites you browsed last night to that Christmas present you bought two years ago. But luckily, there's a way to stop CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) dead in its tracks—by ensuring that President Obama would veto the bill if it ever got to his desk.		Tell President Obama to protect our privacy and veto CISPA.
CISPA was recently reintroduced in the House, but a veto threat would kill the bill before it gets traction, and send a powerful message to Congress that any legislation that indiscriminately violates our online privacy is dead in the water. Just last year, thousands of us joined together in opposition to CISPA, and we WON. Obama threatened to veto the bill last year, but in order to protect our privacy online, we have to get him to do it again. Urge President Obama to tell Congress now that he'll veto CISPA if it lands on his desk.  CISPA would give companies unprecedented power to obtain your information, including from private communications, and hand it over to the government without a warrant if they believe it is relevant to cybersecurity. But it also allows the use of your personal data for reasons completely unrelated to cybersecurity, even granting immunity to companies who share your data with other companies. CISPA supporters are using the specter of cybersecurity threats to execute a naked power grab for companies and the government, but we're not actually safer if it comes at the expense of our fundamental rights. With so many pressing fights coming up, Congress won't waste time pushing a bill they know Obama will veto. We stopped this bill before, and with tens of thousands of us coming together, we can do it again. Join fellow ACLU supporters in calling on President Obama to veto CISPA.  Thanks for standing together, Anthony for the ACLU Action team