[ox411]

i work for a company on a 'temporary' basis.... meaning that officially i dont have a permanent spot here, but ive worked here 6 days a week for the past 10 years or so.

there is an internet network here, and for many of the office staff they provide computers, however for people in my type of job they require us to have our own.

my question is when i use my computer to sign on to my aol account through my company's network, are they able to see what i type when i balance my checkbook or instant message with my wife?

i know many companies are spying on their employees online activities, but i dont know if theyre allowed to (or even if theyre able to) spy on me when i use a non-company machine. no one from IT has ever touched my computer or installed any software on it

any information would be appreciated.
thanks
-josh

[Advertisements]

If you use your computer to log on to their network, they can "see" all of your online activity. They would be within their legal right to observe any activity happening on their network, so never assume you have privacy on their network.
Johanna

[Johanna]

If you use your computer to log on to their network, they can "see" all of your online activity. They would be within their legal right to observe any activity happening on their network, so never assume you have privacy on their network.
Johanna

[ox411]

so they can see my passwords and account numbers when i sign on to citibank?

or they can just see that ive gone to citibank.com?

[Johanna]

If the system admin were determined to recover your account numbers and passwords, he probably could. Would the company try to get your passwords? Probably not. They would have logs of the sites you visited while logged on to their network.
Johanna

[ox411]

thanks for your time with this....

so basically what youre saying is:

generally they will have a log of the sites visited like they would see i went to "geekstogo.com"

but they wouldnt be able to see the things im typing without a concentrated effort?

i know you dont know how its set up here specifically, but im just asking for the general way things work

thanks again

[Johanna]

If the boss wanted to fire you, or the system admin wanted to steal from you, nothing is private. Anything transmitted on the network is fair game- emails, IMs, websites, etc. It depends on how compelling the reason is for someone to want to know. In an extreme case, like if the FBI has a warrant, anything is possible with a good tech and modern computer forensics. (Refer to rule #1 of computer security: "deleted" doesn't mean "gone" until it's been overwritten many times, or the drive destroyed.) If you are using their network against their policy, it might flag an admin's attention. For example, if you were using a great deal of bandwidth illegally downloading music, a deviation from norm report might be generated. Remember, any webmaster or ISP in the chain automatically knows certain things about you when you visit their site. OS, browser, screen resolution, referring link, pages and times viewed, and other necessary information is exchanged between computers when they make the connection.
Johanna

[ox411]

thanks for you help....