Can my employer see my home Internet history?

I work for a company that recently bought out an old company I had worked for in the past.

The new company is moving from its old office location to a new one. As part of this, they are allowing all employees to use their own computers and equipment at their new locations. As the new employee, I've been offered a company laptop as part of the move. While I understand it's normal for employers to inspect your computer for malware and other issues, I'm wondering if they'll have access to my Internet history.

Can anyone answer this question or provide me a good link for what I'm asking? There's no rule in the UK that they should not, but this is a common misconception. Companies that provide home internet connections, they may use any of the available broadband services, including wireless, for instance. However, you have to look after your browsing history: some routers don't just block this information, but can also actively sniff it, meaning that it can be shared between company systems and those of the user. If they are using it for remote access, it could be used by the companies systems, even if you don't actually know they are. If your workstation uses a VPN connection to their company network, then you should be safe.

Can your employer see what you are doing online at home?

This is a follow up to a previous article (link below) that I wrote for the Canadian edition of Small Business Trends, which was a look at what can be done about monitoring employee internet use. I'm bringing this topic up again because it's been a long while since I wrote it and I wanted to give it an update.

So, my take away from the earlier article was that if you are concerned that your employer may be monitoring your internet activity at home, it probably is. In fact, if you do anything on the internet that can be viewed by your employer, then it is possible that they will know about it. There are several different ways they can see what you are doing, and it's not all bad.

The good news is that there are ways to protect yourself so that your activities online are private. Monitoring Online Activity. The first issue is that you need to be clear about what your employer means by 'monitoring'. In the earlier article, I said that it could mean that they are looking at what you are doing online, but it could also mean that they are simply looking at your internet history. They could have a program that records what sites you visit, and they may check that against the sites that you accessed when you were at work.

It's worth noting that some employers are already doing this, and it's no surprise that many larger companies have employees whose sole job it is to spy on their colleagues. They want to know if they are visiting porn sites or downloading inappropriate files.

I think the better approach is to assume that you are being monitored. The more you monitor yourself, the less likely you are to do something that will make your employer or co-workers upset. Monitoring your internet activities helps you to catch yourself doing something inappropriate. It also means that you don't have to worry as much about what you are doing at home and when you get home.

What You Can Do About Monitoring. You should also consider whether it would be more effective for you to install a program on your own computer that monitors your internet activity. This way you control the program and you can set it to run whenever you are logged into your company email account. For example, you could install a program that automatically monitors your internet activity every 15 minutes.

How can I hide my internet activity from my employer?

My husband and I run a small business and he's a programmer.

This year we opened up a second office so we can have more time to focus on the company. While working in that office, I would often go to his computer, work for a while, and then hide my internet activity so he couldn't see anything I was looking at. I'd get up, work for a while, and then come back home.

Now he's been fired and has hired a lawyer to fight it out. His attorney has informed me that he will have access to all of the emails and documents I sent or received while at the office.

When it comes to the business, there is nothing that is not shared with my husband. He has access to our bank accounts, our vendors, our business plans, and pretty much everything else. Now my husband thinks that if he figures out how to hide my online activity from him, that I can be forced to pay him for the time he worked when I was hiding my online activity. How can I protect myself from this? Should I just tell him what I was doing all along? I really don't want to take the chance that the information I shared with my husband will give him an edge in any kind of lawsuit.

The Internet Savvy. The answer to your question is that you need to find a way to work without going to the office - or work from home. If your husband can't be trusted with the information about what you did on your computer while you were in his office, then he's not a trustworthy ally to help you manage the business. He would be likely to share the information about what you were doing with his lawyer, and you'd end up with a legal problem for which you are entirely responsible.

I suggest that you consider two alternatives. First, let your husband go. He's only hurting himself. He'll never be able to compete if he can't trust you. You should be able to trust yourself to carry on the business without his help. You shouldn't have to live a double life in order to keep your husband happy. If you can't, you need to think long and hard about the consequences of keeping him happy.

Second, set up a completely separate business line.