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can my employer see what web sites I visit

where I work, we have a big brother system that can see everything you do on the computers, fax machines, cell phones, etc. It's one of those things where you know they are not always watching, but you know they could be at any moment. They can also take control of a device for tech support purposes.

Fear will keep the local systems in line.
 
b166er said:
where I work, we have a big brother system that can see everything you do on the computers, fax machines, cell phones, etc. It's one of those things where you know they are not always watching, but you know they could be at any moment. They can also take control of a device for tech support purposes.

Fear will keep the local systems in line.
Click to expand...

That's precisely why I asked whether his phone was provision via the Enterprise Deployment Tool.
 
Depends how much time your IT department has on it's hands. If they've got a guy just sitting around, they might have him running reports on all internet activity (it happens).
 
Just to explain the company side of things. I've handled these investigations in the course of my job with a major corporation.

The concern from a company standpoint almost always stems around legal exposure. If you are using a company device to do something that violates company policy (surfing porn, cyber stalking your ex, etc) , their main concern is THEIR legal exposure should something happen.

If you are surfing porn on a company phone off the clock and showing p0rnhub videos at happy hour and a coworker complains, there can potentially be a harassment claim filed against you AND the company for providing the means to do it.

To be consistent, they are going to come down pretty hard on the use of company materials for those things, mostly to be consistent.

That doesn't mean they are going on a witch hunt. As someone said earlier, there are way too many internet records, phone logs and email history for anybody to even want to start going through. But if someone decides to, the information is there.

Most companies have internet filters that block a lot of stuff out. Many companies, like mine, occasionally run keyword searches of internet history looking for specific words. A few years ago we ran one that was designed to search for potential child pornography, but as a byproduct came up with a lot of people who were accessing adult porn that had gotten through the filter. A whole bunch of them got fired. Others saw demotions and rating impacts. (Obviously this was laptop/desktop access not through a smartphone.)

The lesson I learned is when in doubt, DON'T do it on your company device. Even though my company pays for my blackberry and allows reasonable personal usage, I bought my own separate device. (Ironically I ported my work number to the personal device as I have plenty of minutes to manage work calls and all my friends and family used that number.)

I'd rather pay the extra money out of pocket for a device than worry about big brother.
 
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Hello not to beat a dead horse but I have a serious question.
OK I am in the military and I am currently staying at a military hotel the hotel offers free WIFI service to the guests. I think you know where this is going. OK so being that it is a civilian company offering the WIFI (Sprint ) and I am using my own personal lap top ( Not GOVT property) Can I view what I want to? Thank you for your input
 
Nobody can answer that question with 100% certainty. Even if the service provider is Sprint, whoever owns the local side (the router) could be looking at everything you do.

Unless you are on an encrypted connection (lock symbol in the address bar) assume that everything you are doing could be viewed by somebody somewhere.
 
robbor said:
Hello not to beat a dead horse but I have a serious question.
OK I am in the military and I am currently staying at a military hotel the hotel offers free WIFI service to the guests. I think you know where this is going. OK so being that it is a civilian company offering the WIFI (Sprint ) and I am using my own personal lap top ( Not GOVT property) Can I view what I want to? Thank you for your input
Click to expand...

I know awhile ago the US military was not allowed to view wikileaks. Other than that I still suggest a good VPN such as witopia or at least a free solution such as HotSpot Shield. You could also look into TOR but that is slightly harder to set up.

If you go with hotspotshield use firefox and an adblocker.
 
unrelated to phones, but what about a company laptop? I am taking mine on a training thing i have to go for in a couple weeks. I know they track everything at work when i am connected to there network. But how about when I am on like a hotels WIFI or like, pretty much i should just have to delete the cookies/cache right? and im all set?
 
Airforcekid said:
I know awhile ago the US military was not allowed to view wikileaks. Other than that I still suggest a good VPN such as witopia or at least a free solution such as HotSpot Shield. You could also look into TOR but that is slightly harder to set up.

If you go with hotspotshield use firefox and an adblocker.
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Not sure what a hot spot shield is. I have an alternative though. I have a hot spot (MIFI) from my cell carrier that I can use to look at " educational " videos. I have never heard of them tracking the the Free WIFI of guests at hotels but you never know. :)
 
Shockwave78 said:
unrelated to phones, but what about a company laptop? I am taking mine on a training thing i have to go for in a couple weeks. I know they track everything at work when i am connected to there network. But how about when I am on like a hotels WIFI or like, pretty much i should just have to delete the cookies/cache right? and im all set?
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They could have local software installed taking screen shots and tracking everything you do and you would never know.

It all depends on the solution your company employs.

My suggestion, if you want to do personal things on a PC, use a personaly owned device. End of story.
 
Not to beat a dead horse but I was on break and visited a xxx site on my personal phone. I noticed I was signed in as a guest, no password required just hit accept to join wifi, can they identify my personal phone and phone number?

Edit was already on from earlier use. Yes I know dumb move, thought I wasn't on wifi.
 
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techcurious said:
Not to beat a dead horse but I was on break and visited a xxx site on my personal phone. I noticed I was signed in as a guest, no password required just hit accept to join wifi, can they identify my personal phone and phone number?

Edit was already on from earlier use. Yes I know dumb move, thought I wasn't on wifi.
Click to expand...

In my understanding, not in a way that you need to worry about. Yes, they can see that a device is accessing a porn site, but without a log-in, it's just a device on the network, and they shouldn't be able to pull a phone number from the data. Of course, this depends on how big your office is, how many people were on the guest account while you were accessing the site, etc.
 
I'm sorry but if you are accessing porn sites on an iPhone, you are pretty much a pathetic human being. For the love of god, at least wait until you get home to use a regular computer.
 
andyx3x said:
I'm sorry but if you are accessing porn sites on an iPhone, you are pretty much a pathetic human being. For the love of god, at least wait until you get home to use a regular computer.
Click to expand...

So if you do it at home in your Mom's basement, on a desk top, this somehow makes you less pathetic?
 
^ This.

Didn't see anyone point this out too strongly - but don't do it during working hours. A former co-worker started surfing it more and more throughout the day, it started becoming a productivity issue, they they started looking at his logs...

If the company is paying you to work, then work. Do what you want on YOUR time.
 
techcurious said:
Not to beat a dead horse but I was on break and visited a xxx site on my personal phone. I noticed I was signed in as a guest, no password required just hit accept to join wifi, can they identify my personal phone and phone number?
Click to expand...

If the IT department or management at your location is committed enough, knows what they're doing, and keeps logs, then yes they can identify your phone.

Your web usage isn't identified by phone number, but each device does have a unique MAC address. That address is used to make sure the right traffic goes to the right device... basically, to make sure that the porn you loaded up goes to your phone and not, say, the boss's desktop.

Of course, it can also be used to find out who loaded up what, if the IT department where you work is smart enough. Only your phone has that MAC address, so by association, it identifies you.

(Note to techies: yes MAC addresses can be spoofed, but I have my doubts the OP had the foresight to do this.)
 
I work at a small company 30 employees with about 45-100 people using the wireless network connection. We have 1 IT guy. I read a very graphic short story on my personal I phone at work. Will i get in trouble?
 
Hello,

I saw this thread and am hoping to find out what others think in regard to my situation - meaning what my IT Department can see.

I have the iPhone 5. It is my device - I own it. My employer had me put in my e-mail address and a password and if I recall a domain address so that my corporate e-mail's will go to the device. I am always on Verizons network or my home WIFI, never on a VPN or any employers wifi.

I know they can see everything as far as my work e-mail, but just wondering under these circumstances what else. Can they see all visited web traffic? Anything with texts or iMessages?

Thanks!
 
Hihohihohiho said:
I work at a small company 30 employees with about 45-100 people using the wireless network connection. We have 1 IT guy. I read a very graphic short story on my personal I phone at work. Will i get in trouble?
Click to expand...

Keep resume updated. :rolleyes:
 
Most of the replies in this thread are not helpful. In a possible moment of weakness or even stupidity, someone, who has already committed the act, (and even admitting it was not wise), asks what their employer can or cannot see. Most of the replies here are telling the poster, "don't do it at work" or, "don't do it on a work phone". The obvious is being stated over and over without adding to the discussion. If you don't have an answer to the question, keep your moralizing to yourself.
 
PoitNarf said:
Text messages? Only if they have physical access to the device.
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This is not true for some carriers. I can log into my Verizon account and see every text message sent and received and even send text messages from my computer through there. I messed with the hubby once by sending him text messages from himself to himself. :D
 
chux said:
Most of the replies in this thread are not helpful. In a possible moment of weakness or even stupidity, someone, who has already committed the act, (and even admitting it was not wise), asks what their employer can or cannot see. Most of the replies here are telling the poster, "don't do it at work" or, "don't do it on a work phone". The obvious is being stated over and over without adding to the discussion. If you don't have an answer to the question, keep your moralizing to yourself.
Click to expand...

And what exactly did you add to the discussion that was 2 years old?
 
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