Can a company track web usage on a company laptop not on the network?

June 25, 2013 8:26 PM

I recently took a job for a new company and received a company laptop. However, I'll be a remote employee working from home and travelling. The company is a small independent subsidiary of a large Japanese company who hires out their IT functions to an independent contractor. I won't be googling any super-weird stuff, but hey, it gets boring in hotels sometimes. How can I know if my company can monitor any web usage remotely?

I know about Incognito mode and preventimg Flash from storing anything in its cache. I'm thinking of stuff running in the background. My main suspects are Trend Micro Internet Security and Browser Guard, but I'm not sure if they can be used for that sort of monitoring or if they're just innocent malware protectors. Any input on those programs or anything else to watch out for? Sent from my cell phone.

posted by anonymous to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

If it's a company provided laptop, odds are good they have some way of monitoring activity, most likely via software.
posted by Telpethoron at 8:32 PM on June 25, 2013

You can't tell what they are doing, you don't have the expertise. If they allow booting from a usb or CD, then you can use a bootable linux for your personal use.
posted by Sophont at 8:32 PM on June 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

Assume they are, and behave accordingly.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:41 PM on June 25, 2013 [13 favorites]

+1 to running a Linux distro on a USB drive.

Grab a ISO of Ubuntu and boot off of that, modern linux distros run surprisingly fast in Live mode these days.
posted by walka at 8:43 PM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

If the device has USB 3 ports, grab a fast usb3 flash drive and a linux live USB distro with persistence, boot to the thumb drive and go on your merry way.
posted by iamabot at 9:20 PM on June 25, 2013

If it's a company provided laptop, odds are good they have some way of monitoring activity, most likely via software.

Actually odds are very very bad. As a rule, companies just don't do this. Monitoring networks or installing some sort of "net nanny" is fairly common, logging keystrokes on the physical machine is spy stuff, and is usually done with hardware. And even if they did, they have to recover it. Doing all this to log what websites someone goes to is, frankly, farcical.

So of course don't rule it out, and if you want to be 1000% safe bring your own personal computer too. But it's highly unlikely.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:21 PM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

And if they were doing some crazy spy stuff (they're not), they could still log your keystrokes, and honestly connecting a Linux usb stick would set off approximately 10 trillion more red flags than looking at a nudie site.

If you want to be 1000% safe, use your own machine.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:23 PM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

There are log files that the OS usually stores that may or may not hang you.

Be professional. Suck it up until you can buy your own machine.
posted by Sphinx at 9:31 PM on June 25, 2013

Doing this remotely would be a pain. The Linux option is to put a bootable version of Linux on a CD or USB stick, and boot the Operating System from the CD/USB stick. You have a web browser, and off you go. The other option is to bring a tablet. You should also consult the employee manual, and see what is explicitly allowed/prohibited. I'd avoid porn and gambling sites, but some companies would block Metafilter or Netflix. Makes sense at the office, not so much on the road.

Note: OP has stated that this is largely for use when traveling. I agree that for home use, you should have your own computer.
posted by theora55 at 9:53 PM on June 25, 2013

Ours certainly do---apparently they log metadata for all network connections at an os level, including https connections. "Private Browsing" modes don't really affect this. All web traffic is logged and checked against one of the commercial services. A lot of that is just a software service/outsourced for us too. Devices connected (like USB drives) and even "portable" versions of software are logged and monitored.

Anything that protects can also trivially monitor and log. I bring my own phone and/or tablet on business trips.I just wish someone would port a good IF interpreter to Android already.
posted by bonehead at 11:18 PM on June 25, 2013

Oh, and ours apparently "phone home" everytime we make a VPN connection.
posted by bonehead at 11:22 PM on June 25, 2013

I think monitoring while your are on the company network (via VPN or in person) is to be expected. But I think the question is more about off-network use. Just goofing around on the company laptop after hours. And that seems much less likely (though not possible, of course).
posted by Chrysostom at 12:55 PM on June 26, 2013

Intel Active Management Technology can transparently offer remote KVM functionality regardless of OS, across 802.11b wireless networks and outside the company LAN, so depending on your level of concern you have to assume that the laptop is trojaned in such a way that anything you do while on a network (even if not booted into the corporate OS) can be tracked. It is exceedingly unlikely that this is being done by your new employer, but I mention this because it is in the bounds of possibility.
posted by jepler at 5:15 PM on June 26, 2013