What does LabTech Service Watchdog show my employer?
October 25, 2022 4:08 PM Subscribe
My work computer has something called LabTech Service Watchdog installed on it, to keep tabs on me. But what is it actually showing my employer? Only websites I visit? Screenshots every however many minutes? Idle time? How far back does it keep this information? I'm unable to find much about this program.
Agree with the Reddit replies. Assume everything is monitored. Anything that’s on the hard drive, on the screen, any browser history, anything typed, any user activity or lack thereof.
Put anything personal — files, browsing, logins — on a private computer or tablet or phone. (I don’t practice what I preach here fwiw.)
posted by supercres at 8:43 PM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Put anything personal — files, browsing, logins — on a private computer or tablet or phone. (I don’t practice what I preach here fwiw.)
posted by supercres at 8:43 PM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Including any passwords you've typed from the keyboard. If you've logged in to your personal email or bank accounts, change those passwords from another computer immediately. Also, put tape over the webcam.
posted by AlSweigart at 11:37 PM on October 25, 2022
posted by AlSweigart at 11:37 PM on October 25, 2022
At the same time, this seems like more of a remote management tool, which IT is using to remotely manage your computer, rather than one of these productivity tracking bullshit tools that make you buy a mouse jiggler so that you don’t get in trouble for going pee.
posted by rockindata at 4:00 AM on October 26, 2022
posted by rockindata at 4:00 AM on October 26, 2022
These IT tools are capable of anything, because they can be leveraged to install other tools that may not be as obvious. You don't have any expectation of privacy on a work computer.
However - most companies don't have the time or interest to track you, especially if you are a valuable contributing employee. In general, no one wants to record all your browser history, because that just means they have to store it somewhere and someone has to look at it and analyze it and companies generally don't have that kind of adversarial relationship with their employees. No one wants to screenshot your computer because you might be looking at some kind of sensitive information even if you shouldn't be.
All this is irrelevant if your boss doesn't like you and wants to fire you - but usually they don't need to discover "evidence" on your computer, they can just fire you. And if you're in some kind of complicated dispute - like you haven't been actually working for months, or you're accused of a crime, people will start snooping.
Mostly, companies want to prevent issues from happening at all - so software may be installed that will just block your computer from going to known spyware sites. Your computer may upgrade the operating system and other software, outside of your control. And unauthorized/unnecessary/illegal software may be flagged because it costs the company money.
posted by meowzilla at 11:23 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
However - most companies don't have the time or interest to track you, especially if you are a valuable contributing employee. In general, no one wants to record all your browser history, because that just means they have to store it somewhere and someone has to look at it and analyze it and companies generally don't have that kind of adversarial relationship with their employees. No one wants to screenshot your computer because you might be looking at some kind of sensitive information even if you shouldn't be.
All this is irrelevant if your boss doesn't like you and wants to fire you - but usually they don't need to discover "evidence" on your computer, they can just fire you. And if you're in some kind of complicated dispute - like you haven't been actually working for months, or you're accused of a crime, people will start snooping.
Mostly, companies want to prevent issues from happening at all - so software may be installed that will just block your computer from going to known spyware sites. Your computer may upgrade the operating system and other software, outside of your control. And unauthorized/unnecessary/illegal software may be flagged because it costs the company money.
posted by meowzilla at 11:23 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by phunniemee at 4:40 PM on October 25, 2022