Hacker News Reader

Comment by xfitm3 | Hacker News Reader

If you ever get popped then your entire laptop is sent off for forensics, and if you delete personal data it will appear as if you were tampering with it and will get fired anyway.

Always use a separate machine for work, and another for personal.

View on HN

And any personal work you might have done using your work laptop now has a legal opening for your employer to claim ownership to, since you developed it using company assets.

Is this the case in most places (e.g. all of US, Europe?)

Definitely the case in the US. I don't know about Europe. It can feel silly thinking about this in our industry with laptop usage. However, for the general legal reasoning consider something like using a company server farm or a chemistry lab for research on your side project. The difference is only in scale.

I built and sold a company on "Work machine" since I've been employed here in the last 7 years. This setup only works because of the company and the culture. I can sympathize that it wouldn't work for larger employers.

> you ever get popped then your entire laptop is sent off for forensics, and if you delete personal data it will appear as if you were tampering with it

You have the right to have your counsel filter what’s turned over for personal content.

This varies by country for sure. At my current company, you do not have this right. The device and all data on it belongs to the company and they can do what they want with it.

My counsel bills at a rate of new laptop an hour for this kind of work.

Always this. The separation of intellectual property concerns alone is reason enough.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com