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Comment by 0cf8612b2e1e | Hacker News Reader

I am constantly dumb founded at the people who conduct deeply personal business on a company laptop. Some individuals do not even own their own computer. Has every job hunt they have pursued has been done on their previous employers equipment?

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I have more personally owned computers than is reasonable, but I can understand people who get issued a company laptop and use it for everything.

It’s a couple hundred bucks a year to keep a personal laptop and if you’re mostly accessing cloud services, I can easily understand the temptation to use a company laptop for it all.

Also, when you travel or even commute using public transport, you don't always want to carry two laptops around.

I fly around the world for work. I have two laptops, plus a triple screen setup. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GTQZWG77/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb...

1. You leave the company laptop at work(in my case, at site).

2. Get a lightweight laptop for yourself.

3. Get a proper travel laptop bag. I have this one from Brics

https://www.bricsmilano.com/en-gb/products/underseat-backpac...

A tablet with Samsung Dex has replaced my travel netbook.

I never worked on a job that company policy allowed for personal use.

Naturally there are enough to try to flex the rules, while hoping not to get caught.

Lots of workplaces allow reasonable personal use.

The problem from IT security point of view is what is "reasonable" and how it impacts internal systems if the laptop gets used as attack vector.

>Has every job hunt they have pursued has been done on their previous employers equipment?

Yes. And the resume was updated and the applications filed while on the clock.

https://youtu.be/WcyNWbx8kAo?t=4

(the timestamp is important)

If you're salaried, every moment of time in your life is on the clock.

Certainly not in European countries, although probably irrelevant in this case.

That depends on jurisdiction

Last year, I was recruiting a data scientist for a side project. I was referred to two DSes, albeit from academia, to help.

Neither had their own personal laptop. One kept his laptop in the office all the time and just used an iPad at home. The other just plain didn't have a personal one. Work was the only one she had and she had to return it when she got laid off.

But when I said the exact same thing [0], people were talking about how it's their "culture" to use corporate laptops for personal usage, and I even got downvoted and flagged if you read the thread (turn showdead on in your HN settings). It's baffling indeed, but I guess people will learn the hard way, that companies can see everything you store and even type on there.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47851948#47854312

Really depends if company has some spyware installed. My work MacBook was just given me as plain new MacBook that I installed everything myself. Personal iCloud, work OneDrive, no corporate spyware

I have worked in 3 companies and none of them had installed anything on the work laptop. One IT department tried to, but I ignored all their messages. I would probably be pissed if I have to give up the right to work with privacy.

I had formatted the laptop both while getting it and returning it. I had filevault on and I wouldn't have shared my password.

Modern MDM solutions use Apple Business Manager to automatically deploy the MDM after a system wipe. If you have a company owned Apple device, and the company has it enrolled in ABM, then you can wipe and filevault all you want, but the agent will still be reinstalled, and the file vault key escrowed.

Yeah I know. It's not like Apple is trying to hide it or most companies try to hide spyware, and I know how to check for Apple business manager or spywares.

It’s always good at the beginning. What happens when you leave? Is the laptop yours? Theirs? Is this documented?

Off the bat, you said that there shouldn't be expectations of privacy, not just that there currently isn't, which is not the exact same thing.

I've never used company equipment for anything personal beyond a quick Google search, but I'd still like there to be some degree of privacy in case I ever feel pressured to do so, e.g. by a deadline to fill a form.

especially in the tech industry, where you get paid more than enough to buy your own personal laptop

In many countries it is a plain office job like everyone else with high education.

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