Today, I just got news that our company is mandating that everyone installs spy software on their computers. As I am not going to install such software on my computer, it has been said to me that if we don’t find some solution, I will get fired.
To be honest, I was thinking about changing jobs anyway, so I don’t mind that much, but I am not sure what to do now.
I work in IT, so I have quite a lot of job opportunities, but most of them are something that is mostly harmful to society.
So I am considering two options: Try to find some meaningful job in IT (which is likely to be very hard).
Find some nice good paying job where I can work, ideally part-time, and focus on working on open source software in my free time.
Not really sure what to do, does anyone have any experience with similar situation?
Does the spy software need to be installed on your own personal device, or on a work provided computer? If it’s on a personal computer then you can request that they issue a company computer to if nothing else just buy some time.
What exactly does the spy software entail?
But I would second that you start job searching IMMEDIATELY. You do not have time to lose.
Demand a company computer for their spyware, or isolate your work stuff within a VM. They don’t get to tell you what to install on a personal device. Fuck that.
Most modern programs can detect a VM and will brick the system or refuse to work if they detect one.
Makes sense, but then we’re back to them trying to tell me what to install on my devices, and fuck that. I feel for OP but I think that would be the walk away point.
The issue with using a company device is, that I would be much less productive on their device. Also, even if I had such a device, I don’t even want such software running on my network. And to be honest, their response really motivates me to just leave.
You being less productive looks like a “their” problem. You can also create a guest network only for that device so that it makes it less likely for them to be able to look at the remaining of the network.
But I understand not wanting to work with people that makes that kind of decision.
Still, delaying the situation with “quiet quitting” methods is a good way to give you a longer time frame to build the alternative.
To me, company requiring I install their monitoring software on my personal PC is a massive red flag. Even if they didn’t threaten to fire you, I would start looking for new work immediately. Honestly, my company expecting staff to use personal equipment for work would be a red flag to me even if they didn’t require monitoring software. From a security perspective alone, I wouldn’t want people using their personal devices on the office network. I don’t allow anything except domain-joined PCs using our specific image on the network.
Depending where you live, that could also run into legal areas because it is often illegal to monitor employees outside work hours. If you somehow caught them tracking your PC usage when you were off the clock, you’d probably have grounds for a lawsuit. I think even the US, with their shitty employee protection, doesn’t allow monitoring off the clock.
However, I know in the US it is staggering how little expectation of privacy you are allowed as an employee outside of that. I believe it is actually legal for companies to require you to install spy software on personal PCs if they are used for work purposes. Thankfully where I live it’s a little bit better, one of the requirements is that companies must disclose that the employees are being monitored as well as who is doing the monitoring. As the sole IT for the company I am the one that would be in charge of any tracking (I enforce none in our company. Short of staff doing anything illegal from a company PC, I honestly do not care. It’s their manager’s fault if they are slacking).
Could you just tell them “oops, sorry, all my personal machines just broke. Golly gee, guess you gotta pony up for one so I can do my work”. If you need a PC to do your work, it’s up to them to provide one.
