To wonder why we couldn't borrow PILs laptop

[Pinkpanthershow]

Our laptop has stopped working and DH needed to send a job application so he asked to borrow his parents laptop. They were going on holiday and wouldn't need it for a week so thought it would be ok. However they ended up saying no as there may be personal stuff on it and we shouldn't see their dirty washing!
I am slightly at a loss as to what would be on it. They are both retired and it's not work stuff. Our laptop has nothing on it we would need to hide from them (although I would log out of mumsnet first!). It just seems odd, although it is up to them to not let us borrow it.

I am wondering if other people would not let their family use their laptop? They have a key to our house, and we have never worried about them prying into anything private. We are also not particularly good at IT and we wouldn't have looked for anything private on their laptop anyway.

We will buy a new one anyway, it was just a temporary fix.

Probably because of something that's none of your business.

YABU - that's not a reasonable request!!

I absolutely hate people using my laptop ~ there's financial documents, personal emails, drafts of things I've written, copies of saved articles on personal stuff I've researched.

There's no porn, no dodgy pictures, etc, but there's a tonne of other stuff that I class as 'personal' and that I don't want other people to have access to. To me, it'd be a bit like someone looking through my journal.

My own laptop, no one uses but me.
I have personal things on there that is for my eyes only.

No not porn related but so what if it was as long as it's legal?

Use the library. No one touches my laptop but me.

I wd never lend a laptop. I wouldn't know if they had accidently deleted a crucial file until I needed it. I wouldn't trust them not to reset the settings. I wouldn't want them to download anything dodgy, catch a virus or damage the screen.
I wouldn't want them to see my job applications, (and the lies I tell!!), my e-mails to my friends grumbling about DP, my bank statements, my medical notes, my DC's school reports, photos -- and 1 million other reasons.

I would never ask to use anyone's laptop. I just wouldn't.

Don't even think about it - bleurgh!!

I can understand them not wanting someone else to use their laptop. Everyone uses mine (I suspect even the cat and dog log on when I am out). I would love to have a bit more privacy.

There is nothing embarrassing on my laptop, but I wouldn't loan my laptop out. I would let someone use it to apply for a job, but your dh could most likely do that from the library, or a job centre.

If it was my parents the answer would be "nothing, but my mum saw something on Matthew Wright and now they keep the laptop locked in a cupboard as a precaution against identity theft even though they don't actually have an internet connection."

I'd like to think it's videos of them taking part in threesomes!

All I have is my phone. DH sometimes borrows it to make a call but isn't remotely tech-savvy, I have kids' corner on it for the DC, so anything personal's safe.

There's no way I'd let anyone use my computer or iPad without me being there, it's mine and they have my stuff stored on them.

I have nothing embarrassing, or dodgy on mine, but I still wouldn't lend it to anyone for a week. They are welcome to look something up, access an email etc in my house, with me there, but not to borrow it.
Go to the library- simple!

As a parent of teenagers I absolutely wouldn't do this. If their laptops are charging or whatever (or upstairs 'too much effort' !) they grab my iPad to look at stuff, not my stuff (too boring) but will then start commenting 'oooh mumsnet, oooh email from so and so, ooh mum candy crush' ) makes me very twitchy, it's nothing scandalous but it's MINE!!

Porn. Really filthy stuff.
I can't use dh's laptop,never been able to.

Next time, if there is one, ask if you can quickly adds your own user to it and don't give that user permission to look at their stuff.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

I wouldn't lend anyone my laptop. It doesn't have anything dubious on it, but it does have a lot of stuff that's basically the contents of my head.

i.e. random google searches of bizarre things that occurred to me. Geeky stuff about a sic fi show I love. All my professional and personal writing. Ranty emails. My MN browsing history.

It all feels surprisingly personal.

I don't have any financial stuff or porn or anything particulaly private on my lap top but I wouldn't lend it to anyone.

Perhaps they do not have separate accounts set up - ours is shared - me, DH, DD12 and DD14 - all have separate accounts with different settings - the kids can't download software for instance.

I would be happy lending my laptop since everything is compartmented, I could set up an account for "guests", and only I and DH have the admin password.

However - if there was just one account with admin privileges open to the world... no.

Yabu to ask to borrow a laptop.
I wouldn't like to be asked.
Fair play to them for saying no.

I wouldn't lend mine either! As others have said, all my internet searches of weird things and MN posts and medical info I've typed up feels too personal.

Footle could you say to son in law next time 'sorry, not allowed to let anyone use it now because I've got confidential work stuff on it, new rule'?

I have a 'guest' account set up on my laptop so if anyone wants to use it they can without accidentally looking at my emails or seeing my search history, no ability to see my photos and documents.

It took about 3 mins to set up and I think it's a worthwhile investment.

I'd let someone use mine if I didn't need it for a while.

I'd just password protect my settings and set them up with their own log in.

but - they didn't want to and that's up to them of course.