AIBU to think companies track employees working from home?

[Listeningin]

Recently I've had some odd conversations with colleagues including my manager which seem related to things I've said at home and never mentioned to anyone at work. Some are probably coincidences but it's happened enough that I'm starting to wonder. e.g. related to specific passing comments to my partner that I just wouldn't say to anyone at work as it's unprofessional to discuss other colleagues

Working from home with a company managed laptop there's probably some sort of tracking software installed but it seems like audio might be tracked outside of meetings or when the microphone is on mute. I also installed company mobile software onto my personal mobile to make it easier to arrange childcare around work which also makes me wonder if some things are tracked through there. The company mobile thing says it can track which personal apps you have installed but not the data.

I'm a pretty boring person and sure that companies don't monitor individual conversations, but AIBU to think companies have programs that can automatically track certain words or something - similar to e.g. alexa waking up when a key word is said?

Generally don't use any logins on a work system that you wouldn't want them to know. If they require you to use a personal twitter or social media account then use it on your own device or create one for the purpose of the tasks they're asking you to do. Not that many companies and organisations actually use it anyway, but sticking to work passwords as long as you only input it where directed and are mindful of phishing attempts then it's their job to keep it safe; and assuming anything you do could (but unlikely) be viewed by your employer then no need to worry. Anything not sure of don't do on a works system.

I work from home for a call centre. Calls are often listened to by supervisors for quality checking. I knew this and that's fine but I assumed it was just while on an actual call with a customer that they could jump in and listen but I've just recently discovered that they can listen in at any point while I'm on shift, so between calls and on breaks etc they can still hear everything. I discovered this when I was on a break using my personal phone to make a personal call and a supervisor made a comment about what I was saying.

That’s because your phone system is connected to a wider, internet based application, - as long as that application you are using is open and running on your PC and you are anywhere in the vicinity of said PC or internet connected phone, they can listen in.

as I explained to OP, unless she is in a field or work similar to yours (anything involving customer service and using the phones as part of every day role) - it would be unlikely any company would be monitoring her conversations.

Generally don't use any logins on a work system that you wouldn't want them to know. If they require you to use a personal twitter or social media account then use it on your own device or create one for the purpose of the tasks they're asking you to do.

It's a condition of access to the other systems (other organisations) that I don't share the passwords, though. My employer simply has zero right to see those other pwds. I can't do complicated tweets on a phone (looking up everyone to tag, their twitter handles, tagging is for sponsors and is the easiest way to alert the sponsors so they will retweet), I'm not hauling my personal laptop in the office to do complicated tweets, and I'm not running yet another twitter account on my private phone anyway (already have 2, one personal, one for charity).

It's bad enough we must have MFA for logins, MFA means using our personal devices to access work equipment. Biometrics are unreliable on my phone, why I'm not using an authenticator App for MFA. I'm not sticking any work email app on my private phone because it's a condition of one or more of these workplaces to use biometrics on the phone to access my phone at all while the email account is on the (Android) phone.

One thing I would like is Outlook Calendar allowing single Calendar views across organisations. That would make planning my work a lot easier. If Calendar sharing from different logins is too much of a security breach, though, I can't imagine how login details capture is ok. Lack of calendar sharing is a reason why I may end up logging into the other systems, btw, so I can double check for conflicts and people replying to the queries about projects I manage on other system. I'm not hauling other organisation laptop into office every day, too.

If your organisation isn't using some form of multifactor authentication, then it's already amateur hour.

My philosophy when I have managed such things is that once an employee has been issued with their login (and it's usually a set of logins these days, with multiply cloudy systems to use) then the only person who should be able to login as that employee is that employee. There are other ways to access their data if needs be. If there was any need to login as that employee then the password (and MFA) would need to be reset or removed which would make the employee aware their account was under investigation.

Incidentally I once worked with an outfit that could scan thousands of hours of call recordings in minutes. This was for the purpose of PCI compliance where holding credit card numbers adds a shittonne to your risk. That was 8 years ago. Now with ChatGPT on tap, I imagine it would be even simpler. After all it's just scoured through photos of the entire Earth twice over to find a Chinese balloon[1] - https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/08/synthetaic_ceo_chinese_spy_balloon/. So picking out your conversation should be a doddle.

I suggest people on this thread could do worse than remember Eleanor Roosevelt. In so many ways as it happens. But mainly for:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8940506-you-wouldn-t-worry-so-much-about-what-others-think-of#:~:text=You%20wouldn't%20worry%20so%20much%20about%20what%20others%20think,realized%20how%20seldom%20they%20do.

[1] and yet my car keys remain lost.