Is Your Boss Tracking You While You Work from Home?

Burlingham

Are you working from home but keeping up with the rest of the office on group chat apps like Slack, Teams or Zoom? Your employer could be keeping tabs on you.

If you're fortunate enough to still be working but not deemed essential at least in the midst of a global crisis many of us can rely on technology to help us still get our work done. Technology has come a long way and with that you should be aware that the convenience of working from home could come with some privacy flags between you and your boss.

Through these apps both your boss and other coworkers can see if your're active on the app or if you've seen certain messages.

Many have taken their workplace online though an app called Zoom but how secure is it? According to How to Geek, although there is a tool on Zoom called Attention Tracker, the host does need to enable it. Even if it is enabled this doesn't mean that your boss can see your screen either. It can only tell if the video chat is not open on your phone for roughly 30 seconds.

If you are using apps like Slack or Teams it's best to keep the office gossip on a different channel as even your private chats are saved and able to viewed by an administrator according to both Microsoft and Slack.

Is your boss spying on you or keeping tabs on you? Probably not but it's important to know how secure these apps are. It's best practice to keep it professional while using them.

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