What your employer can actually see when you're browsing at work is a truth everyone should be aware of

Depending on a few different factors, your employer can see and monitor quite a lot while you’re browsing at work.

This is one of those things we probably don’t talk about enough.

The answer to the question is never ‘nothing’, and it’s never ‘everything’, but there are a few things worth pointing out and a few key distinctions to make.

And yes – this is even if you work from home.

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This is what your employer can monitor

Let’s begin with a disclaimer.

What an employer can or cannot monitor and see while you’re browsing at work depends on a very long list of things.

Chief among these are the law in your country, what your contract states, and whether you’re using a company-provided device or your own.

Generally, it’s safest to assume that almost everything is visible while browsing at work if you’re using a company-provided device, or if you’re connected via a company VPN or work WiFi.

This stands even if you’re working on your personal device.

Obviously, anything you do inside work-related applications is also generally visible to the employer.

They might not have access to your personal email, but they can certainly check what’s going on with your corporate email.

Working from home won’t automatically shield you from this.

Even though in this scenario, there’s a very clear distinction: work device versus personal device.

If it’s a company-provided device, most – if not all – of your activity can usually be monitored, either in real time or retrospectively.

If it’s a personal device, anything that goes on outside of work apps can only be monitored with remote detection software, which obviously can’t and won’t be installed without your say-so.

Why this is such a gray area-rich scenario in the modern world

In the olden days, you’d go to your office, get some work done on your company’s computer, and head back home again.

Now, that line is so blurred we can’t even see it anymore.

It’s a legal maze blending employment laws and company policies with privacy rights – and these two worlds often contradict or clash.

Most employers (and employees) rely on a combination of common sense and rules.

And it’s probably working.

Most of the world’s largest companies now rely on systems that include work-from-home (WFH) in some form.

And some are actually fully remote.

Here’s the fun fact for the day.

Coinbase, one of the world’s largest crypto firms and an S&P 500 company, is a remote-first company that officially has no physical HQ.

It’s going great for them.