So since I’m working from home, the office has downloaded the necessary programme onto the laptops. We are connected the office server through vpn. I want to do my own research but I don’t like that IT has access to my account. If login to another account will the VPN be able to access that as well?
Edit: sorry for sounding so technologically challenged, it’s because I am.
It depends on who owns the laptop.
If it’s yours, then their IT department will have no administrative privilege and is pretty limited in what they have access to.
If it’s their laptop, then they could of installed any number of spyware onto it to track/record activities you use the laptop for.
I don’t think so. If you’re still worried, just turn the VPN off.
I usually switch it off when I’m done but I also work 12 hours a day so sometimes I get bored and look at unrelated things. If I switch it on, can try to see the stuff I did in the past? I mean I know they won’t try but it still makes me uncomfortable to know that they have that much access if they want
Unless you watched them install the software, and it is your laptop to begin with, the short answer is yes, assume they have access to the information.
If it’s your laptop you can set up dual boot (or have someone tech savvy do it if you don’t want to). You can then use the 2nd OS as your own personal thing. Assuming you have enough disk space left. The 2nd OS should prevent their software from being loaded as long as you don’t install it there too. **If you don’t own the laptop you probably don’t want to do this**
Another option is install something like Ubuntu Desktop to a USB drive or some other external storage device. ESPECIALLY if you do not own the laptop! Then press f12 as soon as the laptop comes on, and boot into the USB instead. Here’s how to do that if you’d rather not mess with the internal hard drive for dual boot[https://tecadmin.net/create-ubuntu-bootable-usb-in-windows/](https://tecadmin.net/create-ubuntu-bootable-usb-in-windows/)
The nice thing about Universal USB installer is that by default it won’t even give the option to mess with your internal HDD. It only makes the USB an option.
Plus it’s just nice having a USB that can boot to an OS. It’s a simple way to test if a computer’s motherboard/chipset/CPU and RAM hardware isn’t too screwed up to boot.
log off vpn