Online Privacy and Freedom: If Your Boss Is Invading Your Privacy?

Besides keeping track of your performance, working hours, and skills, there is one more thing on your boss or employer’s watch. And it is an online presence.

Your entire online movement is being watched and monitored. Whether you are aware of it or not, there are many tools deployed by your employer that are keeping an eye on your online presence. It sounds scary, right?

Because of this, 21% of online users have faced the wrath of hacking.  Yes, it is true. Most of the time, the prime target of hackers is email and social media accounts. Because of the increased number of online frauds and data theft incidents, 86% of US citizens are trying to reduce their digital presence.

But, before we blame hackers and cybercriminals for this, blame yourself for not thinking about how to protect your online privacy. It aches the hearts a lot to find out the very few are aware of their online privacy rights and are using them accordingly. Unfortunately, online privacy is one aspect that is neglected by many.

This ignorance acts like bliss for hackers and big corporations. We serve them what they were looking for. A recent Gartner report, conducted by taking the 239 organizations, revealed that 50% of employers monitor emails and social media accounts. Besides, there are so many invasions of privacy examples you may take into consideration.

Let’s help you understand the way out of such a scenario and stop an invasion of privacy.

Ways That Big Corporates Use For Privacy Invasion

In an organization, there are two ways to offer internet access to the employees. The first one is that the employer hires an independent Internet Service Provider (ISP). In this scheme, the employers can set up systems and define internet usage. Then, the allotted ISP can record the whole clickstream as employees’ online commands are passed through the ISP. This explains the recording of every online activity.

The next way to ensure online privacy and security is to have a dedicated extranet connection. You name any big firm, and you will figure that they use an extranet facility at work. It is a type of secure network used to make business communication more secure. While it prevents outsiders from finding out what a person is doing online, your boss or admins will have a report of everything.

One other common way that corporate organizations use to invade online privacy is by doing email monitoring. Organizations use email systems that automatically copy all the messages. The use of a keylogger is also widespread.

What Reasons Corporates Give To Invade Employees Privacy

Online privacy invasion is a crime. Hence, tech giants have to defend themselves for doing so. And, as expected, they do it perfectly. Therefore, before figuring out how to protect your privacy online, you must know how you could be fooled.

They have a bunch of reasons to defend themselves in this act. The most famed ones are:

• Ensuring productivity

The abundance of the internet caused reduced productivity at work. We are not saying this; the recent research of TeamLease World of Work Report says this. The research revealed that employees spent nearly 2.35 hours accessing social media during work hours. This accounts for 13% lost in the total productivity hours.

This is not acceptable by a business. Hence, they keep track of the online presence of their employees. It is shocking but true that 44% of organizations keep an eye on the social media presence of their employees.

Openly, some employers admit that it is the easiest way to keep their employees productive.

• Security purposes

Employers are having a tough time dealing with data theft by employees. Yes, it happens.

Around 75% of employees have stolen their organizational data at least once.

This is a significant concern for companies, and they entertain no excuses to leave their workers unmonitored.

With continual monitoring of the employees’ online behaviors, corporations claim to protect their crucial data and keep all kinds of unwanted hassles at bay.

What’s The Way Out: How to protect my privacy online?

If you want to prevent this unwanted intrusion in your online privacy, then you must:

• Use the Internet in private or incognito mode. Additionally, it is important to use a secure VPN App
• Know the invasion of privacy laws and utilize them whenever needed.
• Take the help of a web browser extension for privacy protection. With the help of these tools, you can block cookies and browse online anonymously. Some viable options are uBlock, Privacy Badger, and Ghostery. They are straightforward to use and suffice the purpose well.

To minimize the invasion of privacy, users and organizations should: Have sufficient privacy implementations and security arrangements. It is better to let users keep their devices away from official usage.

Note – All these solutions should be used when you’re doing any personal online communication. For official purposes, it is wise to adhere to the company protocols. It’s a sign of professionalism.

The Final Say

As an employee or a person, you have the right to protect your online privacy and freedom. Don’t hold yourself back to figure out what kind of intrusion your boss or employers are making in your online privacy. Ask what they are monitoring.

For personal communication, use the tried and tested ways that we quoted above. An aware employee is an ideal employee. Employee monitoring is part and parcel and can’t be avoided. But, it shouldn’t enter the personal sphere.