Friends company wants to monitor her home network usage....

Just when you think you’ve heard it all. The fact that they even think this is reasonable or a good idea speaks volumes.

I'm in IT security, no way would I want to expose my company to all the privacy and risk issues this raises.

It stinks of "Well, we offered you WFH, you said no, and now you get nothing" propaganda

This is exactly what is going on.

The question is who will pay for the internet access? If the company pays for the ISP, then unplugging them at the end of the work day and using your own provider would be the best route if WFH is necessary.

If they aren't paying for the ISP, then wtf?

I'm down for it. Provided it is connected to an internet connection that is paid for by the company.

Meaning: I currently have my own ISP that I currently use through my own network configuration. The company will pay for the monthly fee and installation fees of a second internet line for their sole use. They're welcome to monitor that connection as much as they wish as they are paying for it.

"My network configuration does not support the use of an additional router/hardware."

ALL network activity? No, in no uncertain terms.

Network activity specific to the devices (ie work computer only) connected to their router? Sure.

No nope nope no way in hell. Had one job who tried that. VLAN isolated it and they got pissed. Quit the next day.

She could just use their router when she's working, then as soon as she's off the clock, unplug their shit and use her own the rest of the time

Yeah no

In 2021 I told my direct reports our company was sending new laptops to everyone for WFH, this was true.

However it was April Fools Day, so I thought of the most ludicrous monitoring ideas I could.

Cameras on at all times - to ensure they were alone Microphones always on - to ensure no tv shows or movies were being played Microphones would record decibels - to ensure OSHA volume standards weren’t being violated during working hours Screen monitoring at all times by leads - to ensure work is being done at all times Idle monitors - again to ensure work is always occurring.

Obviously this all was a huge prank.

Didn’t realize that years later companies would be taking the dumbest prank I could think of and making it reality.

No way to monitor all traffic exclusively. Me and wife have some WFH, if I told my company their traffic is monitored by wife's company, hilarity ensues.

Besides whatever I do outside of work is none of company's business. I even use my own laptop next to company's.

Either confront them and tell them where they can shove this solution. Or be silent and share WiFi with your neighbour. But make sure to soak up big traffic over the monitored network. Downloads, streaming etc.

My wife's last company had Comcast install a dedicated line and provide a dedicated modem/router. Her work laptop was the only thing allowed on it. We maintained our own personal network.

You could monitor network usage with a router that's possible but it's only gonna give data amounts and times.

I wouldn't do it though. Any company that wants your data usage has something else in mind

Can't they just configure a VPN on the work computer? I feel like this can be solved with a VPN. I'm not a network professional but this seems like the scenario a VPN was designed for at least in part.

Absolutely do not allow that

Run pornhub non stop on a different computer!!!

Are they paying for the Internet too? They should be. If they want to monitor then there's one network for work they pay for and one network for home that I pay for. But that's coming from someone who continues to warn people about signing on to social media personal emails and bank accounts on a computer owned by your job.

This is fucked on so many levels. Huge red flag.

They should cover the cost of the internet service then. Then get a second line for home usage. This is so bizarre. I’ve never heard of company and especially the IT department wanting to provide the home routers and have to manage it. Sounds like a damn nightmare.

Use your own router for the house and their router for work. Isolate the two. There's no way their router can see the traffic going through the other router.

Uh, that's one hell of a caveat. I would tell them that you just have to run this by your lawyer before signing it and take it. If they try to stop you, you know that they know it's BS. Take it anyway. They can't stop you. Tell everyone you work with about the company trying to invade everyone's privacy and framing it as a condition for WFH.

FUCK no.

Sounds like they just want to stop any employees from doing work-from-home; possibly read some billionaire's screed on keeping your employees under their thumb when working from home and wanted to be like them...

Tell them no, then go about finding a new job.

My wife’s company gave her a separate modem/router. That is hard wired into her work computer. The home internet is separate.

If they want complete control over her work environment then they get to pay for the installation and monthly fee of a completely separate internet connection, a computer, and they need to start paying to lease the room in her home as her office.

It's certainly sketchy and that is me being polite. What could be the cost of installing a second line? Would that be worth it for the advantage of working from home. In the UK I can get 150MB down for under £30/ 300MB for £33 a month. Or read about the Steve Gibson three routers solution. If it is only a wifi router that they offer then there is no problem. The difficulty is if they demand to install an actual modem. I doubt that is feasible as there are so many different ISPs and requirements.

So you separate the traffic using Steve's system and the office can never see what you are doing at home. That is assuming you are using different computers for work and private life.

If you aren’t already running separate routers for your personal tech and your wfh setup you at behind.

Way to much privilege and access is granted to your home network otherwise

There’s some serious misunderstanding here. She’s gonna get a separate router that they only want her work equipment connected to.. She’ll still have her own router for her own personal in home devices.

Unless it's a dedicated vpn router for their dedicated hardware, that's a hard pass from me.

They can supply and pay for her Internet usage, then, if they want to monitor it. Also, if there are children and other adults, I would bet it isn't legal for the company to monitor them without a signed contract. 

It would be enough to supply the employees with a laptop with spyware in it to monitor during work hours.

Do they pay for that connection? No? They can fuck right off then. An employer that provides you with a device and a connection to use can monitor that shit all they want. Private network means private business. Never use company devices/networks for private business.

The only way I can see it being legitimate is if they were installing their own internet connection to your property and so you could only connect a work pc to it. I had something similar when I worked for an ISP. I paid nothing for the work connection but didn’t use it for anything but work, I kept my existing internet connection for home use.

Otherwise, they can fuck right off.

Sure. Just plug it in to her existing ISPs router in one of the switch ports. Then only use it for work. If they ask why there is only work traffic just say I am not only very boring, I’m very dedicated.

Sure they can do this on the internet connection that they pay for that is physically segmented from your home network.

There's not a chance in fucking hell I'm allowing my employer to do anything on my own network.

Doubt they want her to use their router for everything, is likely a wireless AP that plugs into a LAN port on the actual router and is only intended for work connections. That configuration won't compromise her privacy when connected to her usual network at home

Company wants to find the good pornhub streams I assume

WiFi router or router? My work requires a separate router that only the work laptop can plug into. It’s a security issue. Now mind you only work happens on that work provided laptop and nothing else since it’s monitored. It doesn’t touch my home network.

Edit: Really? A Reddit cares message. It’s lame but I’ve had worse jobs in my life.

I'd tell the company to pay to install a second network provider. No fucking way in hell am I allowing a company to monitor all traffic on my personal network connection.

They should create virtual machines that employees remote into. All work stays on the virtual machine..

Absolutely the fuck not.

Honestly, when my employer wanted me to use my own phone for business I refused. I wouldn’t answer it. I “reminded” them, the entire contents of my phone could be entered into public record (I work for a small city) under the right circumstances. I told them they wouldn’t want all the dick pics I would deliberately download when they demanded my phone on public record and a couple would be mine. My phone has no dick pics because they supply me with a work phone.

So, tell them they can let you expense the increase in data you require or they can provide a separate service that you will use for business only. Do not let them monitor your personal internet traffic!

Several types of illegal. As an employee you cannot sign away roommates, children, or spouses privacy to an employer. Liability for banking, health, and tax info being leaked would make most any cyber insurance org drop the company faster than most anything other than the demand of 24/7 access to kids photos.

The optics on this would be godawful if it went public which company was stupid enough to open this can of worms.

Ridiculous… The company would have all of their personal information and know exactly what kind of porn they masturbate to.

counter with "If you are also paying for the connection and installation of a 2nd line. And the only thing connected to it will be a computer you provide. sure go ahead, otherwise how does get fucked sound "

I will not have some company monitor my internet that I fucking pay for.

I’ll only agree if the company would install and pay for a separate internet connection used strictly for work. Like a work ISP account. Same as a work laptop or work phone. The company can monitor it since they own it.

If the company wants to install their router on my home network that I pay for home internet. Nope. Not a chance in hell.

Company owned work computers with monitoring software is fine to use at home. It can only monitor use when it’s on. Turn the work PC off and unplug it on the network. The work PC isn’t phoning home.

Ask them for a dedicated connection for work purposes then.

Just accept the deal, install the router on its own subnet isolated from the main home network and don't use it lmao.

Have been in IT for over 30 years, and we got asked to do this about 20 years ago. Management did want work from home, but they wanted to ensure availability, so they suggested to us that IT could check people’s internet connection at their house. They wanted to make sure in an era and location where “high speed” might be 1.5MB that people had enough bandwidth.

We refused. Not our job, and there was a suggestion we might be asked to troubleshoot their connection, and we wanted no part of it.

So…I suspect they do want WFH, but the implementation wants to ensure people are truly able to work.

use their wifi when working , then switch to your wifi for personal

Here's a suggestion. Have your friend sign up for the T-Mobile $50 a month internet and that is the network traffic that they can monitor. It is only used for work and nothing else.

Then they would have spectrum or Verizon or whatever, that would be their regular internet

How would a WiFi router monitor traffic that's on a different router? Just take your work machine and connect it to the new router and leave everything else connected to the other.

They misspelled "reimbursement for internet service"

Sure, send a modem and edge router to my residence that I use specifically with your infra. Thanks.

Oh hell no!!

Have two Wi-Fis. One for work only. One for home.

That's a hard no. If they want to go that route they can pay for a second internet line specifically for the work computer.

You send a meraki vpn device, corp laptop must be hardwired in tk that. End of story. Done

If they are paying for it, they can monitor it, but that means the whole cost including the service, not just the hardware.  And I would just get my own separate ISP on the side.  

Spitballing here, could that wifi router be on a switch within its own workgroup, separate from the home network?

This could allow the client pc used to wfh to be monitored without it analyzing the rest of the network?

Years ago, I had a Cisco router provided by my big bank employer that had a pass through port for my personal router. The fact I was not fired for online debauchery on my personal laptops tells me they were not monitoring my personal use.

Real question is "What is the company going to do when the router gets turned on at 8:30am and shut off at 5pm"?

What’s stopping your friend from only connecting her work computer to it while keeping her home network? Maybe even unplugging it at the end of day?

I do IT work for some of the wealthiest people on the planet. Nowadays even the rich C levels rarely are allowed to do something like this as it becomes a massive security risk. A more reasonable solution is they provide a laptop that meets their security requirements and whatever software is necessary to maintain that security.

Huh. This is not the way at all. I imagine they have some ugly/vulnerable network security setup if they want to provide+control the router this way.

Hm why couldn’t she just use that router separately for work only? And keep using her personal one for personal stuff

Nope that’s sketchy

Make them pay for a cell phone plan with infinite Hotspot or learn how to do networking and set up the guest network to provide internet to their router and block any visibility to the rest of your network.

Mic drop the admin and your IT department in one go.

I’m hoping that they were actually wanting to install VPN device of some sort to provide a direct link to the company network and not actually a router.

Does she already have internet at home? If so, what's to stop her unplugging their router at 5 and plugging in her own? Or plug theirs into hers, ensure wifi is only on for one router and connection wire/wireless accordingly?

Just sounds like their employer is putting in a poison pill to force working in the office, because there is NO FUCKING WAY, I’d agree to those terms.

20 years IT. This is crazy and a lawsuit waiting to happen. Tell your friend to tell them to go pound sand

Yeah.. I mean, I live pretty rural, I have Starlink, if they want to pay for a separate internet connection at my house, the installation and maintenance, and monitor that one and their hardware that's fine. But they dont/won't get access to my private internet..

I would tell them I accept, and then make them back out if they don't like it.

You can work here, but we'll need access to your checking account...

"Hey boss, you paying my internet bill?"

"No, why would we pay it?"

"Then you're not monitoring shit at my home."

You can have more than one internet service. I would get one just for work.

Okay, company needs to provide 100% independent computer system. PC, router, internet contract. Also, they are liable for security risk if the system has a microphone or camera.

No way I’d do anything personal on their system.

Unless they pay for it, they can’t touch it. Fuck that.

Let them supply an iPhone to use as a modem if they want to spy.

Monitoring should be done on a work provided laptop on a work provided VPN, this is a no-brainer.

Although I like the suggestions of work paying for a separate internet connection and you just switch to your own connection and router at the end of the work day, but that is extra work for you.

If I pay for something it's mine, it doesn't even exist as far as my employer is concerned, and there privileges with what I pay for WITH MY OWN MONEY does not extend past my hand in front of there face.

Nope not in a million years. Her employer can provide a work VPN and company laptop and setup. They can restrict and monitor traffic that way and not violate a persons privacy and the privacy of anyone in the house.

Im surprised I havent seen more comments recommending a set it up like this

                      ISP Modem/Router

                           ^                  ^      Your own router           The company router

       (Private use)                   (Work use only)

Im not 100% this would work but thats the road id take 

If it's a 2nd line to the house, paid for by the company then I don't see a problem with it. When doing work connect to the work wifi. If it's to replace her 1st line the main one for the household then fuck no!

Say yes, and use their gear for work, then immediately upon ending your shift, disconnect their equipment and use your own.

This is the noose to make WFH too costly. The company doesn't want WFH, but wants to be able to say "they offered".

I'd rather see your friend take it, and have 2 WiFi routers. Hopefully 2 modems.

If the home WiFi router has to be downstream of the one for work, put a VPN on it out to mullvad. Use shadowsocks as the first hop for protocol obfuscation. If a VPS is affordable, you may need to get one to use as the shadowsocks proxy [instead of / in addition to] using the VPN.

It may violate company ToS.

Get the company to pay the ISP bill, or (more likely) write it off on taxes.

That doesn't sound right. The last time I've encountered something like this, they installed a completely separate ISP paid for by the company and only that second network was monitored. Completely reasonable.

Why would a company even want to bother with this?

To sell your data and find an excuse to fire you to file away for a rainy day.

If they’re installing a router, I don’t see the issue, so long as the traffic they want monitored is all company devices. If they are asking for all home network to go through their router though, hell no. Would need to see the document to know what the situation is.

Are they paying for the internet?

If so, it's company internet 👍🏻

If not, it's private internet 🖕🏻