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Ask HN: Do you watch adult content on your corp laptop/phone?

4 points by lovepronmostly ↗ HN
This topics came up at a party and I was kind of shocked to learn a bunch of friends who work for the fruit computer company all said they regularly watched adult content on their corp machines. Not at work of course (although I didn't ask that) but at home/travel, etc...

I was throughly surprised. I'm wondering if anyone is willing to answer and I don't know the answer for the employees at the company I work at but still, it's kind of shocking to me. Maybe it shouldn't be? Maybe it should be ok to watch adult content on corp equipment?

I'm not against adult content in any way. Rather, I'd prefer my company not have a record of what I watched and I'd prefer it not to be in my browser cache etc, ready to be discovered.

thoughts?

6 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 22.9 ms ] thread
cratermoon
No, never. I don't care what some people at some companies do. Even if they aren't summarily fired for it (like happened to someone at a place I work), then it gives HR leverage when they want to fire you just because.
superchroma
No, god no, what, are they insane?? There is zero reason for work and personal lives to come into contact, it's just handing the company bullets to shoot you with later.
themerone
I panicked when a url typo sent me to an adult site at work.
t312227
short answer: just don't!!

get yourself some (cheap) device you own and only use outside the companies infrastructure for such content.

longer answer: i can think at least of 3 reasons why not ...

1. you leave "traces" within the companies infrastructure - vpn, proxies, firewalls, ids, content-scanner/-filter, ... - and put leverage which can be used against you into the hand of certain people -> read "the company" / "your mgmt" / "hr" ...

2. i would expect, that someone in the company will notice this & tell others about it. and it'll be a huge embarrassment in front of your colleagues and weakens your position among them, even if the company/mgmt doesn't use it to blackmail you at any time.

3. if you are not a permanent employee, but a freelancer or other person contractually working for the company it could even be a reason for getting fired / violation of contract.

just my 0.02€

LinuxBender
The only time I did that was when I worked at a company that merged with another company that hosted adult entertainment / entertainers. It made for fun HR training sessions. "OK, everyone except him". That was where the fun ended. It was my job to view the websites and there was nothing fun about it as these were the bottom of the barrel. That same company would also take customer executives to strip clubs that were actually sex clubs to get blackmail pictures and videos so they had to lease more servers and racks. That's the least of their bad behavior. I do not miss that place.

Anyway to answer your question, yes. This was in a time and place that it was not too taboo to ssh into a coworkers workstation, set the display to 0 and launch a browser to a extreme fetish site right as their manager is walking by.

k310
Since the OP excluded "at work" then what's to stop one from hooking up to another network and cleaning browser cache? (maybe a few other things. I'd have to look up what EFF recommends for privacy) I even forgot that I have a "PrivacyScan" app on MacOS that cleans up a lot, and improved over previous versions. (I got a new computer, and am installing apps one by one)

I'd be more concerned by Google and the like, that keep browsing history "forever" unless you delete it, and even then "For limited purposes, like business or legal requirements, Google may retain certain types of data for an extended period of time."

At work, in their network, you've got to play by their rules. Your work equipment may be locked down by management software (and spy on you, even at home? It was done to schoolkids.)

Given the complexity, I agree with the "get your own gear" posters. After all (sarcasm coming) Porn belongs in the home, not at work.