Is your boss watching your browsing activity? The truth about work Wi-Fi privacy

If you have ever connected your personal phone to the WiFi at work and wondered if your employer can see what you’re browsing then you’re certainly not alone.

Using a company network can be different from browsing the web at home, especially if you’re checking your personal emails or scrolling through social media on your lunch break.

However, while your boss is unlikely to be following your every move, what can they actually view from your activity?

Websites and domains

No matter how private you think your office WiFi is, the reality is that employers will be able to view the main web addresses that you connect to.

That being said, they won’t necessarily be able to see the specific pages, articles on the site, or search terms that you use.

Your boss could gain access to certain information when you connect to the office WiFi (Westend61/Getty Images)

According to a report by Proton VPN, a WiFi owner can also view your entire browsing history while you are connected to the router, the exact time at which you connected to a site and how long you spent on the page. They can also see the MAC address of your device and how much time you spent online.

Connection data

Your employer can view detailed data about your connection, including tracking your session lengths as well as the amount of data you uploaded or downloaded.

As CyberFence explains that when you connect your phone to a network, traffic from your device passes through the infrastructure that the firm controls.

From there, the company’s router and firewall are able to log any connection data they receive while monitoring tools used by the IT department are able to observe traffic from your device.

Unencrypted traffic

While there are limitations on what your employer can view of the websites you visit, if any sites are unencrypted then this opens up a lot more information for them to view.

There are certain things your boss won't be able to see from your activity (d3sign/Getty Images)

If a website does not secure HTTPS encryption then the WiFi owner can view exact content as well as messages and login data.

What can’t your employer see when connected to the WiFi?

Of course, your employer won’t be able to see detailed information about encrypted content, including passwords, messages and specific internal page paths.

Your boss also won’t be able to view your actual screen on your laptop or phone, unless specific monitoring software has been installed.

Any of your activity that you have disconnected from before or after using their WiFi and either switched to a different network or mobile data won’t be visible to your employer either.