When you use your work computer to surf the internet you’re in general passing through a so-called proxy server. Companies use proxy servers for various aims.
- Make sure that similar content that is requested by the more then one employee is served as efficiently as possible. Many proxy systems ‘cache’ images like logo’s and so on of external sites, this will both increase the speed of presenting the page to the internal employee as well as lower the load on the internet connection from the company to the internet.
- Commercial companies have the obligation to block you from accessing information that is not deemed productive or acceptable for your company. You can imagine that those rules can differ greatly from country to country, and company to company.
- Security, many malware comes in over browsing the web with an unprotected browser, the proxy will filter those bad requests and reject them. This to protect the internal network and information of the company. Many modern setups also use so called ‘cloud proxies’ which means that your web-surfing is _always_ going through a proxy server, even when you’re at home or in a public WLAN.
Understand that your internet surfing habits are accesible by people inside the IT department of your company. It might very well be that you company has a charter that explains what is allowed and what not, and also what the normal procedures are to access this surf-log, but it’s very common that nosy IT people look for fun at those logs. Regulations and attitudes towards protection of privacy differ greatly per country and region.
Reputational Damage
Make sure that you do not mix private and professional work. Depending on your company’s attitude and policy you could read the online news-paper or book a holiday, but avoid mixing too much your personal life with your professional life.
Your company pays you a monthly salary, you are supposed to do productive work for them. Especially in situations where you use a company device like laptop or phone you will use this device both in your own network at home, and of course also inside the network of your company. It would be unfortunate if your internet browser you used to watch Netflix in the evening continues where you left off once you open the lid at work. This traffic is of course now going through their proxy and is logged. I often dealt with reviewing proxy logs for forensic reasons and I can tell you that I know a lot about the private tastes of people that work for the company I reviewed the logs for, I’m not sure if they would feel very comfortable about sharing these details with other people. For some people it even led to being fired.
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