Hey everyone! I just started working at a supermarket, and there's a guest wifi for customers. I asked my manager about using it as an employee, and he mentioned that they can monitor the network and see everything I do online, including every keystroke in search engines. He claimed they could see if I typed something like 'hey' into Google. A coworker, who has an IT background, argued it's impossible to track keystrokes without installing some kind of software on my phone. I confirmed that the guest wifi doesn't require any installation. So I'm wondering, is my manager being truthful, or is this just some scare tactic? Can they really see what I search for without special software?
1 Answer
Your manager's probably not telling the whole truth. They can see which websites you visit, but not every keystroke you type. When you search for something, the network can log the web address you hit, but it won’t record what you typed unless they had really advanced monitoring set up, which isn't common on guest networks. Most places just monitor basic traffic and block inappropriate sites.
So, basically, they just know you've been to Google, not what you searched for, right?