Working from home has changed the world as we knew it! So many people around the world have undergone the process of converting their homes and certain spaces within them to places of work.

With the change in the location of where we work, there are those who have picked up the appetite to start their own enterprises and spread their wings in the moonlighting fashion. Being an entrepreneurial spirit in this day and age makes complete sense and with the internet opening so many lines for free enterprise, some may use the devices they get from their actual employers to get their start-up on the go.

This raises the question; can your online activity truly be hidden from your employer with the use of a VPN?

A good place to start would be with what a VPN actually is.

In simple terms, think of a virtual private network of software that protects your identity and browsing activity from hackers, businesses, government agencies, and other snoops. When connecting to the internet, your data and IP address are hidden by a type of virtual tunnel. This keeps others from spying on your online activity. Its also used to allow you to access content that may live on international servers. A common use is for some people to get content from the likes of Netflix in regions that wouldn’t have the same content as yours might. By using the virtual tunnel created by a VPN your IP address is then shifted to reflect you as a user in a different country.

Now that we have this out of the way, the question remains, can my boss see what I’m doing online when using devices that are company property?

So based on the fact that your online activity is effectively being carried out by an alternate IP address, you would basically be able to James Bond your way out of the clutches of the electronic nannies imposed by your employer and their IT Department. You’d have to ensure that the software you use for word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, and the storage of these documents is run on cloud-based platforms like Google Suite or Microsoft Office if your own personal license.

It is worth mentioning that a lot of companies try to ensure that their employees don’t install VPN tech to company property as this could prevent them from monitoring your productivity. We should probably mention that we would never encourage using company property to do shady things.