Scary... 1984 or what?!

[136368]

Well, today I was at work and staring idly at the computer screen. Suddenly, the mouse starts to move and close down the till system, calling up control panels and generally resetting things.

At this point I'm thinking "Oh, [explicit deleted], someone's hacked into my system!" I called my manager down and she calmly informed me that it was "just head office".

Think about that for a moment. Our head office can seize control at any time, locking me out and can keep track of my every move and commit on the system.

I actually find that pretty creepy; Big Brother or what?

 

[Handbag Lady]

Well, today I was at work and staring idly at the computer screen. Suddenly, the mouse starts to move and close down the till system, calling up control panels and generally resetting things.

At this point I'm thinking "Oh, [explicit deleted], someone's hacked into my system!" I called my manager down and she calmly informed me that it was "just head office".

Think about that for a moment. Our head office can seize control at any time, locking me out and can keep track of my every move and commit on the system.

I actually find that pretty creepy; Big Brother or what?

Anyone at IT can do that to my computer at work any time they wish.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Anyone at IT can do that to my computer at work any time they wish.

As someone who works in IT, I would think most companies are able to do this. Usually after hours we have to do system updates or fix things on individual computers, and we do this remotely by "taking over" the workstation.

I'm not sure why the OP's department decided to do this while people were working?

I'm sure there are some unscrupulous IT workers out there who will root around, but I will just do what I need to do and get off of their station. I really don't want to be a witness in some court case about illegal terminations and such...ignorance is bliss.

 

[Robinrs]

My IT team only does this when they ask first. They laugh sometimes at how many windows I keep up, sometimes up to 20!

 

[DrCavin]

We do this at my job. We almost always ask the user if we can take control of their machine before hand, rarely do we ever just take it over without them approving it first.

 

[136368]

It just alarmed me as, being simply a shop in a high street, I had no idea Head Office had anything like that degree of control over our tills. I mean, I knew that we uploaded our sales stats at the end of trading each day, I just was taken by surprise.

 

[LuvOrlando]

My DH worked in IT Security for a long time. You wouldn't believe what they can do if they want to. You also wouldn't believe what can be recovered if an IT guy wants to do a bit of digging... lets just say what most people consider deleted isn't anything like what they think it means. I've heard stories so DON'T every do anything on a work computer that you wouldn't want people talking about if your computer ever gets looked at. Your work computer is, in fact, company property so it's all fair game. They can see where you go what you do and how long you spend on different sites.

Another FYI, people should do themselves a favor and NOT use company e-mail for sending anything personal.. like photos of trysts at conventions with co-workers. Again, lots of interesting stories because again, company e-mail is the company's property so all that info is backed up along with everything else.

 

[mrodgers]

They don't ask us at work. Drives us crazy. We are running equipment with our computers and just as we are ready to change a cycle or something, they remote onto our desktop and start doing stuff. Then they wonder why the quality of our material is bad because the quality of the product is very dependent on moving the equipment from cycle to cycle at the appropriate time.

Though, IT and the Engineering group are not the only ones capable of taking over the computers remotely. I also have some fun because my workstation is setup to the production operator's back, so I will remote their computer and move the mouse every time they are wanting to hit a button on the control screen (obviously not at the detrimental times that affect material quality...)

Anyone using a computer at my work can connect remotely to anyone elses computer if you know the log-on info, which everyone knows the log-on info of the equipment control computers.

 

[Judy from Boise]

I love this feature........I get the IT helpline on the phone, they remote to my desktop and fix whatever I need like magic!

 

[graciejane]

I love this feature........I get the IT helpline on the phone, they remote to my desktop and fix whatever I need like magic!

Me too!!!

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

Trust me, as an IT help desk person, it's MUCH easier to do it this way than to talk people through it.

 

[golfgal]

They can see every page you have been to, read every email you send or receive, pretty much anything you do on a computer they can see-which is why it surprises me how many people post here from work.

 

[RUDisney]

We would usually let the person know that we were going to take over their PC, but one time, my staff thought they had selected an IP address that was not being used. They made a mistake and got into the manager's PC. He was shopping for fishing equipment on walmart.com. We wound up having to restrict his internet access since he was not known for being productive with his work.

Other times, a senior manager would turn his laptop in for repair. I don't think a curious teenaged boy would have as much porn on his PC as some of our managers stored on their company laptops.

Some employees never seemed to understand that certain key words would cause their email to kick out into IT. One set of CSRs in two branches had a very lengthy conversation about making chicken breasts. Each time the word breast was used, it kicked out.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

They can see every page you have been to, read every email you send or receive, pretty much anything you do on a computer they can see-which is why it surprises me how many people post here from work.

I work in IT, that's my excuse.

 

[Robinrs]

They can see every page you have been to, read every email you send or receive, pretty much anything you do on a computer they can see-which is why it surprises me how many people post here from work.

My IT guy once told me he only checks for competition sites and porn. One time he accused me of downloading music site and we had all the music we needed on our computers, already. Turns out he got it confused with netscape, which was my email carrier at the moment.

 

[golfgal]

My IT guy once told me he only checks for competition sites and porn. One time he accused me of downloading music site and we had all the music we needed on our computers, already. Turns out he got it confused with netscape, which was my email carrier at the moment.

HE might, but if there was ever an issue with your performance or anyone suspected you of doing something wrong, they would check your entire history.

 

[Poohbear123]

I love this feature........I get the IT helpline on the phone, they remote to my desktop and fix whatever I need like magic!

Same here, we had a new Hand Held computer come in, and in 30 min it was callibrated and up and running in NO time. All from Lakeland Fl.

 

[SunnyP4Disney]

I was working on a project last year on my PC at work, furiously typing away, when all of a sudden my computer screen started blinking and the cursor went crazy. I would move it one way and it would go the other way. I then looked at my task bar and saw the remote user icon and knew IT was in my PC. I called one of the guys (when have in house IT) and he said he was sorry, he thought I was another co-worker having issues. Luckily, I had saved most of the data so I didn't lose anything. It just freaked me out for a minute!

 

[apirateslifeforme]

10 years ago, I worked in an office where you could send pop-up messages to anyone in the company. You didn't have to be in IT, anyone could do it if they knew how. It wasn't really IM; there was no user name or anything - a box with a message would suddenly just pop up on your screen.

So one day, someone really did freak a coworker out by sending a pop-up that said "Big Brother is watching you." The sender was just trying to be funny, but the recipient wasn't amused.

 

[Kitty 34]

They can see every page you have been to, read every email you send or receive, pretty much anything you do on a computer they can see-which is why it surprises me how many people post here from work.

That's why I don't from work.