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I use my company's guest Wi-Fi along with another maybe 1500 other people across our site. On my breaks I access some random chat servers.

Can my company see and hear my conversation?

dan
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D BRUCE
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  • In addition to what is mentioned in the previous answers, there are other ways your company could see what you are doing using their access point; one of them is to deploy a system that consists of a host, server, or appliance together with client-installed software. There are many reasons they can do that such as surveying bandwidth usage ... to protection from economic spying by the employees themselves. There are plenty of software they can install on your computer to see the websites you have visited, the protocols you used to communicate , or even take screenshots of your activities. –  Aug 01 '15 at 19:36
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    This question may be related: [Can an employer see what I'm doing on my iPhone whilst logged onto wifi](https://security.stackexchange.com/q/90162/32746) – WhiteWinterWolf Aug 01 '15 at 19:50
  • @WhiteWinterWolf While that question's title would appear to be a duplicate the actual answer is specific to only 2 iPhone applications. – RoraΖ Aug 03 '15 at 12:41
  • @raz: That's why I simply stated it as related and not as duplicated. The answers however seems to still apply here: the employer can see which site he is using, but not the actual content as long as it is ciphered, and for better privacy a VPN is recommended. Same for iPhone as for any other device, whether it is Wifi or wired... – WhiteWinterWolf Aug 03 '15 at 12:52

2 Answers2

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Whether you company will be able to see the content of your chats depends on a couple of factors

  1. Is your access to the chat site encrypted? if you're using SSL, then normally someone running a network you're accessing it over, will not be able to see the content of the chat (although they will likely know the name of the site you're accessing). The exception to this is if they are using software to intercept SSL connections and you have installed the relevant certificate to allow that to happen. Assuming you're using a personal device to access the chat sites, you'd know if this had happened.

  2. If the chat site isn't running over an encrypted connection, they it's possible technically for the person running the network to see the content of your chats. In some countries they would be obliged to provide you notification that your traffic may be inspected.

Rory McCune
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  • Thanks you guy's for answering my question. Rory how can I tell if the chat site SSL? – D BRUCE Aug 01 '15 at 19:30
  • If you're accessing it using a standard web browser, you should see a "padlock" icon in the address bar and the URL should start https rather than http. If you're using an app (e.g. a mobile app) for chat, you'll likely need to check with the app. vendor. – Rory McCune Aug 01 '15 at 19:32
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Whether your company will control your use of the Wi-Fi will depend first of a key point:

Is the policy of your company to provide a Wi-Fi network for professionnal use or for private use or for both?

From the name with which you named your company Wi-Fi: "guest" Wi-Fi, I am tempted to diagnose that this Wi-Fi is targeted to provide an access to external persons which are invited on the site of your company. Then from the company point of vue this can't be a professionnal only network. If this hypothesis is confirmed, then your company has no legal right to control anyone communication on this network.

On the other hand, if you want to know if technically your company "can" control your communication on this network, please refer to the technical answer from Rory McCune: technical answer about access to a company Wi-Fi network.

Community
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dan
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