I have a friend who keeps all of her photographs on her work computer. If she ever gets laid off, she’ll lose access to every digital photograph she’s ever taken. She can easily afford a computer; but, since the company provides a laptop, she doesn’t see the need. Somehow, she has even managed to convince herself that the network security police aren’t looking at her stuff.
She is going to be so sad someday when either the photos are gone or she doesn’t have access to them. That’s crazy!
Chickie: It is especially crazy since she can easily afford a computer of her own. Being in charge of her own stuff is just not a priority. Her smartphone is also a company phone. So every text that she has ever sent or received is in an archive somewhere. And I know as fact that network security sometimes “investigates” for amusement/curiosity.
I’ll bet she doesn’t see the need for backup either! My work laptop crashed after a freak snowstorm last year; I had some personal stuff on it but thankfully I had everything backed up to an external drive, so when I brought it in for repair I told them just to wipe everything. And lesson learnt… I no longer keep anything personal on my work laptop!
~Kazi xxx
Kazi: That’s a good point. She doesn’t do anything juicy/noteworthy that would ever end up in the newspaper. But she definitely would not want our tech support trying to recover her personal files in the event of a problem. Photos and other irreplaceable files should always be backed up somewhere. Wiping and reloading in the case of a problem is fairly common solution. And, sometimes, they don’t ask or don’t think or are unable able to preserve documents.
Three words: External Hard Drive
Mr. MD: That’s one of the many things that she could do that would be cheaper although not as secure as having her own computer. Our network security police are very nosy. They like to go through peoples “private” stuff for their own amusement. One of the many reasons that I never blog from work.