No matter how much we all pay attention to what we are browsing, there’s always a chance that we might experience an inconvenience of some sort. It is absolutely true that the world of the Internet is not that safe anymore. That is, it is not as safe as it used to be. The problem occurs also every time you connect your device to a wi-fi.
In order for this to be a safe solution for you, you would have to be sure if this wi-fi is trustworthy. This raises a question: how to keep your browser history private when using office wi-fi? This is the question we will help you give the answers to.
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Should you surf the Internet while at work anyway?
When you ask such a direct question, the short answer would be not so much. Actually, rules differ from company to company. But everyone will tell you that employers expect a maximum performance from all of their employees. And that doesn’t include using work hours to surf the internet. Instead, it should be used in the best possible way, to achieve as much as it can.
Your employee is expecting you to put an effort on boosting the customer experience, instead of seeing you going through various websites that have nothing to do with business. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that an employer would put a ban on these kinds of activities. Simply, rules should be respected.
But can the rules be respected?
Now this is a good question. Let’s face it. You won’t find many examples where an employee has not used working hours at least once to go online. In doing so, we don’t believe that they were too worried about keeping their browser history private when using office wifi. The philosophy is always similar and it always comes down to thinking that they will be using the internet for two short minutes.
Somehow, time on the Internet flows differently then in the real world. And before you know it, you’ve lost a track of time. And these two minutes turned into fifteen. Or more! On the other hand, this is not really the biggest issue. A more serious problem could lie behind untrustworthy connection. It opens the whole world of cybercrime.
What problems might occur when surfing the Internet at work?
As we said, losing 15 minutes or a bit more of your time at work might not be the biggest problem. Connecting on office wifi can cause grave issues if certain measures are not taken. It is important to acknowledge the existence of these problems. Otherwise, it can put your employer and the business in big trouble. To be honest, that is not beneficial to anyone. Including you.
Poor performance
For starters, browsing the internet during the working hours can really cause decreased performance. This further means that you won’t be able to complete the set goal and reach the target. Moreover, with poor performance the business will only suffer. Remember that each component within the company works like a perfect mechanism.
Every department depends on the other no matter how it may not seem so at first glance. If one sector starts functioning poorly, it will eventually affect others as well. And little by little the pyramid will collapse. And since it is easy to get distracted when surfing the Internet, it is better to discipline yourself and focus just on your work tasks.
Consuming too much bandwidth
Imagine if you and five, or ten of your colleagues were using office wifi for your private purposes. That would mean that you would be draining internet bandwidth capacity so much that the other colleagues would find it very difficult to complete their working tasks in time. That would automatically take us to the first step of poor performance.
But this time it would be thanks to you and your reckless colleagues. But let’s just take one step back. There are many reasons because of which the bandwidth could practically be eaten up. Perhaps there is a minor clog on the network. Or, the device is not functioning properly. And no matter how tiresome the slow network can be, it is better that you are not the source of the problem.
Cyberattacks are getting more common
We have come to the third most serious issue that could occur from browsing the internet from office wifi. Probably almost every serious businessman who runs his own business is preoccupied with the thought of how to protect the business from security threats. Unfortunately, cybercrooks are lurking behind every corner and the security should be raised to the next level. Every time you go online using the internet provided by your employee, you are reducing the chances to maintain the security. This gives nightmares to your boss.
There are lots of tools companies can use to minimize the risk of data breaches, such as the single sign on authentication method, but ultimately, employees do have to take some responsibility if they use the office internet for personal reasons.
Steps to keep your browser history private when using office wifi
One of the first things to do is to use incognito mode. This solely won’t do much, but with the combination of other steps, it will give you the satisfying results. Therefore, before going online, make sure to activate the privacy mode which will enable blocking the third-party cookies. Also, remember to delete all cookies, including the so-called super cookies which collect a much larger amount of data.
Together with these two great tips, we also recommend you to do your search anonymously by using a VPN system. VPN truly has a vast array of usage and it will not only keep your browsing history private when using office wifi, but it will also disable anyone from tracking your surfing as well as allowing you to access any geo-restricted website by changing your online location. Moreover, it can also improve the connection and browsing speed and your two minutes online could truly be just those two minutes. Besides this, you can also try disguising the websites to make them look more serious so that no one would suspect what you are actually looking at. Not even your boss.
And there you go. When in the office, if you are really tempted to use the internet, make sure to follow these steps to save yourself from getting fired or jeopardizing the business.
