Hi All,

I work from a home office and have always connected to my employers email service via a POP server until recently. Now my employer has just set up a Microsoft Exchange Server which I access through a new VPN connection. Because I use my own personal desktop for work I have questions and concerns around privacy. When I am connected on the VPN can my employer access all of my personal files, (for example: banking, job searches), internet browsing activity, list of favorites etc. or do they only have access to my email (in Outlook 2003) while I am connected? I am a complete rookie with regard to how a VPN actually works, so any information and advice you can provide would be more than welcome.

Thank You.

What type of VPN connection are you using?

It is an OpenVPN connection. Does that answer your question or are you looking for something more specific?

Without getting to technical, all a VPN connection does is give your computer a secure connection to the network at your office. It makes everything act as though your computer is sitting at the office plugged right into the network.

So to answer the question, your employer would only have access to things you have opened up for public access or to share on a home network, ie: a "Shared Folder". The only was they could find browsing history, fav. sites, etc. is if they hacked your computer or required you to install some computer monitoring software such as Spector. Both of those are highly unlikely though.

Graphics Guy,

Thanks for the reply I really appreciate it. So what you are saying is that my employer only has access to my email?

Thanks Again
Mahlermalone

Bingo! Unless you were to go into folder properties and open up a folder for sharing, they can only view your e-mail... which they could do anyway since they're your employer and set up the account. You don't have anything to worry about.