SUMMARY 

NSFW still applies when you’re working remotely from home. Your company laptop saves all sorts of data including web history, recent docs, etc. that could get you busted.
It’s right there in the email subject line: NSFW.

When you see this acronym for “Not Safe For Work”, this is your dead giveaway that there’s something risque or explicit in that email.

It’s a courtesy heads-up warning that you shouldn’t open and view this email at the office but if you do, take extra precautions so that you don’t get caught.

However, in this case, you’re working from home. There are no coworkers around. So, you click on the link.

And then you see it.

It’s an incredibly realistic deep fake video of two well-known politicians having BDSM sex in a make-shift dungeon movie set. It’s shockingly real, hilarious and grotesque all at the same time.

Good thing you didn’t open this at work ‘cause your monitor can be seen by everybody. It wouldn’t matter if your office is cubicles or open office, you’d still get busted knowing your luck.

However, since you’re working from home, nobody saw anything except for you. It’s just you at home.

So, the question is, does NSFW still apply when you’re working remotely from home?

The short answer is yes. Here’s why.

You Can Still Get Busted For NSFW Content At Home

The risk of NSFW content at work is definitely very clear. Your desk and monitor are often viewable from people walking by, cubicle neighbors and most critically, your boss.

Getting busted watching porn during work (or any other explicit shit) will definitely raise some eyebrows and will tarnish your personal brand at the very least. And at the worst, it can get your ass canned.

It’s something everyone is aware of and that’s why the acronym came into being. It’s a heads up warning so that you don’t get into trouble.

But when you’re working from home, there are no coworkers around and your boss isn’t there either. Plus, it’s your home internet connection, not the company connection at work.

It’s easy to think that NSFW warnings don’t apply in this situation.

You can read that risky email, click on that web link, open the photo attachment, watch the video, etc. all without any worries of being seen doing so by anyone from work.

That’s 100% true but it doesn’t mean that it’s not risk-free. Opening and viewing NSFW content at home can still get you in trouble.

Here’s why.

Your Company Owns The Laptop And Everything Inside It

When you’re working with your work laptop day-in and day-out, it’s easy to forget that it’s not your personal laptop, especially when you’re working from home.

You’re doing email, making kick-ass Powerpoint decks, cranking on excel, etc. In other words, you’re in the zone with work.

However, everybody needs to take a break for a bit of quick stress relief. And, the web is the go to source for a short mental break. It’s inevitable that you’ll come across some NSFW stuff checking personal email during short breaks and download something to your work laptop without a second thought.

Everybody’s done this.

What you forget about is that your company owns the laptop and everything that’s inside of it. So, anything you save can be seen by your employer when they take the laptop back.

Helpdesk Can Remotely See Your Laptop’s Contents

These days with remote access technologies, your IT security and helpdesk guys can remotely see what’s happening on your work laptop - even without your permission because remember, it’s company property.

So long as your computer is on (even on sleep mode), company IT reps can access the laptop. It’s not uncommon for them to check that the latest security patches have been applied successfully on your work laptop.

This can either be in the form of live access to the laptop or via overnight auto-confirmations.

Plus, whenever you’re on a live remote helpdesk session with your IT folks and they’re controlling your laptop remotely, they can pretty much see and do anything on the laptop as if they were sitting in your chair and working the keyboard and mouse.

So, don’t view, download, save, etc any NSFW stuff to your work computer. You probably have enough desktop digital clutter to deal with anyways.

Browsing History Can Be Retrieved By Your Company

The great thing about using Chrome or Safari is that they both make web browsing so much easier and friction-free. Sometimes, it can seem like they already know where you want to go with a few keystrokes.

These kinds of little tech automations allow you to do more with less stress because it’s working with you and not against you.

This is all due to the fact that they store your browsing history and information using URLs and cookies. It makes it easy to auto-fill what you’re typing based upon where you’ve visited in the past.

This browsing history information is saved locally on your computer and can easily be seen by others that have access to your laptop - namely, the IT folks.

It’s best not to view, click and download any NSFW stuff. The web addresses will be saved by the browser unless you manually clear your browsing history every single time, which nobody does.

Open Browsers And Tabs Can Be Seen During Screen Share

When you’re working from home, one of the key collaboration tools that you’ll use frequently is web-conferencing software. This allows you to simultaneously have live video interaction and share information.

When you’re screen sharing, it’s easy to forget that your browser is a tell-tale indicator of where you’ve been on the web.

There have been countless stories of people that opened their browser on a screen share to show something and others were able to see the tab snippets of open tabs. It’s like getting caught with no pants on during video calls.

Or, as you’re typing in a new browser tab, the auto-complete will show previously visited websites. This could be an embarrassing situation when your laptop decides to pre-populate the URL address bar with “Hayride Honeys” instead of Hayworth Associates.

Recent Docs And Items Can Be Seen During Screen Share

Another tell-tale giveaway that you’ve watched some NSFW stuff is your “recent documents” history.

This is very similar to how your browsers save your recently visited websites, only in this instance, it’s saving the 10 to 20 most recent docs that you’ve been using. This makes it easy for you to spot the recent docs you’ve been working on and jump right back in.

When you’re in a screen-sharing session and have to pull up a file for the current discussion and you go to your menu of programs/apps, the “recent docs” list shows the titles of the most recent files that you opened.

This of course would include that racy NSFW photo or video.

Busted!

Time to step away from the desk and do a one-minute meditation to counteract the embarrassment.

Tricking You Into Installing Malicious Virus Or Ransome Software

One tactic that cyber-scammers and hackers often use is to lure you into opening an enticing NSFW piece of content. They want you to open the attachment.

And when you do click and open it, that lame NSFW thing is actually a virus or worse, a malicious software program that is self-installing on your work laptop. Once it’s able to gain access into your computer, it can then access other parts of your company’s network.

In really bad scenarios, this can result in wire fraud, corporate espionage, corporate ransom acts, etc. You’d be in deep shit for sure. It’ll make getting through a rough day even harder.

And if you’ve saved any personal information on your laptop, then that program would have access to that too. It’s bad news, buddy. 

Tips For Opening NSFW Content At Home

Most of the time, the NSFW warning is a heads up that it’s probably something sexually-oriented like porn or really disturbing. Either way, it’s gotten your attention and your curiosity is driving you nuts.

Here’s how to go about things.

Be Wary Of Suspicious Emails 

You already know that opening any suspicious emails from senders you don’t know is not a good thing to do. But, if it’s from your BFF, family members and friends, this is when you’ve gotta be careful because people’s accounts do get hacked.

This is where your gut instinct comes into play.

If you know that your coworkers, friends or family don’t normally send this kind of message, that’s your red flag right there.

Don’t open that email and instead give them a call and ask them if they meant to send it. If not, just delete that shit.

If it’s just another rude-ass email from your resident asshole at work, well, just ignore that shit too.

Forward NSFW Content To Your Personal Email

Rather than using your work laptop to look at the NSFW content, use your own separate personal laptop instead - more on this below.

This way, you’re not creating any evidence of opening and viewing NSFW stuff on your work computer - no browser history, no cookies, no recent docs, etc.

You don’t want to create any digital footprints of where you’ve been that could pop-up on you during calls, meetings or just hidden in areas of your computer that you’re just not aware of.

Nobody should know about how you’re secretly trying to outsource your own work except for you - haha. 😉

Just forward that email to your personal email and then...

Use Separate Web-Based Chromebook Laptop

The great thing about Google’s web-only Chromebook laptops is that they can’t be compromised or affected by viruses. They are web-only devices and use Google’s powerful virus-scanning systems to open and view content.

Chromebooks don’t have traditional operating systems that have locally installed software programs. Everything works off of web-based apps.

This is far better than using your own normal laptop or computer at home, which can be vulnerable to viruses and malicious software.

So, you can open and view any and all NSFW content using a Chromebook and not have to worry.

Chromebooks are inexpensive compared to traditional laptops. It’s always good to have one not only for these kinds of uses, but also for just normal day-to-day web use.

But, if you don’t have a Chromebook at the moment and still want to open the NSFW content links, then...

Open Web Links Using Incognito Window

On the Chrome web browser, in the upper right corner, there are three dots for more menu options. Click on the three dots and select “New incognito window”.

This will open a new browser window that will not save any browsing information or history. It clears everything out when you close this window. You can then copy-paste the NSFW link in this window and check it out safely.

Alternatively, you can right-click the link and select, “Open in incognito window” and take a peek. Either option will allow you to see what the fuss is all about without having this website location saved in your history or files.

Satisfy Your Curiosity Safely

It’s hard to resist the temptation of seeing something racy or crazy, especially if it’s been marked with an NSFW tag. It piques your curiosity even more.

There’s nothing wrong with satisfying your curiosity. It may even be a welcomed stress-break and may not even be anything that bad. Everyone could use a good laugh during the day. It’s important to have fun at work.

You just gotta be smart about it.

Don’t get lazy and use your work laptop to open and view NSFW stuff to get your giggles on. It just opens you up to potential embarrassment which will tarnish your personal brand. And at worst, it can lead to more serious problems.

Use common sense and look at it via other ways outside of your company laptop. This will always be the better option.

Feel Better,
[Cubicle|Therapy]

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