Can I find out if my employer is snooping on me? I work at a large university and have a computer supplied by my employer.

There is apparently some sort of remote management that the help desk can use if I call them and accept their request to log onto my computer. Program updates are also pushed out automatically.

The machine runs Mac OS X, I have admin privileges and can install any software I want.

(Note that this is a technical question, not a policy one. Also note that I understand any computer can be hacked. This question is more pointed towards assessing typical threats from my friendly sysadmins and their equally benevolent bosses.)

I would like to find out whether my employer is snooping or can snoop on my files or activity on my computer. Can I find that out? How would I go about?
Typical software (Apple Remote Desktop, Casper, Absolute, VNC, etc) that allows remote monitoring of Macs will be reliant on a few things that the end user controls, assuming they have administrative privileges.

In System Preferences &gt; Sharing a lot of this control is determined using these two preferences.


Remote Management is centered around the Apple Remote Desktop capabilities, which are shared with most management suites.  Screen sharing (or observing), file copying, reports, restart, shutdown, etc.
Remote Login allows others to login remotely via the command line, using SSH.


These are the two options that I set on all of our owned Macs.  With them I can remotely control, gather reports, copy files to/from, push updates, etc.

Another thing to look for is System Preferences &gt; Profiles and/or other third party preference panes such as the Absolute Manage pane.  Both of these are only present if they've been installed.

Profiles will show any installed management profiles.  These could offer a wide range of control or settings.  Clicking on a profile will show you the options it sets though.

Third party panes (or plugins) may not be as transparent as profiles but will still give you a clue as to what management is in place.

Hope that helps!