Time-tracking software on VM

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Redrick
Posts: 2
Joined: 2. Feb 2023, 02:58

Time-tracking software on VM

Post by Redrick »

Hello,

I work remotely and recently my company implemented time-tracking software for our team to be spied on during the working hours. To protect my privacy, I decided to run a virtual machine, install the time-tracker on it and work from it, since I'm working from my personal PC. I've read most of the basic information about VirtualBox and I've set it up and configured the settings, so everything seems to be working fine now, with the time-tracker installed and functioning.

Now, is there any advice on configuring my VM and network settings in these particular conditions that you can give me? I mean, to ensure that the time-tracking spyware doesn't capture any info about what I'm doing on my host while the VM is running. Do I have anything to worry about? Any replies about your experience with using VM for the same purposes is especially appreciated.

Both my host and guest systems are Windows 10.
scottgus1
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Time-tracking software on VM

Post by scottgus1 »

I haven't done time-tracking software in a VM. But there are some considerations:

Generally, what happens in the VM stays in the VM. The software should not be able to see what you're doing on the host, if you have disabled things like shared clipboard, which can pass clipboard text between the two OS's, or have not installed Guest additions at all.

However, reasonably-developed software can tell it is running inside a VM, even without the hypervisor's VM additions installed. This could raise a question with the bosses if their software is so programmed and reports running in a VM. The bosses might ask why.

The software might also track mouse clicks, key presses, etc. We wouldn't know how invasive it is. The software will quite likely not see your clicks and presses in the host OS, but it might note and report periods of no activity, which may also raise questions with the bosses.

How you might answer such questions is a point to consider.
Redrick
Posts: 2
Joined: 2. Feb 2023, 02:58

Re: Time-tracking software on VM

Post by Redrick »

In our time-tracker there's a switch between software-based and hardware-based tracking, and we use the first one, so as far as I'm concerned the mouse and keyboard clicks are not tracked at all. As for the bosses finding out about me using a VM, I'm not worried since they don't prohibit running two physical computers on the same desk, one for personal use and another one for working, they even offer laptops from the office for us to take home. And there's no difference between that and running a VM, on my opinion at least. It's just more comfortable and doesn't consume additional space.

But please clarify another thing for me: would there be any difference between choosing different VM network adapters in my case, in the aspect of the privacy and security? And maybe some of them are faster than the rest, affecting input lag etc? For example, bridged vs NAT. I'm not much of a technician but, considering that the time-tracker determines what software windows are opened and active at any moment, and what websites are viewed at any moment, and builds the statistics reports about every employee's productivity based on that information, I assume that it's working principles might have something to do with the IP and TCP packets and stuff.
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