Slashdot Mirror
Company Laptop, My Data — Can They Co-exist?
An anonymous reader writes "I recently replaced my old laptop. The owner of my company heard about this and offered to reimburse me for it, since he knows I have and will continue to do company work on my own hardware. I'd like the extra $1,250, but I think if I accept his offer that legally he has the right to any data on it (personal emails, files, blog posts, etc.). Even if I decide to put my personal stuff on a second drive, I'm worried that using company property to save and write to separate storage still gives them the right to it. The apps (Office, etc.) are my own licenses. We do not have a policy that intellectual property developed using company assets belongs to the company. But, if I figured out the One Great Internet Business Idea or write the Great American Novel and used the company laptop to do it, it's an avenue they could use to claim they own it. Unlikely, but scary. How many Slashdotters have been in this situation, and what agreement did you and your management come up with?"
Exactly. We've done this at my company. Take the laptop or cash as part of compensation and there will be no legal issues because it will become a personal possession and not the company's. Get it in writing so there's no debate.
In the poster's particular case, receive the $1250 as a simple bonus. Have them write a letter backing that up.
Developers: We can use your help.
Exactly. Your company has three options.
1. A payment in the amount of the computer. It goes not your income taxes as a bonus.
2. They transfer ownershhip to you. It goes on your income taxes as non-cash compensation for the value of the computer. It is your property afterwards; they can't take it back when you quit.
3. They issue you a company laptop. It remains their property; if you quit, you have to return it.
For 1 and 2, the computer is yours, and you can do whatever you like. Just like your car and your TV, which were purchased with money from your paycheck. The company has no say in what you do with the computer afterwards. You could even immediately sell them on eBay (though they'd probably be unhappy and demand the money back, and might fire you if you refused to pay them.)
For 3, you shouldn't do anything personal on it, nor should you install any of your own licensed software on it..
Asking legal questions on an Slashdot forum is like asking 4chan for relationship advice.
I see legal questions in Ask Slashdot as more of a "What should I know before talking to a lawyer?" type of question.
Speaking as someone with experience in the digital forensics field (and I have personally done far more than e-mail forensics mentioned above), if the courts find out that you do company work on your personal laptop, you are a subpoena away from having to produce it, with or without the $1,250 bonus. If you brought a personal external hard drive into work one day and someone saw you use it, you could have to produce that. Depending on how good your lawyer is compared to theirs, you may be able to have your personal items undergo a privilege process, but that doesn't mean that some forensics expert isn't going to be taking a complete copy of your hard drive and presenting findings about (but not the actual relevant data until approved or ordered by the courts) your laptop usage.
Essentially if you get sued by your employer, it looks better if you just spread em wide and hope for the vaseline. There is no 'innocent until proven guilty' in civil courts, it's all about the 'preponderance of evidence' which means that if you can't say more about your innocence than they can about you're guilt, you're guilty.
I imagine this is quite similar to employers who do mobile phone or internet reimbursements in that they are offering it as a benefit and there is no transfer in ownership (though there may be some assumption of increased availability to work outside the office). When an employer reimburses you for personal vehicle use, they aren't claiming ownership on anything in your car...
Bottles.