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The Dangers of Sharing Your Screen With Co-Workers (seattletimes.com)

"if you must goof off at work, then at the very least manage your notification settings so that your alerts are muted, and aren't broadcast on the big screen when you screen share in the boardroom," warns the New York Times -- offering several examples of what can go wrong.

An anonymous reader quotes their follow-up report: Whether it's happened to you or in front of you, many of us are familiar with the screen-share disaster: the accidental exposure of something private while projecting your screen before a group of colleagues.

The only surefire way to avoid this is to do as the lawyers recommend and keep your personal things on your personal devices and your work things on you work computer. Sonia Farber, a partner and founder of , acknowledges that may not be feasible for everyone. "But, to the extent that you can keep some separation of church and state, you should make every effort to do that," she said.

The Times offers a checklist for "how not to ruin your life (or just die of embarrassment) with a screen share" -- offering common-sense tips like managing desktop notifications and signing out of messaging apps before meetings. (And of course, not leaving open any tell-tale browser tabs.) But have Slashdot's readers seen (or experienced) any screen-sharing disasters in their own lives?

Share your stories in the comments. What are the dangers of sharing your screen with co-workers?

6 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. VM by Chas · · Score: 3, Informative

    If I have to screen-share, I have a VM for that.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  2. Times have Changed by nukenerd · · Score: 2, Informative

    There was a time, when knights were bold and engineers were men (I mean there were no women engineers), that some presentations would be spiced with pictures of naked young ladies thrown in here and there. Kept people awake. No naked selfies of the presenter though (which is perhaps what TFA is about) or anything else for the gays, thank God.

  3. Re:The New York Times is hosted as seattletimes.co by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Seattle Times subscribes to - and republishes - stories from the New York Times (and other places) - that's what happened here. I regularly see gardening stories in the Seattle Times which are completely worthless because they're actually written by someone living in a completely different east coast climate zone. Oh, and last fall they had a headline story about a huge (but harmless) spider invading houses and scaring people... a spider which only lives on the US east coast.

    I understand why they purchase stories from elsewhere, but before publishing they should at least vet whether the stories make any sense for the Puget Sound audience...

    Anyway, back on topic: I read about four paragraphs of the linked story - you shouldn't bother. It's drivel written by someone pretending to be a writer - it would be a better fit as a Facebook post or in a supermarket magazine targeting women.

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    #DeleteChrome
  4. Personal messages among co-workers... by Lorens · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was giving a presentation to higher-ups AND to senior people we were the clients of. My big mistake was setting up the projector before setting up the presentation. The link to the presentation was in my mail, but when I went to get it, a colleague had just sent me a mail with a funny/sexy picture which got displayed on the big screen X-{

    Nobody said anything, but I think everybody saw it.

    Moral: set up your presentation *before* you connect to the projector (and shut off your mail etc. when you project, of course). Also keep NSFW in your personal accounts, because hey, that's the definition of NSFW.

  5. Extend Desktop by denbesten · · Score: 3, Informative

    Try out "Extend Desktop" instead of "Clone Displays". In addition to generally keeping popups from presenting, it gives the presenter a screen for non-presentable activities, such as taking notes or doing some quick research.

    1. Re:Extend Desktop by Lorens · · Score: 4, Informative

      And your typical presenting programs should recognize that and use your laptop screen for showing a big timer, the slide notes, and a miniature of the next slide up. PowerPoint Advanced Skill.