Can My Company Track My Laptop Location

laptop in a car with maps

Companies may track the location of their employees to ensure company properties are secure and employees don’t work outside permitted locations. If you’re working remotely on a company-issued laptop, there’s a chance that your company is tracking your location.

It may seem like your privacy is being invaded, but companies can legally track the location of their employees. However, the legality of this mostly depends on the device. Our article will go over whether your company can track your laptop location and, if so, how.

Can My Company Legally Track My Laptop Location?

The short answer to this question is yes. Your company can track the location of your laptop legally. Companies are allowed to track the location of laptops given to employees by the company without notifying the employee. However, this depends on the device.

Companies are only allowed to do this without stating in the work contract for company-issued devices, not personal devices used for work. For personal devices, your contract must have a section outlining that you will need to install surveillance software that tracks your location.

While the legal side of this is straightforward, your company may not need to install such software on your laptop to know your location. There are other ways companies can pinpoint your location.

How Your Company May Track Your Location?

Here’s an overview of how your company may track your location, including ways that don’t require installing anything on the laptop.

GPS Tracking

GPS tracking is one of the most common ways companies track the location of employees. Since laptops have a built-in GPS, employers can install a tracker on the laptop before they are distributed to employees.

However, note that federal law requires employers to get consent from employees to use GPS tracking on personal devices. Without approval, your employer can’t use GPS tracking to know your location.

Mobile Device Management Software

Almost all company devices have some sort of mobile device management software installed. These applications allow companies to control, secure, and track mobile devices, including laptops.

Often, mobile device management software has location-tracking capabilities. If you’re using a company-issued laptop, your employer is likely to monitor your location through it.

Employee Monitoring Software

Companies that allow remote work often use employee monitoring software to track productivity and ensure employees work during working hours. The focus of it is to ensure employee productivity, but some also have GPS tracking capabilities.

Like mobile device management software, your employer can enable this to track your location. However, the same as above, your employer must get your consent to track your location through a personal laptop used for work.

IP Address

While all of the above requires installing software, your company may know your location based on your IP address. Although tracking location through IP address doesn’t pinpoint exactly where a laptop is, it gives a pretty close estimate.

If you’re working remotely and plan on traveling to another city or country, your network activity may be flagged in the company’s security systems. Since an IP address from an unusual location will be a major flag, your company is likely to investigate the network activity.

Companies often don’t place security measures like this for the purpose of tracking employee locations. These security measures are mostly there to protect company data. However, your company can know that it is your device that’s connected to company data from a suspicious IP address.

What to Do If Your Company is Tracking Your Laptop Location

If your company is tracking your laptop location, it’s essential to know your rights. Your company can do this only without your consent when using a company-issued laptop. Even on a device you purchased with your own money only for work, your company must get your written consent for location tracking.

Without it, your company isn’t allowed to track your location. Although it’s legal in some cases, you can contact your company if you don’t want your location to be tracked. If you don’t know who to contact, you can perform a reverse email search on the administrator email to know who runs the devices or tracking software.