I use the uni account for office, but read online that they can access other files and your device. How does that actually work? How to verify?
I use the uni account for office, but read online that they can access other files and your device. How does that actually work? How to verify?
I bought it, windows, as per work software what do you refer to? After buying it I logged with two accounts: my personal one, with my Gmail email AND the University’s email. during COVID they gave us free access to office, so obviously we would use the university email for that.
Did they give you any programs to install on that computer or did anyone ever take your computer and install anything to it? Did you notice any new programs pop up that weren’t there before?
In the search on the bottom of the computer, type “control panel” then click Uninstall a program. Click the name for Date Installed to sort the column by most recently installed programs. Tell us if you see any since setting up with the university that you didn’t install yourself.
well being a short list I’ll upload the images: the first ones I think are programs already present on the pc, and being 2020 when I first accessed office with the uni account, I don’t think there’s anythign weird there. But I don’t know much about softwares and stuff so here they are:
At the least, they could have access to any files you open through MS office since it has file history. I would also review your OneDrive settings and see what’s being backed up where, since Microsoft likes to mess with those settings.
Look into LibreOffice and OnlyOffice. Both can help you get around needing MSOffice, and the latter is visually very similar to MS
If you bought it, and they didn’t compensate you for it, then it is legally yours. (Of course, the work-related data is theirs unless stated otherwise.) If you ask them officially (e.g. e-mail IT support), they have to tell you what, if any, control they have. They can lie, but no one is risking jail term over such small stakes.
As for software, they might have asked you to install some antivirus / security software, that may give them some control over your computer.
Also, as the other poster said, they can control anything you do using your Office account. So don’t use your work e-mail for anything personal. And Microsoft may 'back-up your files to the work account’s OneDrive, so go check those systems.
In general, I don’t think a university would do anything malicious, but they could be incompetent and leak your data to a third party.