How can I use the Slingbox away from my home?

What are some of the legal consequences of co-mingling use of personal/home computing resources with employer-provided ones when telecommuting from home?

• Closely related to this question is the increasing traction of employer-sponsored BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) programs, particularly with respect to mobile devices. This article details some of the potential legal pitfalls of also using one's personal mobile device for work: http://bringyourownit.com/2012/02/06/consumerization-byod-policy-privacy-data-loss-device-seizure/ What I would like to know from the Quora legal community is if there are similar legal issues with co-mingling use of personal and work resources in work-from-home situations. For example, suppose I regularly bring home and work on an employer-owned laptop. Does the simple act of using a work laptop from home, connected to my home WiFi network for internet connectivity, expose my home computer network and personal devices to the kinds of discovery, seizure, and privacy consequences noted in the BYOD article? Is there any well-known litigation in this area which has established some outlines of precedence, or is it pretty much uncharted territory? From a legal standpoint, are there any differences between use of work technology in the home from more traditional items (for example - authorized home perusal of hard-copy documents containing proprietary company information)? Are there any best practices for achieving separation between home use of personal and work technology that maximizes protection for both parties?

• Answer:

  Generally speaking, just using your employer-assigned laptop or other device on your home network probably does not open up your home network to discovery, unless there is reason to believe that you have copied or otherwise retained company materials on your home computer, or if the litigation involved personal activities that you performed through the use of that network. That said, this is currently a pretty nebulous area of the law, and a party could certainly request discovery from your home network, meaning that you would have to retain independent counsel to quash such requests.  Keep in mind that your company's lawyers represent the company, and not you personally -- if your personal data becomes subject of an opposing party's interest, and they can convince a judge that it's reasonable to request discovery directly from you, you cannot count on your company's attorneys to protect you. As for protecting yourself, there's a few things you can do: Always connect to work through a VPN or other secure and logged method of connection that you can point to as evidence that your home network was merely a conduit for official business. Never use your corporate-owned assets for personal business, even at home. Never store data from your corporate-owned assets anywhere on your local network or online in any SaaS data services (like Dropbox). Those safeguards should keep you somewhat safe, but as noted above it's never 100% certain that your personal data is safe from such a request if you work from home.This answer is not a substitute for professional legal advice....