As the author of the WWW FAQ, I regularly answer questions about the workings of the Web. If a question is frequently asked, I simply add an article to the FAQ. But sometimes a question is more detailed, more in-depth— not really a FAQ, but still of interest to others. You'll find those questions, with my answers, here in Innards along with commentary on other web-technology-related topics.

Q. I use a work laptop, and travel tons. When I surf the net while on the VPN (Virtual Private Network), I understand that my employer can see what I am doing. But when I have closed the VPN and I'm just doing general surfing, can my employer still tell what I'm doing? I see that they have IE locked down to where cookies, etc can't be deleted, but I use another browser that allows me to remove my history from that session. What risk am I at when doing personal browsing while not on the VPN? And how might I ever know if there is tracking software on my computer? Thanks!

Q. First, it's not "your computer." Get that idea out of your head and you will be a lot happier.

Second, yes, they could have keystroke logging software on it. And no, short of reformatting the hard drive you can't be sure that they don't.

You really, really should not think of this PC as yours. Get a cheap $400 Dell laptop to use for whatever you want. Use the work laptop for work.

if your employers are smart, they'd rather not know what your personal surfing habits are— it's just a waste of their time. But when you surf on a laptop provided by work, things get blurry and they might use tracking techniques that don't effectively distinguish between days you're in the office and days you're on the road, evening and daytime use, et cetera. Don't take the risk.