Can My University See What I Am Doing On My Laptop?

[Mizh]

(I dont know where to ask this, netwrok forum seemed the right one)

I'm a bit paranoid, but I want to know if my university can see what I'm browsing while being on their proxy server iam not a computer nerd but i want to know:

 1. Can they see what i search for, like on google? (what websites i visit)
 2. Can they see what i search for on different websites?
 3. Can they even record this?
 4. I cant use VPN on this proxy server why? they just dont work. Without this proxy server the LAN also doesnt work.

 

Also can they do this on their wifi? their wifi is also without CA Certificate, is that a bad thing?
And what is this proxy server and how it works can any one explain this to me.

[Levent]

12 minutes ago, Mizh said:

 1. Can they see what i search for, like on google? (what websites i visit)

Yes

13 minutes ago, Mizh said:

 2. Can they see what i search for on different websites?

Yes

13 minutes ago, Mizh said:

 3. Can they even record this?

Yes, they often HAVE to.

13 minutes ago, Mizh said:

 4. I cant use VPN on this proxy server why? they just dont work. Without this proxy server the LAN also doesnt work.

They didnt let it.

 

 

[filpo]

16 minutes ago, Mizh said:

And what is this proxy server and how it works can any one explain this to me.

simply put a proxy server is like a broker between your computer and the server and it also allows the people administering it to implement security such as a firewall and web filters which could be blocking you from using a VPN and blocking you from going onto certain websites

 

16 minutes ago, Mizh said:

1. Can they see what i search for, like on google? (what websites i visit)
 2. Can they see what i search for on different websites?

yes and yes (these are essentially the same as they can just paste the link into their own browser)

 

I cannot do this with my own router to try but I know that on non mobile home broadband networks one can check the browser history by going into the router settings and putting in the login details

16 minutes ago, Mizh said:

 3. Can they even record this?

legally? The ISP's wouldn't put the option if they couldn't. If they can literally? I tried with my old ISP (it was a non mobile broadband network) and I saw history, but only for about 30 days. Though since your uni is most likely a lot bigger they might be able to record a lot of it (your uni might not use local storage on the router like my old ISP did)

16 minutes ago, Mizh said:

I cant use VPN on this proxy server why?

it might be blocked to use one to prevent students from going on certain websites. Unless you want to *redacted*

Don't do this

Picture for hint

[TylerD321]

I did IT for a while at a university. It was pretty neat, they were able to see pretty much everything and prevent pretty much whatever they want. They would nuke your access to the internet using your student ID if you did something you couldn't and the only way to get access back was to call the IT office and they'd reprimand you.

[OddOod]

8 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I did IT for a while at a university. It was pretty neat, they were able to see pretty much everything and prevent pretty much whatever they want. They would nuke your access to the internet using your student ID if you did something you couldn't and the only way to get access back was to call the IT office and they'd reprimand you.

Heh, I got slammed for using too much bandwidth once

[Needfuldoer]

Their network, their rules.

 

If you don't like it, you can pay for a mobile hotspot and use your own data plan.

 

But realistically, unless you're causing trouble they probably won't care too much what you do with the connection.