Caregiver is very nice and takes care of my parents who are in their 90s. Parents live in my house. When she asked for my WiFi password I was taken aback. Isn't she supposed to be helping my parents? I know there is a lot of downtime when parents are sleeping but I feel uncomfortable giving out my password. Not sure how to handle this. I need to educate myself on how I can better respond to her request.
Actually data use from a mobile internet provider is pretty much unlimited these days unless she has an el cheap type of account. So needing WiFi is a moot point unless you are live streaming data or watching videos or movies.
If your LO is sleeping, then yes, why not let her use internet? I see it’s no different than reading a paperback. But use a guest password
A dilemma...and I haven’t read every response so excuse me if mine has been posted a few times. I’d be concerned because as Tech mentioned, wherever your carer goes or dors online could be your responsibility. I have no idea if there is some sort of “at your own risk” type document your carer could sign but, perhaps you might have a very frank conversation about your concerns. That would be my only worry. As others have said, there really isn’t anything (other than the liability issue) wrong with your carer going online providing she drop everything when needed.
I also agree that you may want to let him/her know that the wifi is not for porn or criminal activity or selling/buying stuff on Ebay.
This is not something you should fret over. Surely you have other things to worry about. 😁
I see two problems with this and the password is not one of them.
1.There should be other tasks to do that are associated with the patients ie laundry, cooking and keeping their area clean and tidy.
2. Internet access is not necessary for a caregiver to recieve messages. She can be called on her own phone or your house phone.
In principle it is no different than reading a book or some hobby as long as she can immediately respond to her patients. Better than sleeping on the job.
And if you want to go techie then there are ways to set up guest access to your WiFi, even to your computer if you needed to give them access to that (though personally I would draw the line there).
Deny her the connection and it means she can't pick up or respond to messages, and if she has other clients these may be urgent. I don't think it's a reasonable condition to impose on a professional caregiver - assuming, again, that she is not misusing her time.
My daughter cannot afford WiFi in her house (she’s a minimalist who keeps her life simple). My husband added her to OUR WiFi, and she can go online at our house. She’s come over after we’ve gone to bed and sits on our patio or in her vehicle and goes online. We put her on our Netflix account as a family member. She’s the ONLY person we’d give our number to.
There are bound books to read (I buy actual books for my daughter), painting with oil, embroidery and hand sewing, decorating with flower boxes, all sorts of things to do while the elderly nap. My daughter is hyperactive so she stays busy.
Tell caregiver that you feel that your number is private and if she gets angry she isn’t the caregiver for your family.
Depending on how you setup your router and declared your network on your computer, giving the wireless access password may or may not risk compromising the data on your laptop. Routers have at least two passwords - the admin password (used to control router functions including security) and the connection password used to connect to the default/primary SID. That little WPS button doesn't work if the admin has disabled it - it's designed to be used where the router is physically secured. No app is going to break the password if it's setup correctly either (at least not for a couple of years). Of course if the admin password is still set to the default, then all an app has to do is determine the router type and log right in as the admin with the known and published default password.
My router is setup with two SIDs (network IDs) each with its own password; one is for MY use that has top priority on bandwidth and the second guest setup only gets what bandwidth I'm not using. The kids use the "guest" where every device and URL is logged and there are limits on usage and a list of sites that cannot be accessed at all. My personal network is declared a "home" network on my laptop so I can see printers, tablets, and other devices. I would not use the "home" declaration if _anyone_ else was on that network; windows provides much better default protections for "public" networks.
I work from home and need my network to be secure so I spent the time to setup a second "guest" network. I do not recommend you consider this. If you decide to share the network with your care giver and you have concerns over the security of your data, make sure your network is declared "public" on your computer.
One very good method of protecting your laptop is to turn it (or at least the wireless) off when you are not sitting in front of it. Together with a password or fingerprint lock, that leaves your computer fairly well protected unless your care giver is a devoted hacker. You are much more likely to compromise your data by clicking on an email link (and downloading/installing a virus) than having a guest break in using your network.
BTW - if a guest uses your network for illegal purposes, including pirate downloads or viewing child porn, you could become the target of a local/state/federal investigation and need to "prove" you are not the guilty party. That's not difficult if you're willing to allow the authorities to scan your computer/smart phone, but it is a pain.
Hope at least some of that is helpful.
If it has a limited time/download, then I would say "Sorry, but no".
If it is unlimited and she is using her own device, I see no problems.
In any case, when companies like movie distributors go after users for illegal downloading, they tend to go after individuals with personal accounts, not business accounts with public wifi.
I am writing this as someone who may have, ahem, pirated some movies and TV shows in her day. One day I got a warning notice from my ISP to stop downloading a certain show and to delete all the copies I had. So I don't do it anymore, and I certainly don't do it now that I'm using mom's internet! And this is in Canada, where I'm lucky enough that our internet providers won't give our personal information to companies or lawyers trying to secure copyright.
Edit: personally, though, I feel people should have more concern about their kids or grandkids illegally downloading (because young people often don't think it's a big deal) than their caregivers, who are usually bonded through their agencies and probably wouldn't dream of risking their jobs just to pirate movies....especially when it's pretty easily done at home using a VPN (virtual private network).