This makes me really glad that our company policy thus far has been giving employees new machines and have them set them up themselves. I know my work laptop has no spyware because I didn't install any.
And you installed no internal apps at all? How did you get on the corporate Wi-Fi? How do you send print jobs to the office printer?
It's quite rare for company-owned macs to be completely unmanaged. Usually the installation method for common corporate utilities is an MDM solution like Jamf (Self Service), which also transmits logs - for example how long each app was in the foreground[1] and what times you're using your computer[2].
I have work at multiple start ups, many of which I have been with as a grown from 5 to 500 people. A few have gone public
None of them do any sort of monitoring like this.
At some of them, I have lead the security team. and others, I have been in charge of IT.
Even at the ones where its not my job to handle that, I am supremely confident that we use no such software.
Beyond the policy problems that it would cause (private keys and customer data could be viewed, requiring very broad access roles), it would also be next to impossible to implement from a technological standpoint.
At every company that I've worked at in the last 12 years, engineers have had the ability to wipe their machine and reinstall.
In most cases, they have the ability to swap out hard drives and other components, Bring them to Apple stores for repair, etc.
No one that I know of users custom VPN software, or closed source Cisco stuff anymore.
I think you are dramatically overestimating how common this sort of thing is.
Startups don't do the whole Enterprise Active Directory managed desktop computers thing. These days, users can run whatever they want and everything is done using cloud apps. Onboarding is handing people a shrink-wrapped MacBook and sending an invite to GSuite to their personal email. After that, everything's managed using SSO.
I installed Norton, which I uninstalled a year or two later when my manager finally got sick and tired of it blocking connections it shouldn't have and uninstalled it.
And I got on the company Wi-Fi with a password. Still do.
I guessed my company's admin password and erased their partition.
If I get laid off (they're cutting 20% of the workforce next week), then I consider the computer my severance pay.
If they press the issue, they can come to my house and collect the machine. But I'll lick every part of it before I hand it over.
Childish? Oh, heck yeah. But when I see my own company screwing over its employees and customers to protect the CEO's pay (none of the C-levels took a cut), I just don't care.
I would seriously reconsider this. They won't come to collect it, they will simply file a police report and the police will show up at your home. Depending on the laptop, where you live, your record, this could end up as a felony, and will certainly hinder your future employment.
I know its tempting and it's likely your only recourse but it won't work out for you in the end.
I wouldn’t so much consider this childish, as I would consider it criminal. You may feel justified in doing it, but don’t fool yourself: this would be theft.
It's quite rare for company-owned macs to be completely unmanaged. Usually the installation method for common corporate utilities is an MDM solution like Jamf (Self Service), which also transmits logs - for example how long each app was in the foreground[1] and what times you're using your computer[2].
1. http://archive.today/tfYtO
2. http://archive.today/MkBKE