News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work?

Posted by shay_ker on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @11:00AM
from the ask-hn dept.
I'm worried if I use my personal github for work that it could cause my employer (FAANG) to have access to all of my personal things. This could involve open source work as well as private work repos.

Is it possible to insulate myself from this risk by:

- only using my work laptop for work things

- work-only ssh & gpg keys that are only accessed on my work laptop

Or is the only hope to create a separate Github accounts?

( 15 comments | 6 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by jstx1 on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @12:09PM (#30700598)
Making a new github account takes less time and effort than you've spent just typing out this question.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by shay_ker on Thursday March 17, 2022 @09:00AM (#30710662)
lol i did both at the same time.

also it turns out that having more than one GH free account is against the terms of service:

https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by 0xtaj on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @08:46PM (#30706135)
Lol. Preach.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by runjake on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @12:10PM (#30700613)
The general consensus whenever this is asked is: use work resources for work, and personal resources for personal.

In other words, don't cross the streams.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by drstewart on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @01:37PM (#30701710)
I wonder how many of these same people advocate for working from home. Is your bedroom a work resource?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by criticas on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @11:20AM (#30699887)
You're asking about a technology solution to a legal problem. Depending on the agreement between you and your employer, even a separate account may not be sufficient.

Understand that first, then determine how to best implement it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by shay_ker on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @11:29AM (#30700018)
AFAIK in California, personal work that’s done on personal devices outside of work hours aren’t accessible by your employer from a legal perspective.

Just not sure if that separation will hold up if you have a single GitHub account.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by giraffe_lady on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @12:50PM (#30701153)
Right so then the question is a legal one about what counts as a "personal device" rather than a technical one about github auth or ssh keys or whatever. I think this reinforces the point of the person you were replying to.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by shay_ker on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @06:50PM (#30705145)
Yep, the question is about what’s legally defensible!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by devonnull on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @07:13PM (#30705376)
Best to have a separation of church and state (so to speak). Use your work devices for work, and your personal devices for personal things. It might sound a bit cumbersome, but it can prevent potential problems.

A few years ago, a colleague accidentally pushed a bunch of AWS keys (or something like that) to his person GitHub account when he should have pushed it to his company one. His personal account was public, someone found the keys, and started spinning up AWS instances by the dozen using those keys.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by madnooby on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @11:12AM (#30699769)
They can not access your private repositories if you are just in the organization.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by shay_ker on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @11:18AM (#30699852)
Right, I’m wondering from a legal perspective if they do
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by labarilem on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @12:36PM (#30700984)
Why do you prefer using your personal GitHub account for work?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by shay_ker on Thursday March 17, 2022 @09:00AM (#30710665)
it's against the ToS to have multiple accounts:

https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Using Personal GitHub for Work? by yuppie_scum on Thursday March 17, 2022 @08:06AM (#30710217)
It’s nice to have all that work show up in the activity stream that you are putting out there on your resume or for your public persona.
[ Parent | on HN ]