If I turn the VPN on on my phone, and connect my work laptop to my phones hotspot, is it still possible for my employer to see my location?
Yes. For the 1 millionth time. This shit gets posted daily. Its not going to work.
Not sure if your phone routes hotspot traffic through the VPN connection. You can try that and see. A better way IMO would be to get a router with VPN capability and some reliable killswitch and connect over that.
But still, as was already mentioned, I would not recommend doing that. Unless you really know what you’re doing, the chances you’d get caught are quite high. For example, if you decide to use some commercial VPN provider, the employer would see that you’re connecting from a known IP of a VPN provider and it would be suspicious. The laptop itself could be reporting the location based on various techniques, not all of them being public IP based - nowadays it’s possible to get your location from the wi-fi networks the computer “sees”, hell it could even be equipped with a GPS module or something etc. (I assume that the laptop is company issued and you don’t know and cannot control what kind of software and hardware it runs.)
If I say no, would you trust me?
Why don’t you leave your work laptop in the country where your employer is located and access it remotely? I have been using this method for a couple of month with no issue. Mainly because the country I am in have internet restrictions and I can’t logon to my employer network. Google PiKVM
i don’t think phone VPN routes traffic from devices connected to the hotspot.
Ugh. I just want to work from my parents house in a neighbouring country without it being an ordeal.
How do you set up your laptop for doing this?
Its not worth the risk at all. There’s FAR more involved than you think. Tax laws, data security laws, etc. If you get caught, you’ll not only be terminated, you could end up facing legal repercussions.
Yea you’re so right it is not worth the risk. Ugh!! Thanks.