Assume it's not possible to swap the license temporarily?

I asked. They won't do that, allegedly because they don't have time.

Seems very odd. Does your company have an Information Security officer or similar? I'm sure they would support your case it is more efficient and secure to switch license rather than you give your password.

Yes and no, IT office covers it all. They were indeed nice when I asked them to provide us a solution, but seeing it doesn't work, they backed away. I don't know why they won't switch license, but I'd guess they have a lot to do, and this requires time they don't have (which is exactly what they told me about the solution they provided)

I cannot be sure, but I am strongly convinced Don't assume. As people say "assumption is the mother of all f ups". Either you know and take action on it, or you don't know and leave it out of the equation.

@JanDoggen They programmed some stuff to be accessible from a network folder. This doesn't work. Well, while you may be right about assumptions, why wouldn't I want to take steps and protect my data?

Come to think of it: is it even legal for anyone else to use the application? If the license is connected to your account, then presumably it is connected to you. You are allowed to use it on that machine and 500 others, but you cannot lend it to someone else as they do not have a license.

@Odalrick I have no idea, but I didn't sign anything, so I guess it is bound to an account instead of a person

Just add an additional account to your machine your coworkers could use.

Can't they move the software to a shared machine, i.e. not yours?

@Noldor130884 The license is probably practically unenforceable, but if the management is the right kind of inflexible it might be worth looking into what the license actually is. At the very least it could give you another reason not to share your account that they ignore.

What happens when they need to work with this software while you're around? Do you just sit nearby when they work on your computer?

It's not your computer. Or your account. It's the company's. Ergo, "snooping by the company" is not a concept since it's theirs. If you keep personal & private stuff there - mistake. It may, however, be your password.

Maybe you can consider to ask this question in other site, like [[superuser.com]](superuser.com]). They may able to give you some suggestion on this problem.

@Harper The keyword is "accountability": most likely each user will be made responsible for anything that happens using his account. This is the point that should be leveraged: mail the person responsible for IT-security and ask him to confirm you will not be held responsible for any malicious behaviour happening under your account - or otherwise find a solution that prevents password-sharing.

why don't you create a separate "guest" account with only this piece of software available and share password for just this account?

@Harper Your line of reasoning lacks a subtle distinction. While the accounts may belong to the employer, one of their major purposes is to verify the identity of a specific employee. This is essential to enforce security policy and provide some level of accountability when accessing systems. If the IT department/management wants to forego these, it is their decision to make, and most certainly not that of pushy coworkers. Supposing that the machine becomes communal property, the username should no longer identify the OP, very much to cover his ass if something goes wrong.

@Harper You're making a lot of assumptions about laws here. OP is in Germany, and in Germany the employer and your fellow employees can't look at private communication even on a work PC. Accountability problems are another issue. It's not a clear cut case whether he can ask for the password, as you can see on the discussion here: juraforum.de/forum/t/…. In my last company they made you sign a paper upon leaving the company that your account can be further managed by the company upon you leaving the company or death.

If I had colleagues that I couldn't trust not to look at my private information when I've given them something so sensitive as my password, then I'd probably want to move teams. I couldn't enjoy working with people I didn't trust with something so simple as not invading my privacy.

Is your computer, or is it a company computer they let you use as part of your job? If it's the latter, stop referring to it as "my computer" and give passwords to people according to company policy. If they say "don't share password with people" then don't, and refer the person asking to whoever's in charge of the policy, or your line manager. You should have no personal information on your computer so there should be no problem with any authorised user accessing it.

@DrEval Even if there is no personal information the account can be used to impersonate the poster. We are talking Germany here. Such practice is illegal in Germany. Shared usage by multiple persons should be on a special resource-account and who has access to that account must be documented. I know this because I'm in IT for a German company myself. The rule-book on this sort of thing is substantial. Privacy protection laws in Germany are about the strictest in the world.

@piet.t and others: accountability is a good thing, agreed. But it isn't his to force down the company's throat, although he should make sure high management is aware of the odd practice. Since high management confers policy, they can unconfer it. His personal files should not be in danger since they should not be on the work PC in the first place. Between USB fobs and incognito mode, keeping private files private is super easy.