Caregiver asked for my WiFi password. Why would she ask if she is watching my parents and isn't this a security concern?

We currently have two sitters for Mom and they both have the WiFi passwords. Why? Because in this day and age, people need access to the Internet for a variety of reasons. Also, phone calls can be made and received by the sitters via WiFi and are not charged against their account minutes. Yes, this includes the calls and text I send to them! Also, there is only so much people can do while caregiving someone that sleeps most of the day. My ladies are actually still asking for things to do even though they have the WiFi access. As one person stated, we are hiring these caregivers to care for a precious person in our lives and trust them to be in our homes all day, but we are concerned about the WiFi password? I believe the priorities may be misaligned! I trust them to care for Mom and not abuse her, so why should I fear WiFi abuse?? If the concern is for using too much bandwidth or watching certain things, block them!

I am with Ga in PA...... all of you who are so worried about wifi passwords with your caregiver need to come to the 21st Century and figure it out. Because the aides are NOT there to steal your info. They come to give care to YOUR LOVED ONES. If you do not trust them for that, then they shouldn't be there in the first place.

If caregiver asked for my passwod you can bet that would be one of the last days in my house ! What else would she want/take ?!

But be careful how you get rid of her so she doesnt cause you further problems.

“Cooking and freezing meals?” (Put in a garden and have them can some preserves?) ROTFL! Just saying. After an aid gets them out of bed, does personal care and cleans up the bathroom, maybe you can let them catch an extended break? Personal care is a BIG issue. If you find someone who can do that in a kind caring safe way on a regular basis and then maybe you could ease off the particulars. Everyone in the age group that can do that type of physically demanding work uses their phone to check their social media. Maybe you can run your own background check on them. Put in a nanny cam. Setup your WiFi with recommended guest security features. But I would not want to run off the good people that can do the personal care by loading them up with a relentless schedule of chores.

The caregiver we hire for Mom has the wifi password. She is more attentive and cares for mom better than I do, even. So when she wants to watch her telenovella or facetime with her sister while my mother sleeps, I gladly let her do that.
She will sometimes facetime her sister with Mom who acts like a zombie unless she has guests. I have seen how she perks up and gets excited chatting. I walked in unexpectedly more than once to find her letting Mom facetime with my brother who lives in another state.
So the question really is, do you trust the caregiver with your parents' care? Are your parents happy with their care? If yes, trusting her with a wifi password is a given.

Ah...... I guess you haven't worked in the last 20 years or so. Since people sit there and surf the web all the time at work. Companies can easily stop this if they wanted, they don't. Where I managed things, I could 't care less if people surfed the web. I didn't care if they went to see a movie in the middle of the day. The only thing I cared about is that they got their work done. If someone came to work for an hour and got their work done and went to the beach for the rest of the day, awesome. If they sat there at their desk all day but didn't get anything done, not awesome. The work is what matters, not controlling every moment of their day.

Absolutely NOT! You are buying her time, attention and effort. She should not be web surfing when she is on work time. How many companies would put up with their employees doing this???!!

I think many of the responders to this don't understand that the password gives the holder access to the internet - NOT to the owner's files. It would give her access to HER email, and anything she has a subscription to.
(I subscribe to newspapers on-line - and find it is really irritating when I get stuck in a doctor's office for a long wait and can't access my email nor newspaper.)

You're taking my words out of context.

I think this thread is ridiculous. People don't trust a person to use their wifi yet they trust them to care for their parents? I think people have their priorities mixed up.

I would have absolutely no problem giving a caregiver access to wifi. Yes, I would setup a guest network that isolates them from the primary network. But that's only because doing that takes about 5 seconds so why not? That way if they no need to come then I can change the password on the guest network without effecting the primary.

Why would they need internet access? Why not? I don't expect a caregiver to be eyeball to eyeball with the people they are caring for every second of the day. There's a lot of dead time between meeting needs. For the same reason, I wouldn't lock up the TV. As long as they are providing good care, I rather have happy caregiver instead of a bored one just watching the clock and waiting to leave.

It's no big thing because this is a person you trust at least enough to leave your elderly loved ones with, and unless you have a terribly restrictive bandwidth allowance and she's on Netflix all day it doesn't cost you a bean. At no point will anything downloaded to her device intrude on your computing network, any more than you can thereby access her emails or her browsing history.

Seriously, look on it as high-falutin' electricity and relax.

Mouse & joy, Exactly. So, why do all these posters think it's no big thing to give someone their password or to ask a host to provide one? I get it if you can set up a separate one for guests.
And those who say you are trusting this woman with your parents, why not your Wi-Fi--why not put $500 out on the counter when she's there? There are different kinds of trust for different circumstances.

So that someone doesn't sit outside your house in their car using your connection to use up your bandwidth and download child pornography or other illegal materials or to do other illegal activities.

Because it's a service that you pay for, like electricity, and you don't want someone sitting outside in their car using it. That's why.

But nowadays free wi-fi is becoming so common in towns and cities I doubt if anyone still does that.

OK, y'all, if I'm so clueless about Wi-Fi passwords becoming public, someone tell me why you have password protection on your Wi-Fi at all?

You don't need WiFi to look something up. You can use cellular data. If a caregiver wants to use WiFi, then she or he is clearly on the Internet too much. Not giving out your WiFi can discourage caregivers from overusing the Internet. This is, of course, assuming the caregivers are working in eight hour shifts and aren't living on the property.

Again, just because you don't know how to find the WiFi password that's being used to connect to WiFi, doesn't mean others can't. I can find it. Don't assume your caregiver is stupid just because she or he is a caregiver. Don't assume your caregiver doesn't know anyone who knows how to find the password. Sharing your WiFi password with everyone who passes through your house is not a smart idea whether or not everyone else is doing it.



But then, it does depend on the arrangements of the caregiver. If the caregiver is there 24/7, then the caregiver probably has her or his own living quarters with a computer. In that case, it would make sense to set up a guest password.

I always share wifi password. Could be a lifesaver for caregiver to look something
up in case there is care question. Give them something to do during break.

I gave the mother of my client (a child) my computer and said can you connect me to your wifi. I did not see the password, on the nights I went there I would be connected automatically. On my midnight to 8am schedule it was a blessing to be able to check my emails, watch the news, etc. on my hours of down time.

Haven't had this experience but one similar. When my Mother was rehabbing and we had home health care givers come in twice a week, the first one OMG I wanted to strangle her! I was getting Mom something to drink, walked down the hall to her room saw them in her bathroom and noticed the woman was (get this) looking in her mirror to scan items around her bedroom and Mom told me when she went out of the room "I don't like her, something's off, get rid of her, she's scanning my room!" I said "excuse me," went back out, called her boss, told her what was going on and told her "either you call her off this job discreetly and get her out of here or I will in 5 minutes call the police and have her removed." "No problem, she's gone." We hear her phone ring and her orders change and she "has to go, so sorry," "No problem, have a good day."
Now as far as the Wifi problem goes, CONFRONT HER and say "Why exactly do you need MY wifi password? Your job is to do such-and-such with my family member." Then go from there, if need be, fire them.

Don't some with a have a guest sign in?

Keying in the password might not be secure. For example, I can find the WiFi password on my Windows computer:

WiFi icon on taskbar - Network & Internet settings - Wi-Fi tab - Change adapter options - Wireless Network Connection - Wireless Properties - Security tab - Show characters

Sorry, this is wrong as well as not very polite. They do use your data allowance if they are using your wifi.

I only read one page of answers, most of which are ignorant and insane. WiFi is merely to attach HER device to internet without using a cellular data plan I'm sure.

OFFER TO KEY THE PASSWORD for her. You do not need to provide it. That would be the nice thing to do and does not create any sort of contract, ability to get into your computer (which I would hope is password protected) or any other such nonsense.

Business Software Specialist.
If I visit someone for more than 2 hours, I ask for one.

Yvonne W

Just a quick warning to all that say your password is on your router, that should be changed or your system is not secure.

whenever i went by anyone, i brought my own stuff with me, not b dependent on anyone elses.

Nope no WiFi password , my mother’s caregiver asked me for it ..I said no. She’s there to watch my mom not play candy crush ...

I think spending time on the Internet is a very common pastime for aides in my observations since 2010. In the past our prior aide had young children overseas and spent many hours in her free time on it but mom seemed to be in good care and actually enjoyed seeing the kids onscreen. She has since moved away to be with her family here in the US. So during that time the she worked at mom's the password was given out to relievers. Since she left over a year ago we cancelled the Internet charge which has saved mom money. The aides since then use their own data on their cell phones and it has not been an issue since. (In mom's case the only reason we had the Internet was for that aide. There is no computer in the house.)

I agree with Garden Artist. Also with this day and time she may not be tech savvy, but what is to say that she won't give the password to someone who is. This is nothing against the caregiver but now days you cannot be too careful.

Does she not have a smart phone. Most have access to the internet and I know our cell phones have a Wi-Fi hot spot that takes care of that problem.

I would have to say do not give it to her. I do not give any of my passwords to anyone other than my honey.

Where we live, the wifi password is easily obtained by reading it off the router, usually on a sticker on the side. As to asking for a password that is not easily accessible, I think this all depends on the relationship you have with the caregiver. One of the most consistent caregivers came from Home Instead. She cared for both of my parents for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 5 years prior to them going in the nursing home (at which point she retired). She was so good, that we called her Super Woman because she was the only one strong enough to muscle my father into the bath. I heard she used to be a weightlifter! Anyway, we were all so grateful to her that we would have given her anything she asked.

Keep in mind that your wifi password is not the same as your computer password, or at least it shouldn't be. If you use the same password for everything, change your wifi password to something you can share with visitors. Make sure it's something that neighbors can't figure out since anyone within range can see your wifi network. It should be random and include punctuation. That said, I think it's VERY important that your caregiver be able to access the internet. It's not only to help her/him keep her sanity during down time, but it's also important for accessing information related to caregiving. For example, if the person she cares for is on a new medication, she should be able to research potential side effects so she knows what to watch for. You won't find that on a prescription bottle. It also helps answer questions for a wide range of things. When my mother asks what kind of bird is on her windowsill or how old is Betty White, I like being able to help with her curiosity. It's good for both of us.