Idk in the US but in France you are allowed to have personal data on your work computer.

Though you have to label it as personal (like creating a « Personal » folder or label and your employer can still access it in case of suspicion but he must do it in your physical presence and accompanied with a witness, generally a representative of the employees.

So you theoretically don’t have full privacy on this computer but you can’t be sanctioned for this usage.

I don't think we have sweeping regulations about it, at least in California.

Most companies I've worked at have a policy of some "reasonable personal use" being permitted. The concern is usually focused on the other way around: Companies do not want their IP on your personal machines.

They can certainly look at whatever is on their own machines, however, regardless if it is your personal data or not.

One large caveat: If you do any work on your company's equipment, they may possibly own it, no matter how relevant it is to the company. It's one of the legal tests used to judge the ownership of your work.

Same in Germany, although the employer can forbid this but needs to do this explicitly. Most employers don't forbid personal data on work machines or using your work email for personal things.

Stuff like this is why France has a ceiling on the market cap of GenAI companies it produces. Imagine if Huggingface/Mistral could fully operate in a low-regulation environment.

Enjoy your red tape frogs. "Live to work" anglo protestant work ethic followers will complete the necessary economic destruction of rude "work to live" cheese eating surrender monkeys.

This is our payback for Charles de Gaulle, Foucault, and Jacques Lacan (it's hard to rank these three based on damage done to western society)