As more workers bring their own devices, who’s in control?

[TexasTowelie]

Increasingly, your cellphone is the company phone. Same goes for your laptop and iPad. Just don’t expect the boss to offer much help with the monthly bill.

This trend is known as BYOD, short for “bring your own device.” Most people aren’t familiar with the acronym, but they routinely use their smartphones and other devices on the job. They access work email, databases, even corporate financial information.

Depending on your point of view, this represents one more break in the thinning wall between personal life and work life, or it’s one more chance to use your favorite cool gadget.

Either way, there’s no stopping the movement. The challenge is capturing the upside without getting whacked on privacy and security.

More at http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/mitchell-schnurman/20140203-as-more-workers-bring-their-own-devices-whos-in-control.ece .

[Jesus Malverde]

1. The worst are people who use a work device as a personal machine...

When you get laid off it's up to them to give you the data if they even want to. With your own computer it reverses the tables...

[TexasTowelie]

2. Exactly.

Let them try to sue to see if they get that info back, particularly if that person already has another job and can tell the prior employer to fuck off.

[Journeyman]

4. There was a thread the other day about companies wiping clean their employee's phones. . .

both when they left the company and arbitrarily when the company just wanted to "clear the decks" and ensure nothing sensitive was in their employee's possession. This was happening to the employee's personal phones. Seems they had to grant the company IT department the right to access their devices if they wished to use them for company business.

I didn't read the whole article, and can't find the link, but it was a disturbing look into the corporate mind. The worst -- from the stand point of the author -- was that an employee's personal information and possessions, their contacts and photos, were getting wiped out along with all the company information on their phone.

Yet another reason to back up everything to the Cloud if you're going to enter into such a symbiotic relationship with evident paranoid sociopaths.

(Oh, hey: here's the link to the thread:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024373135 )

[Jesus Malverde]

5. At least you could keep a back up. I'd rather take a chance with them asking to wipe my device

rather than just taking back their own machine.

It's not a whole lot of control but it's better than nothing.

[frylock]

7. yes, we do that here where i work..

and you have to agree to have your phone remotely wiped in the event that it is lost, stolen, or you leave the enterprise.

[Journeyman]

9. Can the company IT Department know if you have remotely backed up your phone. . .

say to the Cloud or to an external hard drive?

I can understand their desire to protect their intellectual property and customer database, especially when an employee leaves the company, but is there anything stopping you from making copies of all this information?

[frylock]

10. no, we don't have that ability..

all i can do is send a wipe command. existing data on an SD card would also remain intact. i have root on my phone, and backup my ROM every Sunday and can have it back and running in it's original state in less than 20 minutes. even doing all that, I've opted not to use my phone for work email because i don't want them to have that ability. if they want to get in touch with me after hours, then they can give me a company-issued iPhone.

[SunSeeker]

3. So many government agencies expect staff to use their own device, for cost cutting reasons.

However, what happens is public business is conducted on private devices. Good luck recovering that data if the public servant did something wrong that the public should know about.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Most companies run outside of the intellectual black hole that is Texas don't and

won't allow this. If your employees are using their own equipment, particularly information devices like computers and phones, you have no control and will, inevitably pay a very steep price for being a cheap bastard.

[Dash87]

8. Don't being your own laptop or smartphone for work use.

Your place of work should supply those things. If they don't, then they should stop being cheapskates, or pay you for half of the laptop or something.