"Bring your own device" failing to live up to its promise

by
in mobile on (#JJ6G)
With the rise of mobile computing came a swell of frustration by people who preferred their fancy, personal devices to the locked-down devices (if any) provided for them at work. Eventually, corporations relented, opening the door to a plethora of "bring your own device" policies that IT staff detest owing to increased security risk and the unacceptable co-mingling of personal and private data.

We've been working in this environment for a few years now, and increasingly, tech directors are willing to speak out about this model's deficiencies. But users aren't unanimously happy with the compromises made either. One small example:
In an interesting test case in California, a worker is reported to be suing her former employer for invasion of privacy and wrongful termination of employment.

The person claimed they were sacked after deleting an app (Xora iPhone app) from her company-issued handset that she believed allowed her employer to spy on her. She claims the app tracked where she was - using the device GPS - including how fast she was driving, even when she wasn't working.
The Register takes a look at the pros and cons of what has become a pre-selection of pre-approved devices, i.e. "CYOD" or "choose your own device."

What about |.ers? Are you bringing your own device, or saddled with the corporate choice, or avoiding pocket computing all together? Which model worked the best for you?
Reply 12 comments

Troll (Score: 0)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-27 00:46 (#JJH4)

Sounds like she's a suer. Turn the damn device off on your own time and/or don't carry it with you. It's company issued...

I've used my own laptop & phone for years and years. No problem.

Re: Troll (Score: 2, Interesting)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-28 00:43 (#JP2K)

Sounds like she's a suer. Turn the damn device off on your own time and/or don't carry it with you. It's company issued...
I'd say she's got a good case.
Intermex forced Arias and other employees to install Xora on their smartphones and told them they needed to keep their phones on all day, every day.
http://morallowground.com/2015/05/13/myrna-arias-claims-intermex-fired-her-for-deleting-gps-tracker-on-work-phone/

Re: Troll (Score: 1)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-28 20:08 (#JRXS)

There was no link to any content for that blurb. How do you figure she's got any case? Why not just leave the device at work/home/on the moon while you're not working?

Re: Troll (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-28 23:02 (#JS0Q)

There was no link to any content for that blurb.
Umm, what? Go read the court filing yourself: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Intermexcomplaint.pdf
Why not just leave the device at work/home/on the moon while you're not working?
Because she had to be able to receive calls from clients after-hours. She was a salesman after all. Leaving her phone somewhere (or shutting it off) would have been far more disruptive than just removing the app in-question. I don't see why you think that would be fine with everyone (she would have gotten fired even more quickly).

Re: Troll (Score: 1)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-08-29 21:50 (#JVHY)

Umm, what? Go read the court filing yourself: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Intermexcomplaint.pdf
Thanks for the link. It was not in the story.
Because she had to be able to receive calls from clients after-hours. She was a salesman after all. Leaving her phone somewhere (or shutting it off) would have been far more disruptive than just removing the app in-question. I don't see why you think that would be fine with everyone (she would have gotten fired even more quickly).
I have a pretty black/white view of employment and time. Either you are on the job or you're not. If you're on the job and using company equipment then that's fair. If you're not on the job, leave the equipment behind. If you think that you need to answer calls on the company phone at any hour, then you're always on the job. I don't think that's a reasonable position to take. If the company wants 24 hour response, they should hire enough people to cover the hours.

But there are plenty of technical solutions as well. You don't want to be on the job 24 hours, but still want calls? Use call forwarding to your own phone. Or just get voicemail alerts. Or hand out your personal number. This isn't rocket science.

No win. (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-08-27 01:15 (#JJJF)

This is a no-win situation all the way around. Where I work my employer wants to deploy a pile of remote control software which I don't want on my personal phone. That means that the employer has to supply a phone for me. I refuse to use my employer's phone to make personal calls and data connections - that's just inappropriate - which means that I need to carry my personal phone. I don't care to maintain information on both and I don't want to carry multiple devices so I leave my employer's phone at work and seldom use it - which means that other employees cannot call me outside of hours.

Meh.

Re: No win. (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-08-27 05:38 (#JK11)

I agree. At my last employer I was issued a company cellphone. I maintained total separation of personal and professional lives, and that meant carrying two cellphones around, which I truly disliked.

Now I carry just one phone, but that means my personal and professional number is the same, and I've lost the ability to shut off the work phone on weekends. I dislike that too.

My company toyed with the Good app for ipad and Android. It was basically company email and limited document storage. It wasn't great as an app, but it did help maintain that mental separation between personal and private. Not sure what the solution is here. But I do know that when my office gave up on Blackberries, they mandated Windows phones for us (Nokia Lumia), and that was truly a lousy device and OS. At least now I get to choose the device I like, which is a Samsung Note.

Re: No win. (Score: 2, Interesting)

by beldin@pipedot.org on 2015-08-28 14:57 (#JR0Z)

Get a tiny dumbphone (or feature phone, or whatever you want to call it) -- you know, one back from when "smaller is cooler".
You're reachable by phone. Any app you need to use you most likely need a user account for anyway, so there it's easy to make an "office" account.

So your dumb phone is your "office" phone, and your smart phone is your private phone. Anything you need to do for work on the smart phone uses a "work" account. The dumb phone is small enough so that it doesn't take any noticeable space.

Only downside is having to mute two phones whenever that pops up.

Re: No win. (Score: 1)

by ticho@pipedot.org on 2015-08-27 15:02 (#JMEN)

Isn't it a desirable state of things, not to be reachable from work outside of work hours?

Article picture (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-08-27 05:45 (#JK12)

I don't think the article picture fits with the entire theme / skin / looks of the site.

Re: Article picture (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-08-27 06:50 (#JK5J)

Fixed. I thought it was a bit of a toss-up at the time, but I guess we're just as well-off without it.

Re: Article picture (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-08-27 09:16 (#JKEM)

Bring back the hottie! She brought meaning to my dreary working day :)

Kidding.