For a long time, I would occasionally use my personal phone to check work email and Slack when I had to be out-of-office for an errand. They created a new policy last month that would force me to have a “work” profile on my phone if I wanted to continue using those apps. Fuck that. Instead I removed every work related app from my phone.
“Sorry boss, I can’t check my messages while waiting at my doctor’s office anymore.Why? Oh, because IT policies won’t let me.”
A lot of small to mid sized companies lack controls around personal device use. For many years we were actually encouraged by first-line managers to use personal devices to communicate when out-of-office. And yes, I always C my A.
If you have a work-profile that’s created through an MDM, your work-apps are isolated from the other parts of phone and your workplace can set restrictions on how those apps can interact with the rest of your phone. Clipboard sharing may be allowed or not, installing Apps on that profile by yourself may be allowed or not, certain WiFi Networks may be saved, you get the Idea. The benefit is that if you leave the company, they can just remove that profile remotely and both, you and the company you work(ed) for, can be sure that you don’t keep any work-related data on your phone. The benefit for you is that android gives you a toggle to switch all of those apps off, so if you’re on PTO you can just hit the switch and it’s silent.
how do you CYA?
get written permission to sign-in to your work-related accounts on your phone
For a long time, I would occasionally use my personal phone to check work email and Slack when I had to be out-of-office for an errand. They created a new policy last month that would force me to have a “work” profile on my phone if I wanted to continue using those apps. Fuck that. Instead I removed every work related app from my phone.
“Sorry boss, I can’t check my messages while waiting at my doctor’s office anymore.Why? Oh, because IT policies won’t let me.”
Your org letting you login to anything on your normal profile is crazy. Did you at least CYA?
It stems from companies being too cheap to get people work phones, but still wanting them to be available
A lot of small to mid sized companies lack controls around personal device use. For many years we were actually encouraged by first-line managers to use personal devices to communicate when out-of-office. And yes, I always C my A.
Ok, what’s crazy about it and how do you CYA?
If you have a work-profile that’s created through an MDM, your work-apps are isolated from the other parts of phone and your workplace can set restrictions on how those apps can interact with the rest of your phone. Clipboard sharing may be allowed or not, installing Apps on that profile by yourself may be allowed or not, certain WiFi Networks may be saved, you get the Idea. The benefit is that if you leave the company, they can just remove that profile remotely and both, you and the company you work(ed) for, can be sure that you don’t keep any work-related data on your phone. The benefit for you is that android gives you a toggle to switch all of those apps off, so if you’re on PTO you can just hit the switch and it’s silent.
get written permission to sign-in to your work-related accounts on your phone