Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a rapidly growing trend in organisations of all sizes as employees Von Miller Jersey , who might not be eligible for a company-owned mobile device, want the ease-of-use and familiarity of their own smartphones and tablets for work. The latest mobile devices can improve an employee's productivity by offering access to corporate data whilst travelling or at home and also have the potential to improve creativity and innovation. Add to that the opportunity to cut operating costs within an organisation and it's not surprising that the trend is growing.
But are there any downsides to BYOD?
Recent survey results have suggested that employees have willingly signed up to a bring your own device policy without being fully aware of the implications with respect to the privacy of their personal data on their mobile devices. This is not necessarily a failing in the wording of BYOD agreements but could be due to employees giving the agreement only a cursory glance before signing in their eagerness to gain the work access on their mobile device that they want.
Mobile device management has tended to concentrate on the importance of protecting confidential corporate data accessible remotely from a mobile device. An MDM solution is expected to have remote data wipe facilities so that sensitive information can be removed from a lost or stolen device. But in their concern to protect corporate data have the privacy needs of the employee been forgotten?
Some MDM solutions do not offer the capability to segment data on a mobile device so cannot distinguish personal from corporate data. In the case of a remote data wipe being necessary, both the corporate and the employee's personal data could be wiped. When you consider that the device is owned by the employee then this is not a trivial matter.
But perhaps more worrying than the possibility of losing personal data (after all that would only be in the case of a lost or stolen device when the data would be gone anyway if it wasn't backed up) is the fact that employers can also view which personal application are installed Royce Freeman Jersey , track the device and monitor internet access outside of working hours.
The vast majority of people would consider this an invasion of their privacy and would not willingly choose to allow their employer to see what they are doing on their device in their own time or, indeed, where they are located. But this concern is at odds with the increasing desire for employees to use their mobile devices to access corporate information Bradley Chubb Jersey , even if it is simply emails and contacts.
Clearly employees need to be educated on the security concerns of the corporation so that they fully understand the principles of any Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) agreement that they sign up to. It would then be the informed decision of the employee to accept the terms of the written BYOD agreement, if that is what they chose to do, Of course Cheap Broncos Jerseys , the wording of the BYOD policy would have to be clear and unambiguous – this would not be the sole responsibility of the IT department but would also include input from both the HR and Legal departments.