The issue of privacy is one that cuts across all socio-economic strata and cultures around the world. When said privacy is violated, it has caused people to react in all sorts of manner, with almost all being outraged at what has just taken place. Edward Snowden and his shenanigans certainly didn't help matters by heightening the state of paranoia about Big Brother watching – or in this case listening – to the way we communicate with others. This uneasiness has also moved into the corporate world as more companies are implementing BYOD initiatives.
In an article written by Nathan Eddy on eWEEK titled, "Study: Employees Unaware Of Employers’ BYOD Policies," he points to a Harris survey to show the trepidation employees feel about the access corporations have to their device.
According to Harris, employees are actually alarmed at the extent employers are able to access and collect personally identifiable information on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets on either Android (News - Alert) or iOS platforms.
This should not come as a surprise to organizations around the country as these devices are increasingly becoming a fundamental part of consumers in their daily lives, because they are integrating virtually everything they do on mobile. If a level of privacy is not applied, employees might not be willing to integrate their device to the corporate network.
This is partly based on employers being able to track their employees whether they're at work or not, monitor what applications they are uploading or already have installed, and delete personal data such as pictures.
A mobile device can be located using different technologies that are readily available in most smartphones currently in the market, including GPS and triangulation, which can be used to determine the location with very high degree of precision.
Some of the other issues employees had as outlined in the survey include:
- 82 percent are concerned to extremely concerned about their employers tracking websites they browse on personal devices during non-work time;
- 86 percent are concerned to extremely concerned about the unauthorized deletion of their personal pictures, music, and email profiles;
- 15 percent are not at all concerned about employers tracking their location during non-work time and tracking personal apps installed on their devices;
- 75 percent of respondents would not allow their employer to install an app that would allow employers to track them whether they're at work or not just because they are able to use corporate resources.
In their eagerness to adopt this technology into the corporate network, most organizations have forgotten to see how their employees feel. With so many security breaches taking place as well as news of rogue employees compromising corporate data, allowing anyone to access your personal computing device with this much power should be considered very carefully.