BYOD Privacy Policies – What’s Yours?
by Elizabeth
With all the chatter about DNT and consumer privacy, it’s time to return to the enterprise and their challenges supporting BYOD. When the company approves the use of personal mobile devices, or, in some cases, requires it, policies must be put in place to protect everyone. The issues of who owns what data and who has control over the device are challenging IT, HR and legal departments across the globe.
In this article by CIO writer, Tom Kaneshige, BYOD: Time to Adjust Your Privacy Expectations, BYOD privacy is explored. Mr. Kaneshige addresses privacy versus security – what emails and contacts does the company own, what can they access and what are the legal ramifications? Do they have the right to audit employee device use to ensure that company confidential information is not downloaded without permission? This is a very different discussion than BYOD security, such as what happens to personal data if a company wipes a (supposedly) lost or stolen device. When you get to BYOD privacy, there are also issues of browsing restrictions. Your company may block social or adult site access by desktop browsers, but BYOD mobile devices are personal – or are they? Whose paying the bills, or at least a portion of the bill does matter.
So how do you allow your employees to be themselves when they are not working and be subject to employer policies while on the job? While no one product, service or process is going solve all the BYOD privacy and security issues, here are some good tips to get you started:
- Have a clear and concise BYOD policy
- Ensure that all employees read and sign that policy every time it changes
- At least once per quarter, re-iterate the privacy policies so nobody is surprised
- Make BYOD training a requirement for EVERYONE – including the executive team
- Consider a dual-browser strategy – the standard browser for personal use and a Choice ™ company branded browser for work
Choice makes it easy to programmatically manage your company’s privacy and compliance policies in a BYOD environment and helps reduce the challenges of supporting a BYOD policy within your organization.