Employers wipe ALL data on personally owned devices

[DrLeftover]

Jan. 21, 2014

As more companies allow and even encourage employees to use their own phones and tablets for work activities, often referred to as "bring your own device," or BYOD, an unexpected consequence has arisen for workers who have seen their devices wiped clean—remotely and with little or no advance warning—during or after employment by firms looking to secure their data. Twenty-one percent of companies perform remote wipes when an employee quits or is terminated, according to a July 2013 survey by data protection firm Acronis Inc.

Nebulousl Landau, AlphaCare's chairman, declined to confirm whether Mr. Irvin's phone had been erased. He provided a copy of AlphaCare's BYOD policy, effective as of July, which includes a reference to remote wiping. Mr. Irvin said he was never given a copy of the policy.

Phone wiping is just another example of the complications that emerge when the distinctions between our work and personal lives collapse. Employers increasingly expect workers to be available 24/7 but don't always provide company equipment to make that possible, leaving workers in a bind: Expose themselves to losing personal information when a phone is erased, or refuse to use a personal device and risk looking disengaged.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579335033824665964

 

[~KAGE-008]

RE: Employers wipe data on personally owned devices

Though I'm an Android user, iOS is almost safe from it.

EDIT: So it happened on an iPhone? Then I'll still be stuck with Android, lol.

 

[DrLeftover]

Well. I was safe from it because my former employer was vaguely aware that I had a computer at home, and I NEVER used it for work, and while they had my old cell phone's number, it wasn't a smart phone (it was barely a cell phone by the time I left), and it too, was never used for work other than to call off work from a campground one time.

 

[Evil Eye]

You're safe until someone decides to install the necessary software to wipe your device... just decline I guess.

 

[Nebulous]

I know that the tech guys at my work are able to remotely do stuff to our work computers and once when I tried install an email app or something like that and it asked me to enable "Admin Permissions" to my work's servers so I just decided to check my emails on the computers there. They aint getting administrative permissions on MY stuff!