• When Your Company Kills Your Personal Devices

    by  • November 29, 2010 • Uncategorized • 4 Comments

    Activate device administratorSometime around two months ago I went to check my work e-mail on my Droid and saw the pictured to the right. Basically, to connect to the state’s Exchange server I suddenly needed to give them the right to remotely wipe my phone. As you can guess, I no longer use my phone to check my work e-mail. (Which does mean that the state now get’s less work out of one of it’s employees.)

    I wasn’t going to blog about this but then I heard this story (embedded below) on NPR about this exact situation. Take a listen and let me know what you think. Should an employer have the right to wipe your personal device if you use it for work?

    About

    Michael Sauers is currently the Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission in Lincoln, Nebraska and has been training librarians in technology for more than 15 years. He has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller. He earned his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael’s eleventh book, Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians was published May 2012 and has two more books on the way. He has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs Web sites for authors and historical societies, takes many, many photos, and reads more than 100 books a year.

    http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/

    4 Responses to When Your Company Kills Your Personal Devices

    1. Rosario Garza
      November 29, 2010 at 2:06 pm

      I say NO. That’s why I have a separate personal smartphone and work cellphone.

    2. Fluxus
      November 30, 2010 at 8:32 am

      I noticed that I can get in via the Safari browser on the iPhone without that problem. If I try to use an email client, it’s a problem, but it seems to treat the Safari app like any other remote web browser…

    3. Michael
      November 30, 2010 at 9:04 am

      Yes, generally if you’re using a browser to connect to Outlook Web then everything will still work. But considering the size of the screen and the requirement that I log in manually every time, it’s hardly the same experience as pulling up the mail app and clicking the refresh button.

    4. Robert Lindsey
      November 30, 2010 at 10:03 am

      Good grief no! They shouldn’t have that right or ability.

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