Setting aside the issue of whether this post is overstating the risk of MDM software on a personal phone, I had a tangentially related experience that might provide a tip for anyone who’s in a similar situation.
I like to have the convenience of checking my work messages and chats on my personal phone, so I have Teams and Outlook installed and using my work account.
When I first went to sign in to my work account on Outlook, I got this message like “Outlook needs to run with administrator privileges in order to provide the necessary security for this account” and shunted me off to some system settings to approve the permissions. Big nope.
So I tried Outlook Lite, and it made no such demands and works perfectly. So for anyone else who’s run into this, try Outlook Lite! I hope this helps somebody.
Or, and I cannot stress this enough, don’t use Outlook. Outlook still is email and as such has IMAP support, use a different email app to check outlook.
Fuck everything about Microsoft
Sadly you won’t always have a choice. My university has disabled any non-Microsoft client support. They do this to “protect the privacy of the teachers”. Currently I’m running a windows VM on my server with Outlook to forward the emails to my personal email. Which in the end is even worse for them GDPR wise
Separate profile and container. Idiot meme.
This is a woefully misinformed post…
My previous employer was acquired and the new owner required jumping through these kinds of hoops to use company email or Teams on our phones.
As an end result, everybody stopped using those on their phones. Once the laptop lid was shut, work wouldn’t be bothering you until you open it the next day. Sometimes stupid things can lead to good outcomes.
Yeah this exact scenario happened where I used to work. The only time it’s an inconvenience is if we’re all in person for a tech summit or something, but having the personal contacts of a few co-workers let’s me check in on any plans I might have missed.
Nowadays my phone is too old to even run slack, so I’d require work to buy me a new, separate work phone anyway.
But truth be told, it’s amazing being unreachable. I logged on to the work slack today Monday morning, and found out that the company had an all hands on deck show stopper bug last Friday ~1730 lol not for me it wasn’t. I was walking my dog enjoying the brisk winter air, completely oblivious until I logged back on this morning to read the postmortem. 😌
If it was a phone supplied by my employer and I used it only for work, then sure. Otherwise fuck no.
I wouldn’t do this. Sandbox sounds good, but that kind of access is just to shady to want anywhere near my device.
I’ve never had to download an app for work. But I wouldn’t deal with an MDM at all without a gun pointed at me.
If your employer expects you to access corporate resources or be available to respond / on-call out of hours, then they should issue you a corporate device to do so.
We have never, and will never, integrate someone’s personal phone into our infrastructure. Everyone gets a company phone. If you want to use the company phone as your personal phone, or the phone you use to cheat on your husband, that’s your call. Just don’t complain to me when video of you pleasuring yourself end up backed up to our cloud storage and discovered by IT when tracking down large files eating up storage. (Yes that happened.)
Wtf how? Was someone cybering over vid chat and checked the record option?
She was recording herself, sending the video file, then deleting the file from the phone. Our phones are configured to immediately back up, so (I am assuming) that while she put together the e-mail or text, our phone was dutifully doing its job.
Oh man how embarassing. I imagine you make it pretty clear that the company phone comes with this capability after that incident lol
You have to sign a document before you get equipment. Part of that document is you acknowledging that you read another document that outlines what you can and cannot do with company equipment and what the capabilities of said equipment are. We even tell people to close the physical camera shutter on the laptop whenever they aren’t on a video call if they want to ensure privacy. There is also a code of conduct document they need to read and sign. Using company property for lewd acts and to conceal adultery broke a number of agreements.
Yeah the whole thing is kinda dumb on both ends. From the employees perspective it’s ridiculous to allow the company have any level of control over a device they own. From the company’s perspective, why would you want to allow access and/or have information that’s the company’s property on a device the company doesn’t own?
If I have a password for key company infrastructure stored on my personal phone, then the company fires me… well that seems like a problem a company would want to avoid. It could happen in any scenario, but significantly less likely if I have to turn in my company phone when my employment ends.
But hey the company saves a few bucks on buying phones and that helps the quarterly profits I guess.
So with MDM, the company can essentially wipe that device remotely in the case that something like that occurs. Not that it’s the best option. Still think companies should just provide the hardware. But that’s the protection in that case.
If they want to install anything on my phone other than apps I choose to install for my own convenience they better give me a work phone.
Mine just gave us all phones.
Too much litigation chance
Exactly this. Any employer trying to put private devices into their MDM is totally unprofessional anyway… Most MDMs allow access to the GPS Data and have a remote wiping function, it would be a privacy mess for the employee AND employer.
Years ago, I worked in the IT department at a university that brought in an MDM for accessing work email on personal devices with a policy of wiping the phone if you got your unlock code wrong 3 times. I refused to use it on my personal device and told the head of the department that it was far too risky as you could accidentally do this with the phone in your pocket. He disagreed, but less than a week later, this exact thing happened to him, got his unlock wrong 3 times, phone wiped, no backup done. He still refused to change the policy even with the inconvenience it caused him. I just laughed.
One of my colleges had MDM enabled for staff and students alike. (I realize this is likely a configuration problem, rather than malice or whatever)
The number of students who, nonetheless, did it… mind boggling.
Remote wipe? Lawl fuck no. Not worth the risk that some asshole has a bad day and wipes them all for fun.
I can understand it for certain things but… frankly there should be some sort of like… laws? About what your employer can require of you. Sure, company phone go for it, idgaf. But if they would need to remote wipe a device, maaaaaaaybe they shouldn’t be allowed to let employees use their own. You want full control, company, you get to pay for that with another phone, phone line, etc. (extra bonus, most people won’t carry the work phone when they are off work, so they are less reachable for unpaid labor :) )
“You need to install this on your phone”
“Oh I don’t have a phone”
“you’re welcome to try”
hands over my brain-dead flip phone with no ‘app’ capability
Virtually all current flip phones run either Android or KaiOS under the hood. The giveaway would be any Google app pre-installed, or any app you already recognize.
The era of “dumb” flip phones is long over. I would be very surprised if any are still being manufactured.
my current one actually does have an older, and very stripped-down, android… but no google anything installed, and no google play. i don’t even have a data plan attached to it–although it does have a mobile browser and can function as a hotspot.
Since when are companies installing MDM on peoples personal devices?
It is usually just for corporate devices, where you shouldn’t leave any personal data on.
Your bosses make you do this? For me I just installed Teams and Outlook, and even that was voluntary.
Just* lol
Like I said I didn’t have to, it’s just convenient to be able to keep an eye on teams when I am slacking off yknow
You keep an eye on Teams? Hahaha lol Teams keeps an eye on you. 60 permissions needed to install Tems 3 trackers needed to install Teams
You have no idea what software you are installing on your “personal” (its not personal anymore) device.
Not really? Checked now and the only permissions it has at the moment is location while using and access to pictures. The latter is on purpose so I can upload stupid memes to the non-serious chats
Hahahahaha you are funny. Im not asking, Im letting you know. Its not a matter of opinion.
Okay. Enjoy your tinfoil hat.
Lol
But, in all honesty, no one is going to be looking at it unless there’s a very good reason too. IT sure as hell doesn’t have enough resources to monitor it.
MDM largely exists to remote wipe a lost or stolen phone.
Can I have your email password? I promise I won’t monitor it because I’m very busy 😁
Easy solution, use Linux. No extra permissions, no spying, and everything worked for me so far. Android has a neat feature for a separate work account. It used to be called “work acxount”, but it’s not there anymore and you have to use “secure folder”, or whatever it is called now.
You want me to check email outside of work hours …. Better provide me a phone and money for that.
Not a chance in fucking hell I’d give my boss my phone password
Tell me you didn’t read past the first line without telling me.
