Ask Slashdot: Should Employers Ban Smartphones?

An anonymous reader writes "Due to a concern that smartphones (and other electronic devices) could be infected with malware and used to spy on sensitive information, my employer has recently banned all personal electronic devices from their spaces. The concern comes from articles like this one. My question to slashdot readers: How reasonable is this concern? How can this sort of malware be prevented from showing up on our devices? Is there a way to educate employees about preventing this sort of thing rather than banning the devices altogether? This current reality is that people have started to rely on having their smartphones with them at all times for things such as receiving emergency calls from day cares and schools, making personal calls during normal working hours (i.e. to make doctor's appointments), accessing password managers, and scheduling calendar events."

Comments

Excuses, excuses

[petteyg359]

This current reality is that people have started to rely on having their smartphones with them at all times for things such as receiving emergency calls from day cares and schools, making personal calls during normal working hours

Guess what? Your normal "dumb" phone can do that.

accessing password managers

Really? Surely your employer will allow you to install the damn thing on your work computer.

and scheduling calendar events

Ever heard of this old invention called "paper"? They put a bunch of sheets together, draw grids and numbers and month names on them, and call it a "calendar". If you're really desperate, perhaps you could use the internet access your employer provides to access your Google calendar on your work computer.

Re:No persuasion required

[jedidiah]

Unless there are genuine state secrets lurking about the company, they really should have no right to be so intrusive. This is corporate feudalism at it's finest.

You corporate bootlickers are helping build a new Guilded Age.

Don't say you weren't warned.