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

No persuasion required

[Anonymous Coward]

You have asked an audience that knows just how ingrained smartphones are to our everyday lives. The last half of your question is a "given."

The burden of proof is on the employer to show that no other mitigating measure can address the risks. Summarily banning child protecting, emergency-aleviating technology, not to mention the tools with which we coordinate the rest of our lives, is truly bad form and will bite the employer more often than they know.

If you are working with sensitive documents, these people will remove the camera from your iPhone for $20:
http://www.iresq.com/iphone-camera-removal.html
Want to do the whole office? A 79 cent roll of electrical tape will do the trick.

The problems are solvable and worth solving. That management favors solutions that are simply a matter of writing policy, is in their nature, so don't sit in the dark and bitch, fix the bulb.

Re:No persuasion required

[Anonymous Coward]

The burden of proof is on the employer to show that no other mitigating measure can address the risks.

My current employer has banned all personal cellphones and personal laptops for some time. It is really not that hard to get around, and the burden is not on them to prove anything. You are paid to work and presumably want your job. If not having your pacifier with you at all times makes you that uncomfortable, find a different job. Or you can give out your work number for emergencies or set your cell phone to automatically forward calls during business hours to your desk phone. If you need to make a personal call that you do not want to/cant make from your desk line, go out to your car during lunch and make it.

That management favors solutions that are simply a matter of writing policy, is in their nature, so don't sit in the dark and bitch, fix the bulb.

So if a concern is the microphone on the phone you have no problem filling that with epoxy?

Re:No persuasion required

[PmanAce]

Summarily banning child protecting, emergency-aleviating technology

What happened to giving them your work place number like you know, your parents did? Children were just as safe before smart phones...

not to mention the tools with which we coordinate the rest of our lives

I don't agree with this at all. 10+ years ago we didn't use smart phones and we coordinated the rest of our lives just fine.

The problems are solvable and worth solving. That management favors solutions that are simply a matter of writing policy, is in their nature, so don't sit in the dark and bitch, fix the bulb.

I think management just wants you to do your job and not have you sit there browsing facebook on your phone, texting your friends or calling for appointments while you are getting paid.

Re:No persuasion required

[h4rr4r]

That is the tradeoff from expecting people to take care of business during personal time.

It cuts both ways. You want me on call 24x7 for a week and available if you really need me other times, then I will be making personal calls on the clock.

Back a few decades ago ....

[PPH]

... when I worked for Boeing, this was their company policy. No cameras, radios, or recording devices were allowed on company property. Although this was necessary in areas where classified DoD work was being done, they just applied this policy to all facilities. As cell phones and PDAs with cameras andd recording capabilities became commonplace, they pretty much gave up on enforcing the 'no devices allowed' rule (probably still in force in actual secure areas).

I would consider them (Boeing) and others in their line of business to have about the most conservative position on such technology. Seeing as how they have pretty much given up on such rules, I don't see how any other employers expect to get away with them.

Also, if employees are going to steal proprietary data (for which I'm sure there is a company policy prohibiting said activity), sneaking a camera, USB drive or whatever onto the property in violation of rules is not going to be a deterrent.

Re:Suck it up.

[MightyYar]

Am I too old or something? We always ran our personal lives from work, but it used to be a lot more invasive. You couldn't take care of many things online, so you had to leave work during working hours to take care of it. Any time you needed customer service, you had to use the telephone at work. You'd have errands to run, so you would either come in late, take an extended lunch, or leave early. Expecting a call? You had to hover near your desk so that you wouldn't miss it.

I won't defend tweeting, updating Facebook, and the like - but I think that most employers recognize that letting people take care of some personal stuff while at work ultimately improves productivity.