Empowered Employees Able to Ignore Mobile Device Policies in BYOD Era Discussion

[TechnologyGuide Staff]

A self-empowered BYOD employee is as compelling to businesses as the proposition is terrifying. Our parent site TechnologyGuide brings us an in-depth report on this topic.

Read the full content of this Article: Empowered Employees Able to Ignore Mobile Device Policies in BYOD Era

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[jigwashere]

What is BYO and BYOD?
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=BYO

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=byod

[RickAgresta]

In this context, BYOD is Bring Your Own Device; can't open the article, so don't know for sure if BYO is BringYour Own or not…

[jigwashere]

Thanks, Rick. The article needs to define the acronym. I shouldn't have to ask, search, or assume.

[Ed Hardy]

In business circles, BYOD gets used so much some people have started to assume everyone knows what it means. File it in the same category with B2B, GAAP, IPO, OEM, etc.

[Hook]

In business circles, BYOD gets used so much some people have started to assume everyone knows what it means. File it in the same category with B2B, GAAP, IPO, OEM, etc.

I don't know GAAP and had to think about a couple of the others. Jig's point, and I think it is important, is that acronyms should always be expanded on first use in an article, for clarity. Not everyone does. Would be nice if Brighthand, from which I confess I expect more, would make it an editorial policy. Consider this a suggestion or feature request.

[questionfear]

I have spent most of my adult career (which, granted, is only about 10 years) in various "corporate" environments.

Every company has had some measure of technology security training, and the more sensitive the data, the more the training that was given.

A company that didn't utilize bring your own device and therefore thought they didn't need to train on this stuff deserves to freak out-for 10+ years, with and without "bring your own device" options, all those security measures have been drilled into my head. Over and over again. Often on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. Bring your own or not, these are generally smart corporate policies. Frankly, this article seemed a bit...fluffy, almost. There wasn't anything new, but a whole lot of buzzwords and "lessons" that are only marginally new.

My company is slowly letting us use more of our own devices (though we have to pay for the associated software costs for email apps, etc) and I was hoping this would share something new. Hopefully BH and technology guide have something more substantive soon!

[Varjak]

I'm not sure what the author meant by security not being a 'fire drill;' but if it's what I think, I think they're wrong. I think the employee is partly responsible in this, especially if he/she wants to use their own device. And getting into a 'fire drill' mentality is a good thing if done well. If people are thinking regularly about security, both employer and employee are better off.

[LandSurveyor]

Not much of an article, really.

It seems to me that the best policy is that if a company wants an employee to carry a smartphone or similar device, then they should decide what device is best for the company's needs and issue that device. It belongs to the company who can set policy about how it is used. The employee can make decisions about what sort of device they want when they buy their personal phone. It's no different than any other article of equipment issued to do a certain job.

This is good for both the company and the individual employee. It avoids a tug of war between the employee's privacy rights and the organization's right and responsibility to protect its data.

And there's no sense in an IT department having to be able to work with any and every device somebody might bring in. And it keeps the employer from any liablity that might be incurred by handling an individual's property.

[jigwashere]

I work for a big bank. 10 years ago, they provided software so I could sync my Palm with Lotus Notes for calendar and email. Our subset of our address book was available in a spreadsheet and I could create a hotsync conduit to put the contact's on my Palm database. I used to regularly transfer files to portable media. Today, all PC ports and external drives are disabled. I'm not even allowed to keep emails stored on my PC for more than 90 days -- they are automatically deleted. I recently heard rumblings of giving sales staff some kind of ability to connect their iPads to the internet through our intranet, but I haven't heard of any progress there.