The bible tells us about the tower of Babel, a bit of human hubris that resulted in a cosmic spanking that gave us “the confusion of tongues.” These days the profusion of hand held devices is bringing us to the brink of confusions far more numerous than all the human languages.
The siren call of vague buzzwords like “work-life balance, greater innovation, improved productivity,” is drawing many companies to the rocks of legal, IT and general management headaches.
While there are compelling arguments for allowing employees to use their personal devices for company business, there may be no other single topic that is fraught with more complications and dangers.
We recently wrote about phishing attacks using sensitive corporate data like employee rosters, email addresses and exploiting internal communications to get personal data from HR and payroll functions. What are the chances that the initial data came from a former employee?
That is a relatively trivial example of the problems of allowing company data to mingle with personal data on an employee’s phone or iPad. There are probably millions of possible combinations of problems awaiting companies who allow their data to flow into the personal devices of employees.
While you can develop policies to require wiping a phone on termination of employment, what assures you that a disgruntled employee seeing the handwriting on the wall has already downloaded your information onto another personal device?
What about compensating a nonexempt employee for handling emails off hours? How will you track his time?
When something breaks will your company replace the device or offer IT support for software problems?
Still the potential value of BYOD can’t be dismissed so easily. If you’re feeling seduced by the promise, here are three articles that will help guide your thinking:
CIO: All About BYOD
CIO: 7 Tips for a BYOD Policy
Forbes: Do We Really Need a BYOD Policy
Good luck!