Airwatch App, My Rant on Big Brother

[BeerPack]

FYI, AirWatch cannot read personal emails (or any emails for that matter) or texts. (I am an AirWatch admin at my company and we get asked to do this all the time and have to remind management that it's not possible). It CAN do GPS tracking, although it's pretty unreliable, and it does have jailbreak detection.

 

[midwestfisherman]

It would be one thing if it was a corporate phone that they pay for, but her personal device??

Personal device or not, if you want to access the corporate network, you have to play by their rule. It's really not that difficult to understand. We implemented Airwatch here on out corporate phone and on personal phones for people who want access to corporate information. Our company ONLY uses Airwatch for the purposes of being able to remotely wipe the phone in case it is lost or stolen. They said, none of the features such as GPS tracking or looking at content on the phone is enabled. I still was not comfortable with having any personal stuff on my phone. I promptly moved any and all personal apps from my work phone and bought a new phone for personal use. Thats just the way it is.

 

[soccerballtux]

Personal device or not, if you want to access the corporate network, you have to play by their rule. It's really not that difficult to understand. We implemented Airwatch here on out corporate phone and on personal phones for people who want access to corporate information. Our company ONLY uses Airwatch for the purposes of being able to remotely wipe the phone in case it is lost or stolen. They said, none of the features such as GPS tracking or looking at content on the phone is enabled. I still was not comfortable with having any personal stuff on my phone. I promptly moved any and all personal apps from my work phone and bought a new phone for personal use. Thats just the way it is.

defeats the whole point of a company phone. IMO

I would just forward everything to personal phone and leave company phone on desk

 

[midwestfisherman]

defeats the whole point of a company phone. IMO

I would just forward everything to personal phone and leave company phone on desk

That's another option as well.

 

[Belegost]

Personal device or not, if you want to access the corporate network, you have to play by their rule. It's really not that difficult to understand. We implemented Airwatch here on out corporate phone and on personal phones for people who want access to corporate information. Our company ONLY uses Airwatch for the purposes of being able to remotely wipe the phone in case it is lost or stolen. They said, none of the features such as GPS tracking or looking at content on the phone is enabled. I still was not comfortable with having any personal stuff on my phone. I promptly moved any and all personal apps from my work phone and bought a new phone for personal use. Thats just the way it is.

Two key questions:

A) You got a separate personal phone, was the work phone provided by the company?
B) Is mobile access an option or is it a required portion of your job?

The issue from the OP is that the company is requiring use of a smartphone, not providing a company phone (just a $45 subsidy that doesn't cover a full smartphone plan) and then requiring Airwatch to be used. This puts the employee in the position of either losing money to pay for a separate smartphone for work, or allowing their employer intrusive control and monitoring on their personal device.

This is a poor situation for the employee where they are forced to either give up privacy in their personal life or subsidize corporate savings from their own pocket.

 

[Ns1]

you should use the allowance to buy a tmobile phone.

 

[midwestfisherman]

Two key questions:

A) You got a separate personal phone, was the work phone provided by the company?
B) Is mobile access an option or is it a required portion of your job?

The issue from the OP is that the company is requiring use of a smartphone, not providing a company phone (just a $45 subsidy that doesn't cover a full smartphone plan) and then requiring Airwatch to be used. This puts the employee in the position of either losing money to pay for a separate smartphone for work, or allowing their employer intrusive control and monitoring on their personal device.

This is a poor situation for the employee where they are forced to either give up privacy in their personal life or subsidize corporate savings from their own pocket.

A. Yes, the work phone is paid for fully by my company.
B. Since I am in an oncall rotation and considered "essential personnel" in emergency situations, mobile access is required.

Re: the bolded part, I entirely agree.

The OP's situation is certainly not fair but if that's what they require, I'm sure she knew that going into the job. The OP always has to option to move jobs if it's that upsetting to her/him.

I'm not trying to sound like an ass on this but some companies aren't always so generous to their employees. I'd be willing to bet that the OP's company decided to use Airwatch to help them be compliant with HIPAA laws, which is a whole other ball of wax!