{"id":616,"date":"2013-06-03T13:56:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T17:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/?p=616"},"modified":"2013-06-03T13:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T17:56:11","slug":"a-trifecta-of-byod-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"A Trifecta of BYOD Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So you’re a free spirit kind of person, eh?\u00a0 Don’t want to be using any device forced on you by “the man,” and so you’ll take any and every chance to Bring Your Own Device<\/span><\/a> <\/span>(BYOD) to fight, thank you?<\/p>\n

You might want to think again.<\/p>\n

While it’s true that many companies saddle employees with outdated, previous generation hardware, if you push for a BYOD policy in your shop, be careful what you wish for because there are some issues–lions in the tall grass waiting to pounce–with such a policy that you may not have considered.<\/p>\n

1 — When you reach for your smartphone, laptop or handheld who’s paying the tab?<\/strong>\u00a0 Yeah, not the benevolent company bean counter.\u00a0 You have to pony up the cash for those devices.\u00a0 Not that it seems to be a big deterrence factor.\u00a0 Those in the BYOD tribe–worldwide–said in a recent survey<\/a> that they would be willing to pay $965 of out their own pockets for devices to use on the job and then shell out an extra $734 in yearly data plans to feed the little digital beasts.<\/p>\n

Of course, you may not have a choice:\u00a0 A recent\u00a0Gartner\u00a0survey <\/a>of CIOs found that 38% said their companies planned stop providing employees with devices by 2016.\u00a0Gartner also expects that nearly 50% of employers will demand employees provide their own devices for work purposes – out-of-pocket – by 2017.<\/p>\n

2 —<\/strong> The hardware is just the tip of the iceberg<\/strong>.\u00a0 The apps cost money, too.\u00a0 Companies may foot the bill for apps needed to do you your, but they might insist that you use their supplied devices to run those apps.\u00a0 In that case, you’re stuck footing the bill for apps to do your job (and yes, that’s a tax deduction in the U.S., thank you very much).<\/p>\n

3– BYOD raises interesting legal issues<\/strong>.\u00a0 Obviously, when you’re using a company-owned device you are subject to their policies about how much you can or can’t use that device for personal work.\u00a0 The company can’t reach out and restrict what you use your personal device for; however, company policies may still spill over onto your personal device.\u00a0 For example, email and company data.\u00a0 Your company has a legal right to sift through any email you might send or receive while using a company email address.\u00a0 If you’re using your own device to access your company email, what’s to stop your employer from demanding that you hand over your personal device so they can inspect any company data held on it?<\/p>\n

Can a company really do that?\u00a0 Welcome to the world of grey legal issues.<\/p>\n

And some companies demand that devices used on the job be subject to data wiping<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 In other words, if you leave the company the company could nuke your entire phone, contacts, all data, etc., etc., also a high personal cost (a regular backup strategy would help mitigate some of this loss, of course.\u00a0 And you DO back-up regularly, don’t you?\u00a0 ‘Nuff said… )<\/p>\n

Is BYOD something you should advocate for?\u00a0 You’ll have to do a virtual “cost benefit analysis” of your own personal workflow and habits to make that determination.\u00a0 The point is, the freedom and flexibility of BYOD that appears at first blush is more of a complex calculus than one might imagine.\u00a0 And it’s one that only you can figure for yourself.<\/p>\n

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