Okay, so you are chatting on your cell phone, maybe sending a text and the phone goes dead. You turn it on and everything is gone...your contacts, pics, everything. Chalk it up to bad luck...a faulty circuit board perhaps.
Or maybe your employer zapped your phone. Yep, they can do that even if its your phone and you pay all the bills. If you use your phone to access your work email over a Microsoft Exchange server, they can send commands to your phone to do everything from disabling the camera to totally wiping your phone. They had a nice piece on it on NPR today.
Now this feature might be nice if your phone is lost or stolen, but having it done to you involuntarily by your employer is another story. If you don't want this to happen, the solution is simple...don't access your email through an exchange server. If your employer expects you to stay in touch using your phone to access email, well, that's tricky. Many people don't know their employers have this control over their personal phones (one company in the NPR story makes employees sign a form outlining their company policies...not all do).
Now if this was an employer owned and paid for cell phone, this wouldn't be an issue. If it's my cell phone and someone else tries to wipe it remotely, then I have a huge issues with that (for the record, my employer does not use Microsoft Exchange so the couldn't do that to my phone if they wanted).
The legality of this is not clear (although companies that make you sign a contract might have a case...my advice, don't sign and make them supply a cell phone if they want the ability to do that). Cell phones are one of those devices that have mixed personal and business uses. We pay for them, yet some employers expect us to use them for business...and can assert total control over them at will.
So be careful out there how you use your phone, especially if you access email through Exchange.
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7 comments:
Wow. That is a new one to me.
My employer recently doled out brand new laptops to most employees. They came with the perky message to use these as your own. They encouraged music uploads, use of the video camera, picture uploads, other multimedia.... and use at home. They wanted the staff to be comfortable with the technology. I find that unsettling. People are far too naive if they believe that their actions are not potentially monitored, especially if something needs repair or a visit to the "shop."
I'm personally relieved that one of these was not issued to me. It is bad enough to know that big brother is lurking behind the screen on the desktops at work via remote desktop management programs. I sure the hell don't want my employer in my home.
That's insane.
I heard over the weekend, they now have the technology to put some kind of chip in ALL vehicles that will disable a person cell phone from receiving or sending text messages!
More info on disabling you cell phone.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/16/secretary-of-transportation-lahood-were-looking-into-technology-to-disable-cell-phones-in-vehicles/
I really, really hate to be driving next to someone who is chatting it up and is distracted. Texting is ridiculous, as is reading a newspaper, watching a dvd, etc.
So, if your car goes off the road or someone is chasing you in a road rage or potential criminal incident, your cell phone won't be a resource to call for help? That doesn't sound like a good alternative either.
I have heard about the potential cell phone disabling device for cars as well. The devices are smart enough to disable the phone only when the car is moving so it would still be useful to call after an accident (although as I recently found out, if you are injured you can't always reach your cell phone anyway...it was in my pocket but when you can't move your arm, you can't get your cell phone). That wouldn't help in the rare (but admittedly terrifying) situation in which you are being chased by someone.
My employer is unique when it comes to computers. When I got my work computer, they let me order it, pick it up and set it up myself. No one from the company ever touched it. Therefore, they don't have direct access to anything on it...if they want to access it, they have to hack it just like the good old ID thieves do! They bought Apple Care for it and if it needs repair, I take it in and they don't see it. The repair techs will of course, but that's no different than with my personal computer at home. This hasn't been the case others places I have worked...there I knew they had backdoors and certain features were locked (although they weren't always that good...I knew how to get around the locks and could disable the tracking software...I never told them my tricks!)
I agree with avoiding callers/texters on the road. I drive a scooter a lot and I never drive next to or in front of someone using a phone (you get a good view from a scooter). When running, I never assume anyone is giving me right of way in a cross walk (even if they have a stop sign or a red light) and am even more wary of phone users.
My computers have never seen the inside of a shop. I build my own, and if it's ever sick, the Dr is close by
I don't have a cell phone, but I've seen that TV commercial for GM's OnStar that shows, in slow motion, a cell phone flying to the back of the cabin during a collision. Of course, then the worried OnStar operator comes on and inquires about everyone's well being.
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