Why would an organization develop a policy prohibiting the use of personal devices at the worksite?
by Erin Gloeckner Employee-owned versus organization-owned… the battle wages on. As employees, many of us prefer to use personal phones and laptops for work because they are convenient, commonsense, and a lot cooler than what the IT department provides. Nonprofits know there is no way to prevent all employees from accessing personal phones at work, so many are creating BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies. On its face, BYOD sounds like a wonderful cost-savings strategy. Employee productivity rises when employees use devices they know and love, and nonprofit employers save time and money as employees cover the cost of purchasing the latest productivity gizmo. The truth is, when you permit or endorse BYOD, you’re inviting new and nuanced risks into your nonprofit workplace. These risks run the gamut from privacy violations to data loss and more. BYOD and Employee PrivacySmart Savings or Money Pit? According to Cecil Lynn, electronic discovery counsel at Littler law firm, BYOD does not cut costs. Lynn estimates a typical mobile BYOD environment costs 33% more than when a company owns the devices. Lynn says BYOD programs cost more than organizational ownership of IT devices because companies lose bulk purchasing power, they provide greater tech support for personal devices, and security risks are hard to budget and often wind up costing more than imagined. It’s important to recognize that employees may need to forfeit privacy rights in exchange for the freedom to use personal devices at work. By accessing work information on a personal device, an employee puts a nonprofit’s assets and reputation at risk. Employees might lose their phones, forget to encrypt work emails, or open unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots accessible by unknown external users. Even after an employee is terminated, risk remains. A former employee could bring the personal device to a new job and leak or inadvertently share sensitive information with their new employer. To manage BYOD risks, nonprofit leaders should implement defense strategies; unsurprisingly, many defenses reduce employee privacy. For example, nonprofit IT departments may install remote access apps on personal devices, so IT administrators can access information when necessary. If an employee misplaces a phone used for work, the IT administrator can access the phone remotely and delete any sensitive organizational data. Unfortunately, when such a remote access app is installed, personal documents like photos and videos may be accessed and deleted as well. IT staff may also be required to safeguard information by blocking network access, apps, and websites on personal devices. Nonprofit employees may view these acts as breaches of privacy or personal rights. BYOD Risks to Nonprofit EmployersAside from data breaches or the risk of a terminated employee sharing trade secrets with new employers, top BYOD concerns arise from the employment relationship.
BYOD use also exposes nonprofit employers to the potential for leaked contracts, leaked client/ partner information, and the risk of employees uploading materials to servers owned by other companies (e.g., through the use of cloud apps like Dropbox or Google Drive). If your nonprofit aspires to best-in-class risk management as a framework for BYOD use, consider putting the following safeguards in place:
No matter how many BYOD policies you create, risk remains. An IT department charged with securing nonprofit data can offer only partial protection for data stored on devices the nonprofit doesn’t own. But, even if you stick to organization-owned devices, data breaches may occur. Weigh the upsides and downsides of BYOD versus organization-owned; decide whether your nonprofit is in position to take advantage of the benefits while managing the downside risks. Additional BYOD QuestionsAs you design a BYOD policy or adapt a policy to reflect your existing practice, take time to address the following issues:
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Which of the following is a primary result of the change in the nature of communication as a result of mobile technology?Which of the following is a primary result of the change in the nature of communication as a result of mobile technology? Businesses place less emphasis on writing skills.
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