Using company phone as a personal cell as well

FirstWorldProblems

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I had a POS company blackberry and a personal iphone 6, but I just rec'd a company 6S and now it seems really dumb to continue to waste $75/month on my own plan. Plus I can sell my phone for ~$350.

Any horror stories from people that did this? We basically have no written policy on what is acceptable and what's not and it's not like i'll be surfing porn, but the thought of the stuff on my phone not being completely private drives me nuts.

The IT girl said they'll use some security app called Maas360 but it looks like that's more for keeping the device secure. She said it doesn't give them access to read text messages.

I'd probably sell my phone and buy a tablet for surfing the web at home so that I didn't have to worry about looking at gun sites, etc.

Reassure me !
 

Gone_2022

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Sep 4, 2013
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I absolutely would not do it. God forbid you are drunk and answer a work call by accident somehow since it's the same phone, or send a bad photo etc.

If there for sure is not a policy at your company now regarding phones (unlikely unless it's a very small company) there can always been one drafted without your knoledge.
 

Chet Donnelly

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I wouldn't do it. Last company I was at used Maas360, and a guy did have to have a talk with HR based on things that were in his personal email inbox.

I do the T-Mo $30 plan that has 5GB 4G data (unlminited 2G after that), unlimited text, and 100 minutes for my personal phone. My personal phone is almost exclusively used for data, and I don't put anything on my work phone other than work stuff. I do make personal phone calls with my work phone though.
 

sickmint79

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Mar 2, 2008
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I wouldn't do it. Last company I was at used Maas360, and a guy did have to have a talk with HR based on things that were in his personal email inbox.

I do the T-Mo $30 plan that has 5GB 4G data (unlminited 2G after that), unlimited text, and 100 minutes for my personal phone. My personal phone is almost exclusively used for data, and I don't put anything on my work phone other than work stuff. I do make personal phone calls with my work phone though.

so you're saying

company phone
one account for work email
one account for personal email

HR called him things for internally identifying naughty things in his personal email?

i'd be rather skeptical if that was the case.

I had a POS company blackberry and a personal iphone 6, but I just rec'd a company 6S and now it seems really dumb to continue to waste $75/month on my own plan. Plus I can sell my phone for ~$350.

Any horror stories from people that did this? We basically have no written policy on what is acceptable and what's not and it's not like i'll be surfing porn, but the thought of the stuff on my phone not being completely private drives me nuts.

The IT girl said they'll use some security app called Maas360 but it looks like that's more for keeping the device secure. She said it doesn't give them access to read text messages.

I'd probably sell my phone and buy a tablet for surfing the web at home so that I didn't have to worry about looking at gun sites, etc.

Reassure me !

i would sell the old iphone6 and dump the plan. 300 for phone and 900/yr savings after that? no brainer.

the maas360 i'm 99% sure gives no shits about your browsing history or dick pics. it might encrypt something, or force you to have certain work apps, or force you into having certain types of unlock screens or passwords though.

something like browsing history would be more likely to be captured from verizon themselves, if they even keep something like that. probably more likely the nsa has an ear through some back channel there if anyone is listening at all though. the realistic likelihood of you getting in trouble for much of anything is really really quite low. it's certainly worth the $$$ to just go one phone.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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Crown point, IN
I wouldn't do it. Last company I was at used Maas360, and a guy did have to have a talk with HR based on things that were in his personal email inbox.

I do the T-Mo $30 plan that has 5GB 4G data (unlminited 2G after that), unlimited text, and 100 minutes for my personal phone. My personal phone is almost exclusively used for data, and I don't put anything on my work phone other than work stuff. I do make personal phone calls with my work phone though.

Really? Good to know.....I wonder what was in there. I wouldn't even link a personal email to my work phone phone. I'd just put it on a tablet. I receive nothing important in my personal email whatsoever.

My biggest concerns were what apps I can have and would my messages remain private. losing the phone number I've had for a while kind of sucks but w/e

The IT person just confirmed anything mainstream is OK: IG, snapchat, fb etc. She said that the only apps that would be flagged were ones that had potential viruses/malware
 

Grabber

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Dec 11, 2007
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I wouldn't do it.

They will own your phone number if that's the route you're going.

Personally, I don't believe in having the company pay for my phone bill, and, let's be honest, it will be more used as a personal phone than a work phone.

The company "can" see what they want and what you use the phone for. I enjoy my privacy so I pay <$200 a month for my phone plan, but, use to to take a shit ton of pictures for work on damaged items that come in, make calls on it to vendors/customers when work phones are down, etc. I'd like to have a separate work phone, not all -in-one as you want.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
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I wouldn't do it.

They will own your phone number if that's the route you're going.

Personally, I don't believe in having the company pay for my phone bill, and, let's be honest, it will be more used as a personal phone than a work phone.

The company "can" see what they want and what you use the phone for. I enjoy my privacy so I pay <$200 a month for my phone plan, but, use to to take a shit ton of pictures for work on damaged items that come in, make calls on it to vendors/customers when work phones are down, etc. I'd like to have a separate work phone, not all -in-one as you want.

dunno about the number... i had mine before ibm phone and after
 

Chet Donnelly

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Really? Good to know.....I wonder what was in there. I wouldn't even link a personal email to my work phone phone. I'd just put it on a tablet. I receive nothing important in my personal email whatsoever.

My biggest concerns were what apps I can have and would my messages remain private. losing the phone number I've had for a while kind of sucks but w/e

The IT person just confirmed anything mainstream is OK: IG, snapchat, fb etc. She said that the only apps that would be flagged were ones that had potential viruses/malware

I don't know, I just remember Vic telling everyone that he had to talk to HR because of his personal email on his work phone. Our IT team confirmed that they had full access to the phone, and could even remotely lock it down if they wanted to we couldn't erase anything.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
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it comes down to this:

you are saving real dollars just using their phone.

based on how a phone works, management apps, security, corporations, etc etc - there's probably a really high chance you could watch porn on it every day for a year and no one would catch it.

so if you plan on using the phone like a normal human being, which means watching your porn on a properly sized screen at home anyway, then don't worry about it and save some fat cash.
 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
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Regardless of the MDM your company is using what's more important is the company policies (electronic rights, mobile device policy, internet usage etc.)

I am the IT director for my company but we are BYOD and the MDM we use can only encrypt the phone and set certain policies such as pin's etc.. I cannot see the data going back and forth (web browsing texts etc) Or what is installed on the phone such as apps, other email accounts.

I did look at the Maas360 product and it does look like they can see what apps are installed and redirect traffic through their own web/content filter if they so choose. Not sure why they would want to do that in today's world but if they have a serious crack down they might do it for security reasons. Regardless this product looks to have all the bells and whistles so if the phone is theirs and the data is theirs I wouldn't chance it.

RIM (Blackberry) had all this functionality 8+ years ago, I could see every damn thing on a blackberry device if it was using the BES MDM. Things like their text messages, phone contacts what software was on the device etc. You'll rarely see and IT guy have the time or care to look at that stuff but it's easy for a manager to request to look at these items when a employee is under scrutiny. This is where the policies come into play, if they can terminate you for a policy adherence issue it makes getting rid of troublesome employee that much easier.
 

cap42

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Mar 22, 2005
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May depend on the company.

My friend got tired of paying his phone bill and buying phones (he MUST have the latest/greatest each year) and switched to the company phone with his number. Once he leaves the company or is fired, they own his phone number.

Same here, I got rid of my personal cell years ago but if I ever left my company my work number (only phone) stays with them. I can keep the phone but not the number.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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thanks for the responses! I would lose this number if I left the company. And I'd lose my personal # when I cancelled my Verizon phone. Not ideal but I'm OK with it, I only have maybe 25 people I care to talk to anyway

I did look at the Maas360 product and it does look like they can see what apps are installed and redirect traffic through their own web/content filter if they so choose. Not sure why they would want to do that in today's world but if they have a serious crack down they might do it for security reasons. Regardless this product looks to have all the bells and whistles so if the phone is theirs and the data is theirs I wouldn't chance it.

RIM (Blackberry) had all this functionality 8+ years ago, I could see every damn thing on a blackberry device if it was using the BES MDM. Things like their text messages, phone contacts what software was on the device etc. You'll rarely see and IT guy have the time or care to look at that stuff but it's easy for a manager to request to look at these items when a employee is under scrutiny. This is where the policies come into play, if they can terminate you for a policy adherence issue it makes getting rid of troublesome employee that much easier.

That's interesting. I looked more at the computer usage policy and noticed it covers all "devices", which would include phones. It's incredibly general and has one like that says "must be used for work-related activities" or something like that.

BUT, with that being said, I'm posting this from my work computer while on the network and it's never been an issue. We have a content filter but as far as internet usage in general, I know people here that literally spend their whole day surfing the web. Been here over 5 years and I've seen ONE person disciplined for looking at porn on their computer. Nobody has ever been disciplined/terminated for surfing the internet.

The IT lady said that she can't see photos or texts but that they can see what apps are installed. When you say they can route traffic through their filter, is that the standard or only something a company would do on an exception basis? My work phone doesn't have maas360 installed yet but it will be soon.

I shut off Wifi on the work phone and was able to visit sites that would be blocked on my the network (in this case, gunbroker).
 

EmersonHart13

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BUT, with that being said, I'm posting this from my work computer while on the network and it's never been an issue. We have a content filter but as far as internet usage in general, I know people here that literally spend their whole day surfing the web. Been here over 5 years and I've seen ONE person disciplined for looking at porn on their computer. Nobody has ever been disciplined/terminated for surfing the internet.

WERD
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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You can transfer your Verizon number to google phones service (10$ I believe) so you don't lose it. Then link your old number to the new work phone through the Google voice app. So you would still have a personal and work phone number but when they call either number it rings on the same phone. Texts to the old number will still work too, they will just be sent to google first then forwarded to your phone.

I use that for keeping my personal business # separate from my personal phone # and still use one phone.
 
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