Author Topic: Work-provided phone dilemma!  (Read 3302 times)

lexde

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Work-provided phone dilemma!
« on: October 15, 2016, 07:36:02 AM »
My company is providing a free iPhone 6s that I am expected to pretty much have on me at all times... they've said that I can use it as my personal phone, too, which initially sounded really awesome, but now I'm not so sure.

On the one hand, $70 gets freed up every month (phone plus tax and fees and all of that BS) if I take that deal, but on the other hand, they have everything that I do on my phone, and I do have private conversations/texts/photos etc.

So it doesn't really seem like I should switch over completely, I value my privacy. But carrying two devices is already getting on my nerves and it's only been a day.

Thoughts? (x-posted to Ask a Mustachian thread and journal.)

Guizmo

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2016, 09:03:53 AM »
Yeah it is annoying carrying two phones. I do it because I work for the government and I don't want my private texts and photos to be public property.

Would they be willing to give you a stipend to use your personal phone for work?

Also, you are paying wayyyyyy tooo much for your cellphone service. You could easily bring it down to $40 per month.

Murr

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2016, 10:38:17 AM »
I carry two phones too. Not only privacy reasons but my employer also states they own the phone number for the work phone and if I left they keep it.

MoonLiteNite

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2016, 07:33:06 PM »
At work we can use wifi, but we have to log in with our windows login, so they can fully track what sites you go to, block porn, video games, etc...

I juse use the tor network and that 100% stops them.

Now for using a physical phone provided by a company, if you can verify or do a factory reset. If not, they could have like remote desktop, or spy programs on there like keyloggers.
If the phone can be shown to be clean, then you can safely use tor network and  your company will not know of any sites you use, or data you use.
They will only know that you connect to tor network, read SMS, MMS, and incoming and outgoing phone numbers.

« Last Edit: October 15, 2016, 07:34:53 PM by MoonLiteNite »

newelljack

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2016, 07:37:57 PM »
I understand your dilemma, but how *secret* is the stuff you are doing? I assume you are not on facebook which just invites people to give their private data away for free. My work just says that we can't use their equipment/network to run a side-gig.

AshStash

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2016, 07:45:38 AM »
I feel your pain. I carried two phones when I had a job that provided a work phone. It was annoying but it was worth it to me to have the privacy and phone number of my personal phone. I just used the cheapest plan that worked for me for my personal phone (which Mustachians do anyway!). My only advice is that if you're given a choice of device, choose the smallest/lightest that works for you since you've got two to carry around now.

I know companies try to pass off a smartphone as a perk but, for me, it was just a way for them to try to tie me to the job 24/7.

ender

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2016, 07:53:22 AM »
I carry two phones too. Not only privacy reasons but my employer also states they own the phone number for the work phone and if I left they keep it.

You can always forward a google voice number to your work phone, if ownership of the number is the most important piece of this.

Maya

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2016, 08:45:32 AM »
Are you in Canada? I'm with Bell and have a pay as you go plan for $15/ month that gives me unlimited texts on my iPhone. No data and I pay per minute, but if you already have a plan through work this would give you your privacy for texts for pretty cheap. Still have to carry two devices though.

ditheca

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Re: Work-provided phone dilemma!
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2016, 12:02:17 PM »
If your iPhone connects to Microsoft Exchange to get email (a common setup), you employer can push its own policies only the phone regardless of how it was configured when they hand it to you, or whether or not you reset it.

I would assume snooping on your usage is fairly uncommon though.  You'd have to have done something to attract attention.

Last week I had to create a report of websites a particular employee was visiting during work hours.  The whole list was facebook games, social media sites, and time wasting sites.  Nobody would have ever cared, or known, if she was getting her work done...