Other Company iPhone as only phone?

[MacRazySwe]

Hi everyone!

Starting a new job next week and will be getting a new phone. It will be an iPhone and it will have some kind of MDM solution installed.

I’ve always had a private phone and a company phone in my previous company, which made it easy to separate personal life from work. On the other hand, it was a hassle to carry two phones, so I’m now debating whether I should just only go with the company supplied one?

1. What kind of information can the company get access to on the phone? Mic? Camera? Screen? Calls?
2. The company phone would in that case be connected to my personal Apple ID. What can they access? Don’t want to give them access to my other Apple devices.

If I keep my personal phone, I would setup the company phone as new with a separate Apple ID.

How do you guys do it? Thanks!

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Something that not many people think about. If there is a risk of you ever going on legal (litigation) hold, I would never keep personal information on my company phone.

As far as what your company has access to or will block with MDM, it can vary. Some strict policies will block siri, icloud, allow them to remotely wipe your phone, track location, etc. The basic ones essentially just allow the company to securely put company email on your device. Under no circumstance will they be able to get access to your mic, screen, call history, or camera. However, I think they could disable your camera.

They would not have access to anything inside your apple id, but I have a 2nd apple id that I use with my company phone to keep everything separate.

If my company didn't restrict anything and my job had a very low risk of ever being involved in a lawsuit, I would consolidate to one phone in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, mine has a fairly strict MDM policy and I've had colleagues go on legal hold.

 

[marty1980]

I believe it is possible for your company to setup a proxy for every internet request sent from your phone. In which case they would know all the URLs and data you send/receive from all services.

I recommend reading the device agreement in detail. The ones I’ve been presented for BYOD explicitly stated they could access contacts, emails, SMS and other data. As well as the ability to add/remove any apps/data they don’t want you to have.

Personally, I would never use my work phone for all of my personal usage. I want to keep those separate.

 

[ian87w]

1. On Android that I have experienced, it's more of keeping the company data safe, so most of the policies are mostly disabling access, not actually obtaining access. But you will never know for sure unless you were the IT admin designing the policy. The capability is there, and legally the company has the rights to whatever's on that phone (it's their property). So better keep personal stuff separate. For sure, the company can remotely delete and disable the phone if needed, so that's something to consider.

2. Just set up the company phone as new with a separate AppleID.

Like the previous poster stated, read the agreement well. In the end, just keep work and personal separate.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi everyone!

Starting a new job next week and will be getting a new phone. It will be an iPhone and it will have some kind of MDM solution installed.

I’ve always had a private phone and a company phone in my previous company, which made it easy to separate personal life from work. On the other hand, it was a hassle to carry two phones, so I’m now debating whether I should just only go with the company supplied one?

1. What kind of information can the company get access to on the phone? Mic? Camera? Screen? Calls?
2. The company phone would in that case be connected to my personal Apple ID. What can they access? Don’t want to give them access to my other Apple devices.

If I keep my personal phone, I would setup the company phone as new with a separate Apple ID.

How do you guys do it? Thanks!

Since the start of this whole pandemic thing and working from home, I've learned that there are companies out there that provide a number of services to corporate entities that give insight into the productivity of the employee. Not that I was unaware that this did not exist, but now I know of specific companies.

This is software that can be installed on Macs, PCs, devices, etc. The services include keyloggers, screenshots, camera observation, etc. The software can be installed so that it is not noticed by you or the employer may choose to make it in your face.

Considering you're getting a device direct from the company you have to assume they will be using some sort of method to ensure your productivity (spy on you).

Do you really want your personal Apple ID on the device in light of that?

 

[now i see it]

Never use a company phone for personal use . Ever

 

[QCassidy352]

IMO you should use a company phone for company business ONLY and have a personal phone for everything else. One reason is your company can see what you do with their phone (it’s theirs, not yours). Another is they can take it back at any time. A third is that you never want to be put in a position of having to defend the ways you used the phone. A fourth is that it could be subjected to litigation holds or searches through no fault of yours, or even your company’s.

I have a phone from work, and if I were fired tomorrow or otherwise lost access to it, I’d lose not one kilobyte of personal information. IMO you’re asking for trouble if you do it any other way.

 

[clueless88]

I would recommend not using company phones for personal use. Some companies will scan devices for suitable content and will remove such content. Also I would never use company provided computers for personal use as well.

This job may very well end up not being your forever job, having work and life devices separate make it easier when transitioning to greener pastures.

It is healthy having work/life firewalls and this includes technology.

Just my 2 cents, I am old school. Portable technology came into my work life after I was 1/3 into my career so it was easy to maintain the technology separation.

 

[MacRazySwe]

Thanks guys, this has really cemented my view. I will keep using two separate phones!

 

[dontwalkhand]

Another option is see if your work will let you just activate the second SIM card in your existing iPhone. You can disable the second line, the work line, when you don't want to be disturbed by work.