Texts on Company Phone

[Kook]

From a dense, technologically challenged kind of guy...


So, I am pretty sure I know the answer...but lets assume one has a company cell phone.....Is the company able to access and view texts made on that phone? If so, in real time?

I ask because the morale of the folks in my division of our company is very low and there have been many derogatory texts within our group validating and expressing the unhappiness of said employees towards that of upper management.

I do not participate in these texts, but am worried for my colleagues that do.


Thank you,
Kook

 

[Aerides]

Whether they technically can or can't, assume they can, and they will and do (and yes they probably can, or can if/when they want to. Assume every email, every IM, every slack, every text is both saved and available to anyone who has a reason to view it if they think there's an issue.

No offense to your colleagues, but I thought everyone knew that. Don't <blank> where you eat.

I never used my own phone for work, even though we had a big BYOD program, because I wanted a clear separation and never wanted to mix things despite promises of firewalls. I held on to my corporate issued phone until the end.

 

[Sunset]

Always assume a company can see whatever you do on the company computer. I think really it would be the same for phones.

I have no experience with company phones, just company computers, so I'm just thinking out loud here.

It might not be in real time, but does that matter if they come to you and say what was done on company equipment (x days) ago violated a company policy, so you are terminated.

While many would think a phone is private , after all there are wire tap rules, the texts are probably stored on the phone , and the phone probably sync's (backup) regularly to servers. The company certainly has a right to see the information and could view the backups

 

[CardsFan]

Whether they technically can or can't, assume they can, and they will and do (and yes they probably can, or can if/when they want to. Assume every email, every IM, every slack, every text is both saved and available to anyone who has a reason to view it if they think there's an issue.

No offense to your colleagues, but I thought everyone knew that. Don't <blank> where you eat.

I never used my own phone for work, even though we had a big BYOD program, because I wanted a clear separation and never wanted to mix things despite promises of firewalls. I held on to my corporate issued phone until the end.

What she said. The company has a legal right to all info on the company phone. It is no different than the hard line in your office (if you have one).

Real time? Doubtful they would spend the resources unless there is a known issue.

 

[Kook]

Thank you All.


That is what I thought. For the record, I do not participate in the texts, other than to offer support and I surely do not do anything but work related activities on my company issued laptop. Course....I am a short timer.... Ha!

 

[Popeye]

Also remember that someone could forward a text either deliberately or accidentally to the wrong person. This could happen days / weeks / months later. Maybe mention to the folks that they may want to watch what they send around. People can go from friend to foe quickly if they feel they’ve been wronged.

 

[Midpack]

If you have HR policies, I’d assume that’s spelled out somewhere, or it might have been in a release you all signed when given the company phone. If the company owns the phones, they probably have access to anything on it.

Years ago my MegaCorp used to provide us with cell phones but most employees had their own much better smart phones, and hated carrying two devices. So a few years later employees were all given an allowance to subsidize their phones and company phones were completely phased out. And nowadays the company expects all employees to have their own smartphones used for personal and business, and there are no subsidies anymore. No idea what the norm is these days…

 

[Aerides]

...hated carrying two devices…

My MC had folks like that too. Like... I do NOT want to put MC sw on my personal phone! Luckily my phone was Android, and they did Apple first, i'm android. I happily carried my trust blackberry alongside my personal, private Android.

I would never have trusted my MC to put their BYOD sw on my phone and keep perfect separation, ie, personal texts on the same physical device I use for work? Heck no, no thank you. I would carry two bricks before they forced me to do that.

Back years before that, before I had a company phone, I used my personal cell to take after hours calls or be reached when away from my desk - I figure that "investment" would make me more effective in my job and pay its own dividends.

 

[tulak]

I refuse to install anything work related on personal devices. When you do this, you’re giving the company full access to your device. No thanks.

I even avoid connecting to the employer’s wifi. I prefer to use a cell data plan. Works well enough.

 

[Sunset]

Separation is the way to go.

Even when I connected remotely to company servers, I always did it from a virtual machine. That way it was clean and I knew there was no viewing of my machine.

 

[jollystomper]

Separation is the way to go.

Even when I connected remotely to company servers, I always did it from a virtual machine. That way it was clean and I knew there was no viewing of my machine.

+1

I did the same when I had my home lab and could connect into the Megacorp network. All lab machines were virtual, with whatever SW Megacorp required on them to be on their network, and they had no visibility to my house network.

For any equipment supplied by a company, one's behavior should be guided with the assumption that they can see anything you do. Just as when traveling to certain countries, assume that they can access your phone/tablet/computer (and even your hotel room) and behave accordingly.

 

[Tetto]

I work for a huge multinational Corp and have had their iPhones for 16 years now. When I started working there, they gave it to me and I had a Motorola droid, which I pitched. I’ve used their phones exclusively for the last 16 years. Text, surf, photos, stream music, you name it and I’ve never heard a peep. Never even heard of anybody getting in trouble either. If they want to look at my texts go ahead (and I know they can…), nothing to hide here.

 

[Chuckanut]

We have an HOA member who uses her company account for email. That means that every email we send her or gets forwarded to her, become readable by her employer.

I find that a huge violation of my privacy, so I never send her anything I would not want to see published all over town. In addition to the lack of privacy, we get about ap age of legal mumbo-jumbo advising us that her messages are legally protected property of the company, the dates of company holidays, reminders of the company picnick, notices of open enrollment deadlines, etc. etc. etc.

Alas, this has been mentioned to her but she doesn't understand or doesn't care. .

 

[1242Vintage]

I had a personal cell and a company phone. I Assumed my employers’ IT Department was capturing and monitoring all traffic on company issues devices.

I did have occasional back channel text conversation on my personal cell with colleagues on their personal cell. But that was rare and I was always careful what I wrote. Sensitive conversations were always via voice call and not text.

 

[Jerry1]

It always amazed me when someone got fired for looking at inappropriate material on their work computer. Of course, this happened when the internet became common in the workplace. But after the first announced firing, what the hell was the next person thinking. Since then, you have to assume that the company can and will read or listen to anything you view, type, say . . . on company equipment.

I was recently deposed for an old work issue and they were showing me emails from 10 years ago.

Bottom line, while they are paying the bills, you are a fool to disrespect them in any way other than a private conversation. And even then, there’s the friend with loose lips. Of course we’re all human, but that’s the reality. Anything negative can come back to bite you. Don’t offer it up freely or easily.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Also remember that litigation or regulatory inquiry can result in them hoovering up data from all company devices/files pretty indiscriminantly. And during an event, they will ask you if you use personal devices for company business. If so, those devices may suddenly come into reach of the inquiry.

It was never something personal, but I was once shocked at the reach and impact of a regulatory data request.

I also sat on a civil rights jury at one point where texts played a prominent role in the evidence. Do you have a moron friend or family member who sends inappropriate comments or jokes to you via text?

"Mr. Kook, three years ago you recevied a gif of xyz. You replied LOL. Can you tell us what you meant by LOL? Why was that funny to you? Doesn't that suggest you have a bias against abc which means you couldn't treat this employee fairly?"

I now carry two phones. Its a pain and my work iPhone X is the most glorified email device in history...but there is zero cross over and my moron relations are kept beyond arms length from communications on HR or business matters.

 

[steveark]

It depends

It depends on the amount of power you have in the company. There is no way my company would have disciplined me for inappropriate use of my company phone, they were way more worried I might quit to take another job with a competitor. And when I became the boss, I had IT stop spying on me altogether. They didn't have the clearance to see the deals I was working on. I had unlimited personal use of my smart phone, computer and company car and never feared them looking over my shoulder. But then I didn't abuse it either.

 

[googily]

As someone who works in IT, I'll just echo what everyone has said above. Whether they actually read it or not, the company has every right to look at anything on a phone they issued to you (or that was yours but they took over the line/billing). Our desktop/laptop login screens have a notification telling all employees that.

You'd be amazed how much monitoring goes on these days, because of cyber threats. And how many people in some IT departments have full admin access to your computer and can browse through all of the files.

I use my own phone, and always have. There's no company assets that require that I have a phone issued by them, as everything else is available through apps, etc. I have never used work e-mail for personal communications.

And, because I work at a somewhat well-known entity, I also try to live by the guiding principle of "Would I want what is in this e-mail/text splashed across the media tomorrow, and would I still have a job afterward?" It's surprising how many people could save themselves a lot of problems if they asked that question before hitting Send.

 

[googily]

^^ And I'll add that messaging systems like Teams and Slack are also landmines waiting to happen. Someday some hacker is going to break in and get their hands on a whole lot of chit-chat that will not look good in public.

 

[CoolRich59]

It always amazed me when someone got fired for looking at inappropriate material on their work computer. Of course, this happened when the internet became common in the workplace. But after the first announced firing, what the hell was the next person thinking. Since then, you have to assume that the company can and will read or listen to anything you view, type, say . . . on company equipment.

Yep. I was an atty for a megacorp and helped draft their technology use policy. They wanted it crystal clear that any use of company property: desktops, laptops, cellphones, etc. was subject to company access and monitoring.

They didn't eavesdrop on phone calls, but had the ability to view internet usage (including social media posts) and text messages. They had systems that would monitor and detect people logging on to "non-business related sites", downloading unapproved software, unauthorized devices attempting to access the network (including thumb drives); they could even tell if someone did a jailbreak on a company-issued iPhone.

Nevertheless, people can be incredibly foolish. Two of my colleagues (one a senior-level atty and the other a legal assistant) got fired for violating the policy. The atty was viewing porn on his computer. The legal assistant was running an eBay business during office hours; she was even shipping her merchandise using the company's FedEx account!

 

[Kook]

Thank you all for confirming what I suspected. As mentioned, I don't participate in anything derogatory and in fact, sometimes I try to smooth it out. There were some group texts going on yesterday within our team regarding upper management at our company that were very negative. That is what go me to thinking about it all. If I was management in our company and I saw those texts, I would be doing some thinning of the herd and letting some people go.

 

[CoolRich59]

It depends on the amount of power you have in the company. There is no way my company would have disciplined me for inappropriate use of my company phone, they were way more worried I might quit to take another job with a competitor. And when I became the boss, I had IT stop spying on me altogether. They didn't have the clearance to see the deals I was working on. I had unlimited personal use of my smart phone, computer and company car and never feared them looking over my shoulder. But then I didn't abuse it either.

A private company maybe, but not a public company.

Without giving it a lot of thought, for a public company to allow this it would be a breach of its records retention policies and likely a Sarbox violation.

Moreover, like spoliation, I suspect in a dispute, the opposing atty would have a field day asking why your communications were not preserved - the presumption being you were engaged in some kind of unethical and/or illegal behavior.

 

[CoolRich59]

The lawyers had already gone through email accounts of his teachers looking for incriminating things staff might have wrote about this student.

My personal favorite: I spent a few years with a mid-sized software company. Naturally, there was always a lot of pressure to get product out the door and log sales. One frustrated team lead sent an e-mail saying "This release is a complete piece of sh*t! We shouldn't release this as beta, much less call it 'general release' and charge customers for it."

He was right and the company got sued by an unhappy customer. Watching the video of that employee's deposition as he tried to explain away that e-mail was both hilarious and painful.

 

[Franklin]

I asked our head of IT at MC this question. His reply was yes they do look at text and e mails and he proved it to me. I also know it was common to review all text and e mails once an employee had resigned to ensure files and other doc's were not taken.

 

[MRG]

It's their device and they can do whatever they want. Yes they can see stuff, sometimes even after it's deleted[emoji6].

I worked at a company that did IT for others and was surrounded by a bunch of technical people all day long. I was always surprised when one of them forget everything they signed and learned about technology to check out some porn.