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I am curios what is the motivation for employees to go with BYOD? As an employee why I should want to allow installation of MDM solution on my smartphone?

Mike Ounsworth
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nickolay
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  • It should be against the law. In France, it is now against the law to force or allow employees to read e-mail after normal close-of business hours. – atdre Mar 18 '16 at 16:32
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    @atdre Really? Not allowed? If a server blows up at 2am, a sys admin is _not allowed_ to know about it until morning? What about family doctors or emergency response personnel, are they _not allowed_ to be on call outside of "business hours"? – Mike Ounsworth Mar 18 '16 at 16:50
  • I suspect this is off-topic for this site as it is not about Information Security. See http://security.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic. Typically, employees choose BYOD so they can have a machine that is higher-spec or closer to their preferences than the machines that IT issue. If you want your phone to be an iPhone 6s+ with 128Gb storage, but the standard work issue phone is a 16Gb Moto G, BYOD may be the answer for you, and submitting to MDM is part of the price you pay. – Graham Hill Mar 18 '16 at 17:02
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    @MikeOunsworth I think you just might be reading too much into a one sentence description of a law. I'm sure there's some way to address the issue of off-duty emergencies. – Steve Sether Mar 18 '16 at 18:56
  • This question is getting closed as "primarily opinion-based". I think with some editing you could make it more fact-based and get it re-opened. I suggest something like "I am looking for a list of Pros and Cons of allowing my company to install MDM on my smartphone". – Mike Ounsworth Mar 18 '16 at 19:33

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For some employees, MDM might be a valuable benefit. A few years ago, a coworker told me he always used the company VPN when browsing the Internet from his personal computer because (he felt) it was safer. Features like remote wipe of your data or having someone (e.g. at the Help Desk) who will listen to you and help you if you lose your device could be compelling for some employees.

As far as why an employee might want BYOD: I'm not high-ranking enough to get a corporate-owned device (and even if I was, I wouldn't want to have to juggle two phones), but it can be nice to be able to check my email or calendar when I'm away from my desk. Sometimes on a pleasant day I would check my calendar and email and, if there was nothing urgent, take the long way in to work. When my employer started requiring MDM I gave up that perk; other people less concerned with control of their phone might make a different decision.

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    "*a coworker told me he always used the company VPN when browsing the Internet from his personal computer because (he felt) it was safer*" Did you explain split-tunneling to him? – Xander Mar 18 '16 at 18:21