# No email for you unless we can wipe your device. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 13, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868 "2017-06-13T15:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/21 "2017-06-13T23:57:02Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > As the IT person doing the wipes, I think it’s a good thing. The execs around here are always losing phones or having laptops stolen. Sure, the NSA could give a crap but there are still trade secrets and other data people don’t want in the wild. > > That said, I don’t have a personal phone or number, they both belong to my company. Simpler than filling out expense reports every month. But we’re not talking trade secrets, or a BYOD program. I don’t use their network - haven’t set foot in the town for over a year, and not in any of the district’s buildings for over two. It’s strictly used as a personal email account. It gives me no access to any confidential data; and public schools - being you know, public - have no trade secrets. There is no reason, not even a flimsy excuse for anyone to have the ability to remotely wipe my personal phone other than me. I’m pretty sure that the person in charge now, being pretty inexperienced, just thought “Hey! Security setting! Let’s turn it on!” not knowing how it would affect the users. Anyway, I found a workaround, and even if that had failed I can just use the web to access it. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/22 "2017-06-14T00:17:14Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > If he’s separates employment for any reason, including resigns or being laid off (not fired) they would probably want to wipe their email from his phone, which is not lost. Yeah, makes sense. If I remove my work Microsoft Exchange account from my phone, they lose the ability to wipe it - no extra app to uninstall (and if they did wipe it, it would be only that email account, not the entire phone). I don’t know if Google Policy Manager is more difficult for the user to get rid of. I also trust my employer to take my security and privacy seriously. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t use my phone for work. As most people have said, if you don’t trust your employer then the proper response is to choose not to use your phone for work email, not to complain that they are being overly cautious. It’s their data, and they need to secure it. > [@Doug\_K](#): > > But we’re not talking trade secrets, or a BYOD program. I don’t use their network - haven’t set foot in the town for over a year, and not in any of the district’s buildings for over two. It’s strictly used as a personal email account. From your OP, it sounds like the email account was provided by the school. They are fully within their rights to protect the data in accounts they provide. Despite your assertion that all the emails are public, I’ll bet you have some personally identifiable information for yourself or someone else in at least one email. If the school provided the email account, they need to protect themselves from liability if someone’s info is stolen. I think the new admin is wise to not follow in your laissez-faire approach to security. Just migrate to a personal Gmail account and you won’t have to worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/23 "2017-06-14T02:53:31Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Yeah, makes sense. If I remove my work Microsoft Exchange account from my phone, they lose the ability to wipe it - no extra app to uninstall (and if they did wipe it, it would be only that email account, not the entire phone). I don’t know if Google Policy Manager is more difficult for the user to get rid of. > > I also trust my employer to take my security and privacy seriously. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t use my phone for work. As most people have said, if you don’t trust your employer then the proper response is to choose not to use your phone for work email, not to complain that they are being overly cautious. It’s their data, and they need to secure it. > From your OP, it sounds like the email account was provided by the school. They are fully within their rights to protect the data in accounts they provide. Despite your assertion that all the emails are public, I’ll bet you have some personally identifiable information for yourself or someone else in at least one email. If the school provided the email account, they need to protect themselves from liability if someone’s info is stolen. I think the new admin is wise to not follow in your laissez-faire approach to security. Just migrate to a personal Gmail account and you won’t have to worry about it. Of course there is personally identifiable information about myself or others in every email. There’s nothing secret about that. In fact, the whole point of it is to have some verification that my emails are really from me. I have a personal Gmail account and two Google apps for education accounts, one at my current job and one from my former job. All of my email addresses are some variation of my real name. This notion that my email address needs to be some kind of sooper seekrit alias is not only silly, it’s counterproductive. But there is no data that needs to be protected in any of it. There is no info that can be “stolen”. The only data a public school has that is not public info is student data (even salaries are public record), and my email account doesn’t give me access to that. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/24 "2017-06-14T03:32:54Z")
The law firm I currently work for and the previous firm both use Airwatch for managing BYOD. Do we in IT have the ability to wipe your phone? Yes. Would we ever do it? Not once in the five years I’ve been administrating Airwatch. You lose your device and your personal stuff gets stolen, tough shit, that’s on you. But you can be damn sure we’re going to wipe firm emails from your device. Also, remote management is the only way the firm can be positive that firm email gets wiped when a person leaves, voluntarily or not. Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/25 "2017-06-14T08:51:14Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t get that. I can access my corporate mailbox on my personal cell phone using an app called MAAS360. I access the email within this app, so it’s entirely segregated from the rest of my phone. And if my email were subpoenaed, they could just access my mailbox off the Exchange server. I don’t see why they would need to touch my phone at all. I don’t either, but I don’t assume that because they don’t need to that they wouldn’t. I know that I’m paranoid, but I worry that I’m not paranoid enough. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/26 "2017-06-14T15:00:39Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Of course there is personally identifiable information about myself or others in every email. There’s nothing secret about that. In fact, the whole point of it is to have some verification that my emails are really from me. I have a personal Gmail account and two Google apps for education accounts, one at my current job and one from my former job. All of my email addresses are some variation of my real name. This notion that my email address needs to be some kind of sooper seekrit alias is not only silly, it’s counterproductive. > > But there is no data that needs to be protected in any of it. There is no info that can be “stolen”. The only data a public school has that is not public info is student data (even salaries are public record), and my email account doesn’t give me access to that. I recommend you read up on laws about [personally identifiable information](https://www.dol.gov/general/ppii) if you find yourself an account admin in the future. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/27 "2017-06-14T18:24:03Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Because you have no control over what software they use to do the wiping, and what security it has, and who has access to the wiping feature. What if some disgruntled IT employee decides to wipe every phone on his way out the door? What if they bought the lowest cost security package, and it got hacked? Those are all possibilities but they’re pretty remote, and can easily be resolved by restoring from backup. Which you kinda need anyway for a small, semi-fragile, easily lost or stolen device that you carry around with you. Losing or breaking your phone is way more likely, and you have to have a backup for that case anyway. > [@BigT](#): > > Restoring from backup sucks. It takes time to get everything set up back the way I want it (since I’ve been tweaking things for a while). I’d prefer to avoid that if at all possible. Something here doesn’t make sense to me. Why aren’t your tweaks backed up? When I restore my phone from backup, it looks exactly like the phone setup that was backed up. All the settings and data and apps are present. And it gets backed up whenever I’m on my wifi network, so I’ve literally only lost whatever I’ve done to my phone since the last time I was at home. If restoring from backup isn’t quick, easy, painless, and complete, _that’s_ the problem. Fix that, and you won’t have to worry about _any_ of the ways your phone could get wiped/lost/destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/28 "2017-06-14T19:04:21Z")
Yeah, my employer requires the phone wipe access, as well as loads a bunch on stuff on my BYOD laptop. I get it, sorta. But, my employer does not provide the devices, or pay anything to me in the way of a monthly stipend / reimbursement. To me that is my sticking point. You want to control my device? OK, pay me something for the privilege. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/29 "2017-06-14T22:06:50Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Yeah, my employer requires the phone wipe access, as well as loads a bunch on stuff on my BYOD laptop. I get it, sorta. But, my employer does not provide the devices, or pay anything to me in the way of a monthly stipend / reimbursement. To me that is my sticking point. You want to control my device? OK, pay me something for the privilege. Do you want a line-item on your paycheck? Just for this, or for any other work-required thing you aren’t issued by your employer? Lots of employers have dress codes, for example, but don’t explicitly allocate a clothing budget. That’s not _exactly_ analogous to BYOD, but it seems close enough. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/30 "2017-06-15T01:35:55Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Do you want a line-item on your paycheck? Just for this, or for any other work-required thing you aren’t issued by your employer? > > Lots of employers have dress codes, for example, but don’t explicitly allocate a clothing budget. That’s not _exactly_ analogous to BYOD, but it seems close enough. It is common for employers to provide a monthly phone reimbursement, when using your own phone. My spouses employer does, and my former employer did. My current employer does not. My former employer provided my laptop, my spouses employer provides a laptop. My current employer does not. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/31 "2017-06-15T02:30:01Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Do you want a line-item on your paycheck? Just for this, or for any other work-required thing you aren’t issued by your employer? > > Lots of employers have dress codes, for example, but don’t explicitly allocate a clothing budget. That’s not _exactly_ analogous to BYOD, but it seems close enough. Not at all analogous - They don’t dictate what you wear outside of work on your own time, nor to they come to your house & take your clothes if you resign. What we’re talking about is your own personal device that makes you more available to them when you’re not in the office. Back in the day (before I had a personal cell phone, let alone smart phone) work decided I was mission critical & wanted to give me a beeper. This meant instead of leaving work for the day when I left at 5 / 5:30, I was now on call 24x7. You want to invade my time (& sleep); you damn well better compensate me for it. It’s not like I was getting more responsibility **at** work, I was getting responsibilities outside of work. My boss (the d-bag) wouldn’t do anything about it, so I went to his boss - got my raise & pissed off the little shit all at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868/32 "2017-06-15T19:05:59Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Not at all analogous Sorry, but this is a frustrating response. It’s clearly _partly_ analogous. We can disagree about how good the analogy is, but it’s not _totally unrelated_. > [@](#): > > They don’t dictate what you wear outside of work on your own time If your job requires you to be available to work when not in the office, then you are not on your own time. You have a job that extends beyond office hours. There are definitely jobs that require certain apparel at times other than when you are in the office. > [@](#): > > nor to they come to your house & take your clothes if you resign No one takes your phone if you resign, either. They wipe the data. > [@](#): > > Back in the day (before I had a personal cell phone, let alone smart phone) work decided I was mission critical & wanted to give me a beeper. This meant instead of leaving work for the day when I left at 5 / 5:30, I was now on call 24x7. I don’t disagree that it’s a potentially major imposition to have a job like this, or that you shouldn’t be reasonably compensated. But your work duties are a package, and your compensation is a package. There’s no particular reason that there should be a line item in your wages for the device. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-email-for-you-unless-we-can-wipe-your-device/788868.md?page=1)