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Does this mean you are required to have an Android phone? What if you have an iPhone? Rootkit required there, too?
by e40 6y ago
Does this mean you are required to have an Android phone? What if you have an iPhone? Rootkit required there, too?
- dheera 6y agoGoogle probably has their corporate app for iOS too. Just have a phone with an obscure OS and escape all compatibility with their corporate crap. They should provide you with a phone if they want you to install their corporate app.
- qmarchi 6y agoSo, as a Google employee, they do. If you don't want to run corp software, you can easily just request a corporate phone and that's that.
- munk-a 6y agoIt is unfortunate (and a reflection of the power imbalance in US employment) that Google doesn't simply offer a corporate phone as a matter of practice - it benefits both the employee and the employer in the long run (with dishonest actions put aside).
- cortesoft 6y agoSome people don't like carrying two phones.
- munk-a 6y agoThose people aren't barred from suffering from invasions of privacy and rootkits for the sake of a minor convenience. Most places outside of tech folks with tolls need to carry company tools where they go - doctors carrying hospital beepers was essentially a meme in the 90's.
- austhrow743 6y agoAre you saying they should be barred?
- munk-a 6y agoNot at all - I'm saying it's an option. In the US right now you surrender a lot of rights on devices you use to produce to transmit employer information (depending on contracts) but that employer right has been upheld. You should never work on a personal device and if you do there are very real costs associated with it.
- cortesoft 6y agoI am just explaining why they don't just give everyone a phone right away.... my company asks you if you want a work phone or to use your personal phone and get a stipend
- munk-a 6y agoCompanies have the ability to make this option accessible or obscure, given the anecdote it sounds a lot like google was going out of their way to make it obscure and I'd suspect it was done for dishonest reasons. I think it's fine to choose to use a personal device, but employee education around personal devices is very poor - no one sits you down and goes through your rights as a worker and companies benefit by keeping those rights obscure. You can accept the risk if it's worth it for you and that's fine - but a lot of people aren't aware of the risks and their employer certainly won't tell them.
- WWLink 6y agoYeah seriously. The company I work for doesn't allow corporate stuff on personal phones, but they do give them to everyone who asks for them. It's pretty nice, you get a choice of android or iOS phone and they just ship new ones out directly from AT&T. What would suck is if you're not allowed to bring your personal phone at all on campus. Then if you have to reach family you have to do it from your work phone.
- lokar 6y agoIt does (as do other companies). It's part of the onboarding, along with what kind of desktop, laptop, etc. You can decline the phone and use your own (with the software installed). Many people choose to do this out of convenience. I expect the employers would actually prefer to just give everyone a phone the companies owns. They are doing the work profile on a personal device because many workers strongly prefer that.
- tylerhou 6y agoGoogle lets employees request a corporate phone if they want one. It just doesn’t provide one by default, because many employees do not want or need them.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoIt's nice not having a corporate phone. Nobody can message you during off-hours without taking the extreme step of calling you at your personal number (which in the modern day is basically unthinkable).
- dekhn 6y agoI have always been able to get a phone when working at Google by just asking for it and pointing out that I occasionally answer questions or help debug big problems outside of work hours.
- jefftk 6y agoYou aren't required to have any phone. If you have a phone and want it to have access to corp resources, you need to agree to some conditions. I have coworkers who choose to keep their phone personal only, and others who choose to have the company pay for them to have a separate work phone. (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)
- mleonhard 6y agoI did that. I had a company laptop and phone. I usually left them at the office. For extra privacy, I stopped my personal phone from connecting to the company WiFi. Then Google bought my home ISP (WebPass). Now I use a router-based VPN.
- astrange 6y ago> For extra privacy, I stopped my personal phone from connecting to the company WiFi. In a large enough campus, wouldn't the company also operate the cell tower? (I feel like I should know this, but I don't.) > Now I use a router-based VPN. This is not really useful except as a way to make your internet really slow. VPN providers are a lot less trustworthy than ISPs, that's why they can afford all those podcast ads.
- mleonhard 6y agoI use a VPN provider [0] located in my state. They claim not to spy and I believe them. My state (California) which has some privacy laws and consumer protection functions which would make things very difficult for the VPN provider if they were caught spying. I picked this VPN provider because they finance WireGuard development. AT&T, Verizon, and other ISPs spy and sell the data they collect. They also spend large amounts of money influencing lawmakers to keep spying allowed. [0] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com https://www.privateinternetaccess.com
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoIsn't laptop enough? What the phone does?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]