I don’t think this is the new normal, though I would caveat my answer based on the structure of the business relationship and ownership of the device. I would m

I don’t think this is the new normal, though I would caveat my answer based on the structure of the business relationship and ownership of the device. I would most likely not agree to this arrangement for myself or any of my employees except on a client-provided device. I may be open to installing a limited management profile that I’m able to inspect, but my preference would lean hard toward writing requirements into the contract and providing evidence to the client that we had met the identified requirements. It’s an interesting question, and one that we’ve evaluated with respect to our own customers, who lean on freelancers and other small vendors. Getting back to my original statement about the nature of the business relationship, we’re asking questions about what level of technical sophistication a freelancer has and whether they’ve established enough of their own policies and procedures to meet regulatory requirements independently. Often times, that’s just not practical. Even then, my preference is for the client to provide a managed device to the freelancer or to offer them self-managed options with documentation requirements to prove compliance. Forcing a contractor to install an agent like you’re describing onto their own device feels like a privacy intrusion, and may also represent a risk to the contractor’s other customers.