What can I do about employer tracking?

PremiumCola

I recently starting working for an electronics company. I don't want to name them but they're fairly big grossing Google amounts of capital every year.

When I started working the gave me a new top of the line company phone that I have to use when I'm working. Now I'm no idiot, I know that they didn't give me the phone out of good will. It's to track me when I'm working to make sure I am where I'm supposed to be.

To be honest, I don't really mind them tracking me during work hours. I don't plan on pulling any runners. But I still use the phone as my personal phone too, because it's so damn good.

I want to know what the extent of the tracking is. Is it just GPS tracking or are the monitoring everything the phone does? When I got the phone it appeared to be in its factory settings.

Is there any way to find out? Or does anybody already know from first hand experience how derp the tracking goes.

I looked around online a little but all I found were sites saying "Did you know your boss can track you?" But failed to provide any more details.

Any help would be appreciated, I'm sure I'm not the only one in this position.

uck51js9zml2yt

I'd be more worried about their policy on personal use of a work phone!

PremiumCola

Amber Inexpensive Lodger wrote: »

I'd be more worried about their policy on personal use of a work phone!

They said it's okay as long as we don't use it for anything illegal or have NSFW content on it

syklops

PremiumCola wrote: »

They said it's okay as long as we don't use it for anything illegal or have NSFW content on it

Word of advice. Dont use it for anything personal. Do you need to be on call? If not, turn it off when you finish your shift, and turn it on when you start your shift.

ItHurtsWhenIP

I can't be 100% sure, but unless they state in your contract or employee handbook that they track your movements by the phone and what they use the tracking info for, then they are not allowed to do so.

If they use the GPS tracking information to ping you for not doing your job, then you might have a data protection case agin them.

AnCatDubh

PremiumCola wrote: »

It's to track me when I'm working to make sure I am where I'm supposed to be.

Have you asked them the extent to which they use the information from the phone and what is recorded? (if not, why not) If they are using or recording use of the phone for subsequent use, it should have been made clear to you at the outset.

At a guess, a very large google bucks earning company will be particularly conscious of their employer obligations, employee rights, and data protection (unlike many two bit operations who may decide on a whim that it'd be good to track Employee Jim 24x7 for no valid reason than they want to). If it is a reputable company then they aren't likely to be at anything dodgy.

Again, if it is a megabucks company they may be routing all the devices browsing or IP activity through their corporate internet provision, and if that is the case then when you browse the Irish independent on a Saturday morning as you sleep in late, then they are likely to be logging the access the same as if you were reading it off a work laptop.

But, given what you know about what they are doing (which in fairness appears to be very little), everything written on the thread will be guesswork, if's and maybes. I do think a simple chat with someone in your HR Department or Corporate Services could set you straight.

All that said, if concerned then don't be stupid. As someone else suggests get a private phone. Turn the other one off outside of when it should be on (your shift).

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

seamus

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I can't be 100% sure, but unless they state in your contract or employee handbook that they track your movements by the phone and what they use the tracking info for, then they are not allowed to do so.

If they use the GPS tracking information to ping you for not doing your job, then you might have a data protection case agin them.

There will be an understanding that the phone and the data on it is the property of the company, but like you say if it's to be used expressly for tracking the employee, then the company needs to make it clear that they are actively collecting and using this data.

If the tracking data is incidentally collected that's OK, but the company can't really use that data retroactively to take action agains the employee.

More likely that the OP has been given this phone to avoid having employees use personal phones for company business. That's dodgier territory because you now have company property on personal phones, that the company cannot automatically access.

If they issue a standard phone to everyone for work purposes then the company know where their data is being stored and have control to brick or locate missing devices, and also know that the data is encrypted to a particular standard.

OP, as others have said, although it's a bit of a pain, keep your personal phone for personal use. When you're not on call, switch off the work phone. And as much as possible try and use your personal phone for personal emails, phone calls, whatsapp, etc.

If nothing else, it makes it way easier to separate your personal life from your work life when you change job.

OU812

What type of phone is it? If it's apple, it's extremely limited in the amount of tracking it can do unless jail broken.

If it's android, there's a whole lot you can do that the casual user would never discover. My daughter got an android for cmas and I had it totally monitored, tracking, recording phone calls & texts (in and out). Social media monitoring, remote camera and mic on/off/record as well as other stuff. (Before anyone butts in with privacy issues, she's 10 & there was some bullying going on in the school. Recordings were sent to an email address automatically for review later if needed - they weren't).

Don't use it for personal use, it's their phone, they can do what they want with it. They probably have GPS on your vehicle also (if they supply one - would be mad not to)

LoLth

I would be wary because, using a company phone for personal purposes may be considered permission for monitoring of personal interactions.

Best option imho is a dual sim phone if you only want one handset. work sim and personal sim and switch between the two as needs be. That way they can track the phone but have no control over the personal sim data.

If they have a policy on not allowing NSFW content then there may be a content filter or AV on the phone (part of a mobile device management agent) that scans all usage and content and flags nsfw / suspect activities to a central system for logging in case of HR action in the future.

Its up to you really, use the shiney shiney phone goodness and live with the oversight or use it fr what its intended for (work) and get a personal phone for personal use.

SteM

OP, bite the bullet and buy yourself the same phone for personal use if you like it so much. It might cost you some money but it'll be yours, no chance of you opening a nsfw link on it by mistake and getting in trouble.

Turn your work phone off at the end of the work day and turn it on when you start in the morning. It's a good habit to get into even if you're not being monitored as it stops your work phone from slowly taking over your life.

B00MSTICK

Do you a have a specific client installed on the "work" phone for email/other purposes?

We use a popular mail client for smartphones and I just registered/installed it on my older phone and it does the job without issue so I just swapped the SIMs.

I'd echo the others regarding the work/personal time, we've been told 8am - 6pm is fine but after that you can feel free to switch off.

Kimbot

Are you just assuming they are tracking your movements or do you know as fact they are?

jimmycrackcorm

PremiumCola wrote:

When I started working the gave me a new top of the line company phone that I have to use when I'm working. Now I'm no idiot, I know that they didn't give me the phone out of good will. It's to track me when I'm working to make sure I am where I'm supposed to be.

jonnycivic wrote:

Are you just assuming they are tracking your movements or do you know as fact they are?

Yes, what indicators are there of any tracking. Do you think there is some special software on the phone?

Tracking an employee when they aren't on duty would be very naughty so I doubt any large company would try that.

listermint

OP straight up honesty here, If the company was 'tracking' your where abouts the software would have to be constantly requesting GPS readings from the GPS chip, this in itself is a battery killer. Its a non runner for most real time Field Applications which is why its something that general field solutions use sparingly.

Unless you constantly charging the phone id be very suprised if they were 'tracking' you at all. Some times folks just get a bit ahead of themselves.

Either way if you really want your device not to be visible to people then buy your own phone.


Thats the long and short of it.

LoLth

listermint wrote: »

OP straight up honesty here, If the company was 'tracking' your where abouts the software would have to be constantly requesting GPS readings from the GPS chip, this in itself is a battery killer. Its a non runner for most real time Field Applications which is why its something that general field solutions use sparingly.

Unless you constantly charging the phone id be very suprised if they were 'tracking' you at all. Some times folks just get a bit ahead of themselves.

I disagree:

https://www.parallels.com/eu/products/mdm/features/find-and-track/

https://www.manageengine.com/mobile-device-management/

I think salesforce provide a similar service for on the road technicians.

It also doesnt have to be real time tracking. It can update every ten minutes or on demand by an administrator or just log a location every so often (mobile tower proximity / geoplotted wifi access points / GPS) and then upload a log of movements the next time its on a wireless connection or in the head office. Or just store it in case of an investigation.

same applies for content monitoring. it doesnt have to be real time it can just log and alert if a particular rule is broken (either a file or site matching a watchlist or an attempt to download / upload a type of file).

Either way if you really want your device not to be visible to people then buy your own phone.


Thats the long and short of it.

^this I completely agree with.

listermint

LoLth wrote: »

I disagree:

https://www.parallels.com/eu/products/mdm/features/find-and-track/

https://www.manageengine.com/mobile-device-management/

I think salesforce provide a similar service for on the road technicians.

It also doesnt have to be real time tracking. It can update every ten minutes or on demand by an administrator or just log a location every so often (mobile tower proximity / geoplotted wifi access points / GPS) and then upload a log of movements the next time its on a wireless connection or in the head office. Or just store it in case of an investigation.

same applies for content monitoring. it doesnt have to be real time it can just log and alert if a particular rule is broken (either a file or site matching a watchlist or an attempt to download / upload a type of file).



^this I completely agree with.

Both of those tracking chew battery life, Frequency tracking is hungry. very hungry. So as i said unless his battery life is pretty poor im not sure where this has come from.


Where has it come from ?

Khannie

I was in your position, OP. Can't explain the peace of mind buying my own phone gave me. Pull that trigger!

BigEejit

I work for a large IT company in the UK and we all have iphones with software from PTC called servigistics. The company like it because it provides nice reports at a click of the button .... other than that its a pain in the ass for users with scheduling etc.
At the time it was rolled out we were encouraged to turn on GPS, but no-one did and they did not try and force us. It was mentioned in one of our meetings with senior customer service management and they said the question as to whether we could be compelled to turn on gps was passed to the legal department and they said no. I dont know if this was down to whats in our contracts or UK legislation.

Management were trying to convince us to do it as it helps with routing ..... lol

I have had just the company phone for 15+ years now. My last bill that i saw from when we had to do them with our other expenses was in the region of £190 for the month, of which my personal calls/texts was about £9

mudabi

The main concern for any company supplying mobile devices to employees is protection of company information. The ability to restrict the installation of unauthorised applications, enforcing encryption and remote wipe ability in the case of a loss or theft are usually the main objectives.