Why more and more companies are issuing employees with work-only phones
Concerned about security issues, it seems a growing number of companies are issuing their employees a work phone rather than allowing employees to choose their own device and connect to corporate applications, pop in a second SIM card, or use frameworks like Knox.
The trend, which means lugging two terminals around, reflects particular corporate worries about TikTok and WhatsApp, which consistently spy on users.
Several US states and agencies, along with many universities and campuses, have already banned employees and students from installing TikTok on their work phones, as has the Canadian and UK governments, while the European Union also requires the app to be uninstalled on personal smartphones where work applications are used, seeing it as a Trojan horse used by Beijing for spying. At the same time, many companies are now pondering similar restrictions.
Beyond TikTok’s brazen stance on its users’ data and the possibility of the United States following India’s ban, it’s clear that corporate cybersecurity is way too lax. WhatsApp is used by many companies, leading to potentially strategic data circulating through an instant messaging app that despite its claim to use Signal’s end-to-end encryption, raises suspicions among many, many users because they see the content of…
