

How the smartest companies are letting employees use their personal gadgets.  - ryutin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704641604576255223445021138.html

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dkarl
Why, why, why, why, why? Why would I give up partial control over my personal
cell phone to corporate security? The remote wipe functionality is all
downside, and it might come with remote monitoring as well. How would I know
it didn't? How would I know if it got turned on? Corporations are
unpredictable, amoral profit machines run by people who disengage their
personal morality, gladly or reluctantly, when making decisions on behalf of
their employer. (There are exceptions, but even exceptional folks such as
Larry Page and Sergey Brin disappoint their fans sometimes.)

I'm not a raving anti-corporate idealist. Computers are amoral machines,
printing presses are amoral machines, power plants are amoral machines, and
like those things corporations have a productive role in our economy. I just
cannot comprehend why people don't sensibly isolate themselves from machines
that have unpredictable and aggressive "failure modes" (rarely acknowledge as
such) and which, if anthropomorphized, would be powerful, greedy, and
occasionally very intelligent sociopaths.

And the whole purpose of giving these machines access to a stream of data
comprising your entire personal life is so you can get more work done for
them. Again, why?

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dpritchett
I like a variation on this model where employees use whichever machines they
want _and_ you pay for them: Your guys want to use macs? Fine, we'll pay $1500
each for them and don't come crying to tech support when they stop working.

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joezydeco
If someone is really stealing a phone for corporate espionage, couldn't they
have most of the important emails located and forwarded off the phone within a
few minutes?

This idea of "self-destructing if it doesn't call home in a few days" seems
pointless.

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chopsueyar
Monolithic corporate communication app (email/doc viewer/calendar/etc)

Virtualization - phone as thinclient

Wipe everything when you leave/lose your phone/terminated (including personal
stuff like photos/movies/contacts/appts)

