Talk to me about MobileIron

The Napkin

wise ass al kaprielian
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 13, 2002
28,493
right here
Work is insisting that we put this on mobile devices that we use to access email. I know nothing about it. Some of you probably do.

Should I have any reservations about putting it on my phone (pixel) or ipad? Or is this an easy thing for me to say screw you, I'm not putting it on my phone and I'll just stop reading and answering emails after hours.



 

soxhop411

news aggravator
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2009
46,199
It really depends on how much you trust your company. This policy looks fairly boilerplate.
Yup. Luckily for me (since I am on call 24/7) they provided me a company phone. But some people in our company use their own phone and they need to install the MS company portal. I have installed it on about 15 users cell phones and so far only one has declined because they didn’t feel comfortable.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,145
Arvada, Co
I held out at my company for a few months before finally caving and installing it on my phone. For me it was a choice between freedom to work where/when I want and not letting my company track my every move if they were so inclined. There have been no ill effects to my device from the software but it's hard for me to be too concrete on that assertion since my phone is a big ol' POS anyway.
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
SoSH Member
Dec 2, 2006
16,071
Tuukka's refugee camp
I have it on my phone. It's fine. Biggest annoyance is the emails don't come through on the screen, at least not at my company, so you get some "shit your pants" emails at 10 PM that turn out to just be spam or something. They do have fingerprint ID, so that's better than making up a password.
 

cgori

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 2, 2004
3,994
SF, CA
At my last job, they used it - I had it on my work phone (I ended up with 2 devices, for a variety of other reasons). Check the remote wipe / login failure policy, that was the most concerning to me (i.e. if the device is lost or someone has ~10 failed logins it triggers a complete wipe).

Some places use it to enforce policies like "no jailbreaking" - unfortunately for some Android users where you might not be able to upgrade to the newest version, it detected those circumventions as jailbreaks and forced downgrades to the last carrier-supported OS (which probably had bigger security holes...). But mostly it's a way to install a certificate for Exchange or other corp resources and wrap it in a container with some device management console on the backend.

You still might be better off with a cheap/throwaway second phone to put it on, depending on how much you trust your employer, and what kind of cell plan / reimbursement policy you have.

EDIT: I wouldn't put it on your iPad, just the phone for convenience, if you go that way.