European Commission bans TikTok from staff gadgets The European Commission on Thursday banned the use of the TikTok short video app on corporate devices and on the personal devices of employees enrolled in the commission's mobile device management service. The ban was enacted to enhance cyber security at the behest of the commission's Corporate Management Board, which oversees …
That seemed to be a trend for a while but in the last five years I've never worked anywhere which put any limit on what I could install on "my" phone.
Of course I have to wonder why Google and Apply phones aren't banned too as the US has got previous for spying on its "allies".
Many people use their work phones for personal activity. It is quite normal for MDM tools to partition the phone between work and personal apps. It is how mine is done, there are two separate screens, the work one is locked down, the personal one is more open.
I don't have a company phone because I don't want to carry around too many phones, and I like to do other stuff (listen to music, watch TV/movie) when I am travelling. so I need the ability to install my own apps. Please, I have the software on my personal phone set up just how I like it. I don't want any corporate restrictions on that.
Bearing in mind that, and the fact that the only corporate software I need when out and about is the Office suite (including Teams) and VMware Horizons, I've not applied for a company phone, and just use mine. It's also one less device to charge.
It's also worth pointing out that I rarely do company work on my phone. Usually, if I am working, I have a company laptop I use for that. I do answer the odd Teams call on my phone though.
But, AFAIK, the company don't allow any software on any of their devices unless it has been evaluated and found to be safe, or at least has no known vulnerabilities, and from what I am told, the company mobile phones are quite locked down.
TBH, I'm surprised the various governments have been so lax in locking down their devices. I understand they probably have laws banning any transfer of classified information via an unsecured network, but your average government employee may well have access to a lot of non classified data that could cause damage in the wrong hands. It also seems that sometimes, even the classified data can be left in less than secure places.. Look at Trump, Biden and Pence. I think even Bush Jr has been investigated.
If someone brings their personal device, there is not much you can do apart from installing gates and searching people upon entry.
If people are working from home there is nothing you can do about this.
It's interesting that GDPR is not being applied - these apps are gathering personal data they don't need. Should be an open shut case to have them banned.
But as always - we can't have nice things because of brown envelopes.
Indeed, all social media should be banned on corporate tools. Actually, anything not used for corporate business should be banned on corporate tools.
Banning it personal hardware is a bit overboard though, especially since the tools to allow personal hardware to be used on the corporate network are also supposed to set up a barrier between business and private data.
That barrier should be ban enough, but apparently it isn't.
That depends. Twitter, Mastodon and Facebook are used by EU departments to do PR with.
TikTok however is a whole different ballgame, as is Instagram. But I guess in the EU's eyes, the US is less of an authoritarian threat than China is, especially given China is using things like TikTok to adjust your 'social currency' or whatever it's called. I think the point of blocking it on personal devices "on which business apps are also used" (I paraphrase) is to avoid any 'accidental' data leakage of corporate stuff of a sensitive nature. You shouldn't be using your personal devices to conduct official EU business, i.e. checking your EU official email etc, anyway!
Our organisation has a rule that even if you just connect to your email on your personal mobile phone, it then needs to be managed by our IT department (so that it can be erased, should you lose it). That alone is enough of a reason (nevermind the fact that I categorically refuse to for my own good) not to do company business on a personal device. That's why you are issued a managed device (mobile or whatever).
"in the EU's eyes, the US is less of an authoritarian threat than China is"
The US has many problems stemming from believing in its own exceptionalism, and international policeman / arbiter of all that is good and true. From this putrid source flow the foreign coups, the multiple wars, the unfettered data hoovering, and multiple other such abominations. And even knowing all of that, yes, the EU is still right in preferring the US to China exactly because the US is less authoritarian and more democratic. For all the repeated US fuckups, they have methods to correct course, elect someone else, remove people from office. Even if their committees and courts are relatively toothless, they are still there and they do, sometimes, bite. In the midst of a huge amounts of missteps, there still is some general progress detectable.
China has no such course-corrective mechanisms, no conversations, protest or dissent to cause rethinks, no organs of any sort that are independent from the CCP, whose word is law and whose leader is a defacto tyrant. *deity* forbid that China ever builds up the level of international soft and hard power that the US currently enjoys, the world would be a far shittier place.
China is gaining that influence in Africa, that big continent that the US and most of Europe tend to ignore... And Russia is not far behind there either, especially after they started the Ukraine war and got shut out of most of the West. All those countries that abstain from UN votes when it comes to Russia have either had, or are getting, visits from the Russian Foreign Minister, and often also have major deals with China. Some of them have even scheduled military manoeuvres with Russia and China (yes, South Africa and India, I'm looking at you!).
The West ignores what those African countries (and some of the Latin American and South Asian ones) do at their peril... I will say however that there is plenty of disquiet in those countries about that very same cozying up to China and Russia because of the obvious implications. People in Africa are not stupid, they do know what it means when you align yourself with the wrong people, and they do know that you sometimes have to hold your nose and do it for the greater good of your country...
And this is what their old leader, Trump, tried to achieve ? A lot of people slagging off Chinese companies for something they have no proof over while ignoring the fact that US spied on allied leaders (Merkel for one.) and dismiss it.
This is the sort of shit that promotes division and not bring nations together.
Why do we think Parliamentarians were/are such fans of the like of the quite popular WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram? Is it because messaging via the application is touted as being securely encrypted and safe from official snooping and responsible accountable consequences/criminal prosecution and just sentencing?
And if the answer is yes, you have all you need to know to know everything you need to know about them, methinks.
And to think that they would have the bare-faced cheek to proclaim that they work for us/you, as opposed to working for themselves at your expense.
J’accuse.
Is it me, or does the word "cyber" in isolation sound weird and dated? I get its use in some compounds (cyberattack, cyberbullying, etc.), even if I still don't like it (there must be better prefixes we could use – it just makes no sense regarding its original Greek origin of "steersman"...), but on its own, it feels like it should have gone the way of "information superhighway" or "world wide web" (and don't even try to pretend that "cyberspace" sounds anything but ludicrous now).
It shouldn't just apply to the company device...
Let's take someone working at a fairly distinctive building in the west of England...
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Cheltenham/@51.8996539,-2.1242102,17z
They have with them their personal phone, installed with TikToc, Facebook, Instagram, Signal, Telegram Teams or Whatever App. In the interest of company security, they switchoff and leave it in their in the car before entering the workplace.
Too bloody late, they given the game away that they have some significant attachment to this location. Any of the companies behind those apps and any that they share data could just by data analysis tie the workplace and location of regular overnight stay (home). Do a bit more digging, find other locations they regularly frequent. All very interesting to a state actor. Found a mark worthy of further surveillance? Now look at enhanced data collection /compromise
Sure you can "turn off location". In my experience on Android, that's a game of whack-a-mole.
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