Addressing the Employee-Employer BYOD Trust Gap [#Infographic]

The freedom to use a personal mobile device is largely seen as a plus for most employees. But would their positive outlook toward the bring-your-own-device trend change if they realized that work activity conducted on their phones could be subject to review by the company?

Mobile Iron decided to investigate what it calls the “the mobile trust gap” in a survey of users across Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. They found that the gap between employee-employer privacy expectations was sometimes as wide as the Grand Canyon.

For example, 41 percent of respondents thought that their employers couldn’t see anything on their mobile devices. In reality, employers can see their location, list of apps and any corporate email and data.

The attitude toward employers viewing data on personal devices shifts depending on the age of the user and the transparency of the employer. In the survey, 68 percent of 18-34 year olds responded that they were not comfortable with their employers viewing their text messages compared with 53 percent of those over 55 expressing discomfort.

How can employers gain employee trust when it comes to BYOD? The most effective method is by explaining the why and the what behind a corporate BYOD policy. If a company outlines it's monitoring certain data in its BYOD policy, it should explain why monitoring this information is necessary so that the employee feels justified in surrendering his or her privacy.

“Mobile is a partnership between employee and employer, and policies that serve the needs of only the latter cannot form the basis of a successful Mobile First initiative,” writes Mobile Iron Vice President of Strategy Ojas Rege on the MobileIron blog.

Check out the full infographic from MobileIron for more on the BYOD trust gap below.