No, it’s not an acronym advising you to come to dinner with your favorite vintage of pinot noir. BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device, a movement that’s changing the landscape of information technology at workplaces across the globe. In the “old days,” companies issued electronic equipment to employees for work use. Today, employees want to use the latest electronics of their own choice for both work and play. Surveys consistently show that companies are giving in to such requests, citing the benefits of increased productivity and morale, as well as cost savings from not having to buy the equipment themselves. However, BYOD programs also create legal risks for companies, including:
- Violation of labor laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act due to the ability of workers to rack up overtime by doing work on personal devices practically anywhere and at any time, whether or not such overtime is authorized by management
- Violation of laws prohibiting disclosure of the private information of customers, clients, or patients, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
- Inadvertent disclosure of proprietary company information, which jeopardizes their confidentiality, and as a result, their status as protected trade secrets
- Complicating the e-discovery process, because electronic data that fall within the scope of a discovery request may reside on devices besides those under the direct control of the company
In light of these risks, the knee-jerk response of management might be to forbid BYOD entirely, but that is not necessarily the best approach. BYOD is more prevalent than one might think. A form of BYOD is in play whenever someone stores work data on a personal cloud storage account, uses a personal laptop to draft a memo for work, or forwards work-related word processing files to a private email account for easy access from home. A company need not officially adopt a BYOD program to have one, which is all the reason why management should be proactive about putting BYOD policies in place.
Learn about the specific risks that a BYOD program creates for your company. Develop guidelines on acceptable and unacceptable use of personal devices for work-related purposes. Notify employees of the policies in writing and provide training. Don’t wait until it’s too late!
Want more tips on BYOD? Come to the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Las Vegas from November 13-15, where I’ll be giving a presentation on “BYOD Challenges: When Employees Bring Their Own Devices to Work.” Registration information is available at www.aeisonline.com.
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