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Question

Has my boss gone too far?

Nov 12, 2014 5:57PM PST

Does your employer give you and other employees company cell phones with GPS tracking to monitor your location at all times during work hours? My boss does. Most of the time, I am doing the outside jobs. Yesterday, I finished my job ahead of schedule and then went to my friend's company for personal things. This morning, I was given a warning that I was goofing around during work.

A HR colleague told me that the boss can not only monitor our location, he a server that collects information on our cell phones, like text messages, phone calls as well as Internet use. What a terrible thing! How could it is possible? Has my boss gone too far if that is true?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Contract of employment
Nov 12, 2014 6:05PM PST

If your employer provides you with a cell phone for company use then he can install whatever apps he likes on it.

Have you checked the terms of your contract of employment? It may be that you signed up for this tracking and other monitoring devices/methods when you accepted your contract of employment.

Mark

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Contract
Apr 2, 2015 3:01AM PDT

You should have definitely read the company contract thoroughly before signing the form. I would say that your boss had gone too far by invading your privacy. However, if you have signed the contract agreeing for the boss to monitor your devices, then no argument can be made.

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These devices are NOT "your devices"
Apr 2, 2015 8:47AM PDT

They are company phones and as such, the owner of the phones can install what they want on the phone and restrict its use to company business.

Nothing to stop the OP from using their own phone for personal stuff


P

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Answer
monitoring
Nov 12, 2014 10:52PM PST

That is becoming more and more commonplace. Basically, if you are on the clock, you are on his/their time...shades of George Orwell, BIG BROTHER is here.

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Answer
Don't like the monitoring!!!
Nov 17, 2014 6:13PM PST

I know that reading of all messages sent and received and other data is possible just using some kind of mobile monitoring application like iKeymonitor (just make a Google search for it). However, I'm really not too sure if it is legal in your case. It all sounds a bit fishy to me since it is your company mobile phone. Maybe your boss is just trying to scare you guys.

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Answer
Well in reality
Nov 25, 2014 11:14PM PST

you can only be tracked when the phone is on. Your boss can do this if he has software that manages is employees and communicates with a client on your phone. My company just installed some new security on our phones to do this vary thing,
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