Ask HN: How much privacy do you lose with Google corporate accounts? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How much privacy do you lose with Google corporate accounts?

1 pointkooskoos5 comments

Recently after adding my workplace google corporate account to my phone it automatically installed meet, slack and few other apps. Also having a password is mandatory obviously for security.My primary concern is even to use gmail service on any android device you have to add the account itself to your phone which again invites all the policies set by the corporate to be applied on your phone.What do you guys think about this? And how do you manage your corporate accounts on your personal devices?

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> And how do you manage your corporate accounts on your personal devices?

Oh that's simple: I don't have them.

I set up this boundary really early in the hiring process. I sell 8h of my day and I'm not reading/responding/doing anything else outside of them.

If they want me to, they can issue me a phone/laptop and I'll install whatever they want me to, but I'm not going to look at it outside my hours unless we negotiate paid overtime.

So in short, never have work accounts on your personal devices. If you need a reason to refuse that, you can always go with "I don't want to be held liable in case someone steals my personal device and gains access to your company's secrets".

That makes sense. My reason of setting up my corporate account on my phone was to sync my google calender. Even for which I have to add the account.

I would seriously suggest that you ask for a phone from your company.

I don't actually know if there is a form of mobile device management just through a Google account, but if so, I would be careful. Some companies route all traffic through their VPNs, Firewalls, they might install certificate for deep package inspection etc.

There is a reason for such measures, but they can compromise privacy.

Aside from very few exceptions, I would also advice companies not to add private phones to MDM. Phones are too cheap to take the risk.

Good thing to know I am not the only one paranoid about privacy and a boundary between work and personal space.

I feel a mobile phone should completely lie in our personal space. For the same reason rather than having any apps I have instead decided to use mobile browsers to check office emails or calender.

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