Mobile Madness

For business, the use of mobile devices to do work is all but mandatory. Whether the work is sales, manufacturing, marketing, finance or legal, work is being done via mobile devices. People are reviewing and approving documents, corresponding regarding business, making appointments, making decisions and affecting every aspect of business today. Competition is driving companies to be able to respond with immediate information and make faster decisions. Companies are embracing the use of mobile devices to reduce costs. Mobile workforce does not need an office space, heating, air conditioning, electricity, etc.

People work from home, from airports, at clients’ sites, at conferences, during educational seminars; work does not seem to stop. So more and more information—information that should be considered records—is being created, stored and captured by mobile devices. Technology is keeping pace and offering more to the mobile device user.

There are over 500,000 applications for mobile devices. These applications make working away from the office more convenient and seem normal. The storage capacity of the devices are increasing also so that more and more company information is not within the security of the firewalls that companies have built to protect company information and prevent hackers from gaining access. Company policies, governance model and timely connection requirements still lag behind. This is Mobile Madness.

Companies allow employees to use personal mobile devices to access company data and, even though employees are warned that this compromises their privacy, it is still being done today with increased risks of data loss. One of the primary ways that data is lost by the use of mobile devices is people losing their mobile device.

Before companies embrace the use of mobile devices as a normal means of doing business, update policies and procedures, identify what is owned by the company and what is a record. Determine how obsolete information is deleted from these mobile devices to reduce or eliminate the risk of having to preserve or produce during eDiscovery. Have a plan, update or improve backup capabilities and services.

Finally, companies should advise their employees that the work they do for the company on their personal devices belongs to the company and is subject to search. These documents may be called into litigation or investigation. This opens employees to the loss of privacy in the event that their mobile device is confiscated to be searched or the data preserved during litigation. So not only is privacy violated, time is lost on future work which could cost the company revenue.