* Balancing mobile productivity with compliance
A recent study indicates that many organizations’ mobile policies concern themselves more with direct, immediate cost-saving behavior than with big-picture liabilities or limits on user productivity.
The “Voice Report,” a biweekly digital newsletter, published its “2009 Wireless Benchmarks Survey” last month. One question the publication asked its subscribership of telecom professionals was which user behaviors they banned or policed to some degree.
The mobile phone evolution
While 92% control expensive international calling in some way, for example, a surprising 64% make no attempt to police cell phone camera usage. Only 6% disable the camera feature on devices.
Indeed, it is tough to find mobile phones without cameras these days, and not having one is considered to be an enterprise-class device feature. This is likely one big reason many organizations don’t try to police usage.
But there are many situations where the camera interferes with a user’s ability to get the most out of the device. For example, those in the legal profession might not be permitted to take a camera phone into the courthouse. Proprietary design concerns often lead to camera phone bans in manufacturing companies, too. HIPAA compliance concerns could come into play in healthcare organizations.
One option is to disable the camera (or have your mobile operator do so en masse). Within your own corporate walls, this might suffice. But when users are elsewhere (that is, when being, er, mobile) security personnel often aren’t inclined to check if the feature has been disabled. If the device has a lens, they will likely just confiscate it.
The BlackBerry 8800 series doesn’t integrate cameras, representing a scarce smartphone option. With most phones supporting built-in cameras, it’s tough to negotiate a volume deal on phones without them — yet not having the camera is usually preferred by businesses and government agencies.If you want enterprise-class smartphones for your employees, get the word out to your mobile operators and handset makers that you’d like them to add “no camera” to their feature checklists to help you find the right devices for your organization.
