We recently found out that BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) will become mandatory as of August 25th, 2022. No more company paid cell phones.
There was a "Leader" in the meeting, and it sounds like they're playing hardball on this. Any exceptions must have pre-approval from a CEO-2 level executive.
This will be phased in via "natural attrition" over the next 2 years as existing cell phone plans expire and no new corporate cell phones will be available. The two year phase-in is to avoid "early termination fees" from existing plans.
WF will only support iPhone and iPad initially. If employees do not already own an iPhone, they will have to purchase one when their current corporate cell phone plan expires. There is talk of supporting Samsung Galaxy devices "at a later date".
There is Wells Fargo administered software that must be installed on a personal cell phone for "compliance" with this policy.
Here's where it got interesting. One of the engineers who is on the BYOD team was in the meeting. I don't know if the "leader" knew that ahead of time. Some people posed questions directly to that engineer and some of the answers didn't exactly align with what the "leader" was saying.
Most notable was:
They will be able to "patch" the operating systems on our personal devices (that's a red flag - if they can do that, they can do anything).
They will have the ability to "discover" data/apps/antivirus/etc on our personal devices.
They will be able to track the devices location (the "Leader" chimed in and said that they don't plan on doing that).
They will be able to track usage, website history, and text messages (the Leader also said they would not be doing that).
The Leader said that if "legal" wanted to confiscate your personal device, you would have no choice but to turn it over to them.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I would be very reluctant to allow WF to install anything on my personal phone. Especially if I'm paying for it, and especially if they can then control it, and even take it away from me. I also question how they can require that I purchase an iPhone for usage on their behalf.