There is growing concern in corporate circles that BYOD and the rise of consumer smartphones that access their networks could lead to new kinds of breaches on the data security front when they are ready to move into the recycling stream. These devices contents and network access capabilities could become a liability for the owners and their employers.
Although so far the basic thinking among many has been that the owners of smartphones did not care at all about security, that assumption is being challenged by discussions with consumers as well as by new surveys.
If the findings of a survey released by TRUSTe are an indicator of consumer perception on phone security, then I think we’re in pretty good shape in addressing some of the differences that existing between corporate data security policies and consumer willingness to abide by these policies. That also represents a great opportunity for the proponent of Reuse and Recycle (RR) and those who are engaged in the secondary market.
The TRUSTe survey shows that mobile privacy, and by extension security, is a greater concern to many users than other key features such as brand and key physical and tech attributes. Some 80% of the 700 surveyed individuals in the US say that they stay away from apps that are questionable and they don’t trust. The idea of tracking is also cited as undesirable. The chart here summarizes some basic findings.
IMPLICATIONS:
For enterprise IT recycling managers, compliance and legal departments: the data is encouraging in many ways, but in a nutshell it shows that your employees who are interested in BYOD will most likely be in favor of corporate policies that will secure the device upon reaching its end-of-life. The debate on the assumed reluctance of employees to let their organizations have greater access to their devices for final cleaning may be grossly exaggerated and that means greater opportunity for a consensus instead.
For ITAD firms: data security may indeed be a must-have service on the smartphone side. Most ITAD companies I know are not fully vested into smartphone end-of-life. The ones that I know to be involved in smartphone recycling are typical tabletop-like operations and that makes big corporations very nervous as to who they should hire to deal with smartphones, and eventually tablets too. So you need to put greater emphasis and investments on smartphone recovery.
For proponents of Reuse and Remarketing: many consumers go the undesirable route of destroying their phone, when we all know that there is a vibrant secondary market, something that is endorsed by environmentalists given the eco-implications. If those devices are cleaned up properly, then the opportunity for remarketing and Reuse becomes a closer reality. And we should all welcome that.
David
ddaoud@compliance-standards.com
508-981-6937