Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#21

Post by tristor » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

wilde wrote: post #6

ziddoap wrote: post #2

I'm more surprised Amazon (or any company, really) employees using an employer-managed device would have TikTok on them to start with, to be honest. As the follow-up tweet says: "Completely independent of the specifics in this instance: get a second device before installing an employer's config profile on your personal device"

Not everyone can afford 2 phones, but their employers expect them to be online all the time anyway. This is particularly true of people who work in US hospitals.

Why would you need to be able to afford 2 phones if your employer is requiring you to have a mobile phone for work? That's a situation in which the employer should provide the phone. I've been on-call or mobile-connected for over a decade, I have never had an employer even suggest that I should foot the bill for a work device. Either they've provided me a phone fully paid for work to be returned if I exit, or have covered the cost of my phone bill for my personal device in return for accessibility outside business hours.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#22

Post by adreamingsoul » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

And that's why I never setup email on my personal mobile device when I worked for AWS.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#23

Post by ardy42 » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

ziddoap wrote: post #2

I'm more surprised Amazon (or any company, really) employees using an employer-managed device would have TikTok on them to start with, to be honest. As the follow-up tweet says: "Completely independent of the specifics in this instance: get a second device before installing an employer's config profile on your personal device"

> I'm more surprised Amazon (or any company, really) employees using an employer-managed device would have TikTok on them to start with, to be honest.

I am too. Many years ago at my employer, someone fat-fingered a command and wiped every single iPhone/iPad that an employee had configured to connect the company email system. Even after restoring a backup, the devices would just wipe themselves again unless the owner managed to remove the MDM profile before it reconnected to the internet. A good fraction of my coworkers were affected.

I'm not giving anyone access to do that to my personal data.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#24

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

thesausageking wrote: post #10

ziddoap wrote: post #2

I'm more surprised Amazon (or any company, really) employees using an employer-managed device would have TikTok on them to start with, to be honest. As the follow-up tweet says: "Completely independent of the specifics in this instance: get a second device before installing an employer's config profile on your personal device"

Most people I know check their work email from their personal phone. Work either doesn't buy them one or they don't want to carry around two phones.

Most people don't need to be on call 24/7 so they could just divorce themselves from off hours work and live like in the ancient times.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#25

Post by orblivion » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

mrlala wrote: post #18

orblivion wrote: post #8

Sorry if I missed something obvious, but if we're at the point where the U.S. government is even contemplating banning TikTok, how come it's on Google and Apple stores at this point? They seem to be at least somewhat vigilant about spyware etc.

From what I read, I think the issue is people keep claiming it does all this various "spyware" stuff, when it sounds like it's doing nothing that any other app could do, given the (what appear to be) lax permissions of android/ios. If people are so worried about what tiktok can be gathering outside of the app, that is a problem for apple & google. For this, I think it's 100% overblown what people think tiktok is doin…

This also makes sense (in addition to another answer that I said made sense). I didn't look much into the spyware scandals. "This app isn't any more spyware than many other popular, accepted apps, and people focused in on this app and made a big deal of it" is believable to me because I've seen it before.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#26

Post by unethical_ban » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:31 PM UTC

ianmobbs wrote: post #4

ziddoap wrote: post #2

I'm more surprised Amazon (or any company, really) employees using an employer-managed device would have TikTok on them to start with, to be honest. As the follow-up tweet says: "Completely independent of the specifics in this instance: get a second device before installing an employer's config profile on your personal device"

Does Amazon provide company phones or just install an MDM profile on your personal phone? I have TikTok installed on my phone, and if my employer said I had to remove it to access my work email, I'd ask them to buy me a work phone. It seems a bit ridiculous that they'd want to control what apps you download on your personal device without providing an alternative.

At my company, you have to provide your own device, but the phone number/plan is either (a) paid for by the company, or (b) you get a $40/mo stipend for cell service.

It turns out that I can use our 2FA app without MDM, on my personal. And nowadays, I rarely use slack or email from mobile, and I don't get calls.

I am pretty strong in the "don't put company stuff on personal devices" camp. Even if they don't control your phone by policy, they do technically. They put root certs on the device, and though they can't see individual app data (depending on config) they can see a list of installed apps, and enforce certain baselines.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#27

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

orblivion wrote: post #8

Sorry if I missed something obvious, but if we're at the point where the U.S. government is even contemplating banning TikTok, how come it's on Google and Apple stores at this point? They seem to be at least somewhat vigilant about spyware etc.

I would like to know what US laws TikTok has violated first.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#28

Post by yesplorer » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

sc11 wrote: post #19

yesplorer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Because the app stores don't serve a single country. 2. People don't use the app store at the pleasure of the US government.

> 1. Because the app stores don't serve a single country. There are country-specific Apple app stores and apps that are only available in some countries

therefore, see point 2.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#29

Post by hn3333 » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

Does anyone else feel we're suddenly supposed to be anti-China? Is it because of Hong Kong? (Honest question, I have no strong opinion .) Because it feels like after Russia and Muslims now China is the new enemy. Kind of stupid imho. Anyway, the high road would probably be not to ban any apps but to make the operating systems safer..

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#30

Post by yesplorer » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

orblivion wrote: post #15

yesplorer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Because the app stores don't serve a single country. 2. People don't use the app store at the pleasure of the US government.

Forget countries and governments. Don't they serve the users, at least to some extent? Forgetting the political issues, there have been multiple spyware scandals here, right? Or did I get the wrong idea? Of course these companies have selfish corporate interests, but I've seen both of these companies show at least _some_ level of care for their users. Even if it's part of keeping up appearances out of concern for the…

At this point, no single government has provided a verifiable reason why Tik tok should be banned. if there were verifiable claims, you think Apple and Google will conveniently let them be in their app stores and take the heat for it?

What benefit would they get?