Don't use the work phone as your personal phone
It's worse than that. This app tracks your location through a third party non-government company. If you have a location sensitive government job like being a soldier near the middle east this app is a national security issue.
This. Too many people view work devices as “Free [ipad, laptop], bro!” and use it for all sorts of personal stuff.
It’s not yours. The company can take it at any time, or if remotely managed, view device contents at any time. If any of that material is against company policy or illegal, you’re probably gonna be disciplined or fired.
For most it’s probably NBD. Corporate won’t care if you’re just some mid-level lackey watching Netflix on the company device.
A lot of government jobs provide you with a phone that is provisioned for closed government networks.
The White House spp is likely being used to spy on those networks.
i hate this admonistration, hate the app but these are wprk phones. what are people expecting here?
I might consider agreeing with you, except the app is full of third-party spyware and for-profit tracking software that's operated by foreign companies.
Leave it at the office then.
The problem is that it's at the office in the first place.
It creates a massive hole in IT security and allows attack vectors to get into government networks and files.
It's like driving your brand new car into a busy part of town, leaving the keys in the ignition, leaving the door open, and stepping away for hours. And then doing it again the next day, and the day after that, even after each car has been stolen.
It’s like that except it’s a company car and they’re making you do it.
oh if i wasnt clear, its bad, its stupid, its a fucking mess but you cant unustall work apps from your work phone. congressneeds to step in
So like normal work phones
I'm expecting the federal government to not do shit like this
The user is likely not the target of the spying. The white house is likely spying on other branches and agencies within the government.
Expect better??
My old job tried this w/ my personal cell phone (for logging in). I told them where to go with that. Then they threatened a layoff, so I had to relent while I looked for another job. Turns out my phone was too old to support the software.
They can't force me to upgrade and they were too cheap to buy me a new phone. They found a work around real quick as I couldn't do my job and they had to double me up w/ a coworker (OT). less then 24hrs later I was back on the network. And quit a few months later.
IT people were beside themselves, they were "you don't upgrade your phone ever new release" I was like F that noise I climb antenna's for a living, at no point to I need the latest and greatest to be an antenna monkey.
They tried that at one of my jobs as well. A bunch of us refused to install it on our personal phones. Management started floating the idea of getting work phones for those people. Came in and asked how many of us would like a work phone instead of installing the app on our phones. They were not prepared for how many of us raised our hands. Never heard anything about it again.
Company before my last provided phones as they were super paranoid about 3rd part software. Righty so as its a huge telecom company. Wasn't a great phone, it pissed me off more that I had to carry 2 phones when on call/at work.
Next company is 2x times bigger and known to the worst in my field. I needed a quick job and the shit started from day 1. I didn't last 6 months. But I did keep them off my phone, even thought it was tech obsolescence that kept them off :)
And the killer bit was the company owns a cellphone company! No freebee's in fact the 1st couple of months there my boss or higher up bosses would send me emails to switch over to them. Dickhead that owns the company wanted 100% of the employees to be subscribers.
Fuck that lol
None of the the employees who spoke to WIRED say they are actively using the app. “Have not looked at it,” a Department of Labor employee tells WIRED. “Will not look at it.”
The only sane approach to propaganda
“Government devices typically include preinstalled apps that provide value to government employees’ day-to-day work.”
They should go back to doing that instead then.
I guess people here just can't grasp why this is different when it's the federal fucking government and not their shitty IT job
Can't get it off their....work phones.
Probably also can't get their work email and Teams and whatever else is on there off their work phones. Because they're work phones. If you're not on, put your work phone in a shoe box far from where you sit and hang out. faraday bag, even better.
Wired, c'mon. Only a genuine idiot would use a work phone as a personal phone. Anyone complaining about this gets what they deserve.
You're missing the point. This app is written by outside, for-profit companies who don't care about data security. And the app is so full of security holes that it means work email and work chat may be skimmed by people outside the organization.
This isn't a case of "don't use your work phone for personal stuff."
This is a case of e.g. "foreign criminal organizations can potentially steal American Social Security databases."
These people literally give away classified documents to friends as party favors. No one that isn't an idiot thinks they're doing anything other than undermining the US in every thing they do. It's literally part of Peter Thiel's goal, to pump and dump the whole country. It's been pump for too long, so they'll crash it, buy cheap, and then act like kings.
Not every government employee is a Trump stooge.
I wasn't talking about government employees. I was talking about the elected officials :)
And this article is about federal employees
And Federal Devices. If those devices aren't secure, that's not the employee's problem.
It is when they work in intelligence and someone can find out and kidnap or kill their family to threaten them.
OK, slow down there, pardner.
First off, advertising data is already used to do this. The WH app probably doesn't really provide anything new that the CCP can't already buy, the same way the USG buys ad data to track both Americans and non-Americans alike in violation of spirit of the 4th Amendment. The app might be vulnerable to targeted attacks and zero days, as everything made by this administration is twice as expensive and a quarter as good as what's available to the general public because corruption is the only metric for success with them.
Second, if it's a classified device, then (using the DOD as a proxy) the WH app isn't secure enough to be allowed as installed because it wouldn't pass NSA vetting because it is an attack surface for targeted hacks. Meaning that nothing beyond emails that are FOIAable anyway are on the devices.
Third, real life isn't movies. Calm down, Liam Neeson.
“It’s shooting pure unadulterated propaganda into our veins,” says another government employee. “Maybe Fox’s editorial standards are too high.”
Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point during his two presidencies, according to a new poll.
A poll from the American Research Group, out Monday, found that approval for Trump stands at 30%, the lowest figure recorded across both of his terms. It is a 1 percentage point drop from May, when 31% of Americans were in support of the president’s performance.
Except rank and file government employees hate him too. Outside of some law enforcement departments, he is very very underwater with federal employees.
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that right now.
Woops left my phone somewhere.
Yes... this is how Mobile Device Management works for every company. The company determines which apps you can have on your phone, and which are required. It's literally how work phones are handled by companies worldwide.
Yeah, but normally the MDM is used to prevent security breaches. Not create them.
One mans security breach is another mans safety (surveillance) feature
Sure, but either way, it's not the employee's problem.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
