Google to the rescue!

When it comes to employee privacy in Android 11, Google has expanded Android's commitment by bringing privacy protections for company-owned devices.

Due to the current situation employees of organizations face tremendous privacy concerns in their everyday lives. Their demand has increased when it comes to privacy in the opposition in regard to data security. The company mentioned in its statement that ensuring privacy protections to company-owned devices means “IT can deploy the work profile to help protect employee privacy across their entire fleet, regardless if the device is personally or company-owned,” When Android 5 was introduced, company data was secured on personal devices while ensuring employee privacy.

In a survey, it has been mentioned that the majority of employees said they expect all their personal information is private on work devices.

According to IDC this resistance to traditional full-device management creates challenges for IT organizations. In fact, employee concern about privacy is the top reason mobile devices remain unmanaged by IT. Google said that Android is committed to delivering simple, consistent privacy protections to its users.

Employees mentioned that they shouldn’t be asked to reveal their personal/private data to their company.

The new privacy features are as follows

  • Asset management protections, even if devices are lost or stolen
  • Personal usage policies such as restricting what apps employees can use, to keep device usage in compliance with corporate policy and hardware management.

The IT department should be able to block an employee from using social media apps on a company-owned device, however, it doesn’t necessarily mean they need to know what other apps they use outside of work.

Google shared the good news that “Now Android can help preserve employee privacy in the personal profile while enabling IT management of what employees can do with the personal profile.”

The Android Management API will support these work profile enhancements in July, enabling customers and developers to try out these new features on the Android 11 Beta.

Furthermore, Google has announced it is introducing Android 11’s new combination of strong personal privacy protections and robust asset management features to older Android devices, as long as it is Android 8 or newer devices.

Saif Ahmed Bhuiyan

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