Everyone who hasn't complained about it should say, "No thanks, I'm fine with how things are."

I'm hoping very few are willing to sign up and this balloon doesn't fly.

I wouldn't volunteer either. The "business shell" would presumably isolate your personal stuff from your professional stuff on the same device. But that sounds like something that an over zealous, paranoid, or just nosy system administrator could override.

And if the company was paying for the service, the administrator would be working for them.

I don't think they can make you do it, however. If they tried, what would stop you from signing up for a service that they had no knowledge of? Which, BTW, I would do if they did insist on it.

Actually, if you see it coming in the future, you might sign up for a service that you could use as a dummy private service to offer to them.

I could get a second account but that would mean having two cell phone accounts at my expense just to protect my own privacy.

While they may not be able to force anyone into this, it can mark you as not-a-team-player which means promotions, bonuses and pay increases can become scarce.

I'm not familiar with the "shell" technology mentioned here, but I think it's safe to say that whatever is on one device is accessible to anyone who knows how (or has the authorization) to get into it. I used to have PC's with both "Unix shell" and "DOS shell" which were operationally completely separate operating systems, but they both still resided on the same hard disk for anyone (including me) to get into.

Interesting and a little different from the university where I work. Our folks were trying to figure out a way to save money on phone expenses. They started with "you can have a desk phone or a cell phone but not both." I admit that a couple of our folks do have both because of the after hours, on call nature of a treatment progrm.

The newest is .. we will give a stipend to anyone who agrees to use their personal phone for work too. The university wants to get out of the cell phone business, and I don't blame them. However, we do research with people who tend to be poor, needy, and/or mentally ill (mostly and). In addition, we run an outpatient substance abuse and mental health program.

My response to administrators was "hell no." So far it has worked. I think admin folks are afraid that I will hand out their personal cell phone numbers for after hours, on call purposes!

Unfortunately, there will be people who will sign up or be intimidated into it leaving any holdouts in the not-a-team player box I mentioned above. Fear of losing ones job is a big motivator.

My employer has fired people at least twice that I know of for things they posted on their personal Facebook page - this new attempt to have more of their nose in my business is scary.

LAST EDITED ON 04-16-14 AT 04:30 PM (EST)

You really do need a dummy account to give them. One that you would resign from after a month or two if you were forced to join their plan. .

If they called you to the mat for dumping the account you gave them, they would be admitting that they did intrude on your private account.

And you could sue? (I know, that's a can of worms).

Kingfish: making the lives of the little people miserable.

What I was born to do.

and I wouldn't have it any other way

Corrupting teenage boys since, well,
none of your business how long...