personal phone company business

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ggunn said:
I once worked for an employer who had trackers on his vehicles and he loved to monitor them to see where they were going. He also got speedometer data from the tracker and if he saw a truck exceeding the speed limit he would call the driver on his cellphone and tell him to slow down.
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i worked for a shop that did this before it was commonplace.
they had a little antenna that stuck up about 4", and fit nicely
under the lead roof jack every truck had in the side bin, so
that when the boys met for a beer after work, which happened
about three days a week, 11 of the shop trucks at the same
bar wouldn't be noticed.


eventually, the owner of the shop stopped in one day, and noticed
all the roof jacks. there was a counseling session in the shop shortly
thereafter.
 
kwired said:
My father drove big rigs, if you are driving a company truck - they monitor all sorts of things, including how often you may have had some hard braking.
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It's far beyond that now, the tracker in my company truck simply plugs in line of the ECM diagnostic port.

It knows everything ... From turn signal use to g-force and sends emails when you violate a setting.
 
zbang said:
Calls and texts are one thing, but if someone wanted me to install their app on my phone, especially if it was some kind of tracking app, I'd tell them to get me a company phone. They don't get to track me when I'm off the clock and their app doesn't get access to my camera, text messages, call log, etc. (Yes, I'm somewhat paranoid about this :D.)
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Same here, with unlimited voice and texts call me or text me whenever you want. Since it's my phone I may or may not respond. If you want unlimited access or want a phone with company installed applications then give me a company phone.
 
iwire said:
It's far beyond that now, the tracker in my company truck simply plugs in line of the ECM diagnostic port.

It knows everything ... From turn signal use to g-force and sends emails when you violate a setting.
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Big brother?
Come back George Orwell...........
 
Cascode3 said:
Big brother?
Come back George Orwell...........
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I am fine with them tracking the truck, they own the truck and they are paying me when I drive it.

I am much more creeped out about Google tracking me, the microphone and camera on my phone available to apps than the company I work for tracking their van.
 
iwire said:
I am fine with them tracking the truck, they own the truck and they are paying me when I drive it.

I am much more creeped out about Google tracking me, the microphone and camera on my phone available to apps than the company I work for tracking their van.
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Fair points.
Being tracked by whoever doesn't greatly bother me except......
Someone will know we are not at home so, in the wrong hands, that could mean a burglary opportunity.
 
Cascode3 said:
Fair points.
Being tracked by whoever doesn't greatly bother me except......
Someone will know we are not at home so, in the wrong hands, that could mean a burglary opportunity.
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With social media people bring that on without even having tracking, some have to tell everyone what they are up to in their posts, telling everyone they are not at home, and even how long their house will be available to potential burglars.
 
For me it was simple. The company issued phones to those that needed them. There was an itemised bill listing calls made, duration, and cost. You had to pay for anything not business related.
 
kwired said:
With social media people bring that on without even having tracking, some have to tell everyone what they are up to in their posts, telling everyone they are not at home, and even how long their house will be available to potential burglars.
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You're right. When my cousin's partner sends me 104 images from him and family in Benidorm or wherever, it's reasonable odds that they is not at home.
Might as well put up a sign - "Burgle here."
 
kwired said:
With social media people bring that on without even having tracking, some have to tell everyone what they are up to in their posts, telling everyone they are not at home, and even how long their house will be available to potential burglars.
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True dat. I don't do FB but my wife does, and we have discussed this. No posting about how great the vacation is until we are back home.
 
Jraef said:
Well I did, but being subject to the 2% exclusion (remember, she's an employee, not a business owner), we got no benefit from it tax wise, which made the suckage worse.

To bring it back to the original issue, this is going to depend a lot on what the laws are where you live. If there is nothing protecting you from an employer taking advantage of you like that, you may have to suck it up and/or find a better employer. But it might be worth checking first.
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You are the best protection from a bad employer. I have worked for company's like this that offer nothing as far as benifits, phones or what ever, I had to get paid more hourly though to make it work.
 
gadfly56 said:
Really simplified example using fictitious round numbers. You make $10,000 a year and the fed tax rate is 20%. You owe them $2,000 at the end of the year, leaving you with $8,000. Your employer says use your own phone for company business and your cost for their convenience is $500. You take that as a deduction on your income tax by adjusting your gross income from $10,000 to $9,500. Now you owe Uncle Sam $1,900 leaving you with $7,600 or $400 less than before. If the employer paid for the phone costs directly, you'd still have $8,000 at the end of the year. Never, ever let your employer do this to you.
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That is a crazy analogy. you seem to assume that one would not have a phone to begin with. In today's world we all have phones with unlimited plans.
In your scenario the employee is actually getting sort of a subsidy that he would not generally receive. IMO
 
Sierrasparky said:
That is a crazy analogy. you seem to assume that one would not have a phone to begin with. In today's world we all have phones with unlimited plans.
In your scenario the employee is actually getting sort of a subsidy that he would not generally receive. IMO
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A lot of people have phones, not everybody does though. They don't all have unlimited plans either, that might be getting more popular, but is not everybody. Seems lately traditional "calls" are becoming unlimited but data is where they have some variety in service plans.

My mother in law just got her first smart phone. She has always been on prepaid wireless types of plans and this one is also like that. She did not subscribe to a data plan- no wifi available, about all she can do with the outside world from her phone is make a direct call. She is fine with that, she only uses the phone away from home for direct calls anyway. If on vacation there is likely wifi available wherever she is staying. She is 80 years old, might look at facebook while at home or sitting in a hotel room, but typically won't look at the phone at all when she is out, even if just grocery shopping.
 
Security concerns with allowing personally owned devices on restricted sites. Misconducts like those idiots who took a bath in the fast food restaurant and shared pics happened because of allowing personal phones into work area.
 
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