Employer re-imaged phone. Any way to prove it?

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Hi All,

Without going into to much detail my employer recently re-imaged my phone back to stock day one. All personal files etc. were destroyed. I had my phone connected to corporate e-mail through an exchange server (Active Sync). They did this through the "kill" e-mail which essentially wipes the device.

My question is, is there anyway to prove this? Maybe in the phone status or something would display that the phone was re-imaged?

Thanks.

 

[94lt1]

Um, I don't personally think there's a way to do that... I don't truly know for sure though... hopefully someone who knows for sure will chime in here.

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[Nealius]

Only way to tell is if you were running a ROM with a different ROM. Who owns the phone ? You or the company. I would guess even if its your phone since you connect to their corporate email service you are sol . I know my company frowns upon jail broken or rooted phones

 

[nikecar]

When you hook into the exchange server, one of the setting options that is required is to allow Admin access by the administrator to have the ability to wipe your data.

I've not seen anyone actually do it, buts its one of the conditions. You don't allow it, exchange server doesn't get connected.

 

[94lt1]

See this^^^ I didn't know.. I'm fortunate to not have to answer to big brother in my line of work..

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[FoxKat]

When you hook into the exchange server, one of the setting options that is required is to allow Admin access by the administrator to have the ability to wipe your data.

I've not seen anyone actually do it, buts its one of the conditions. You don't allow it, exchange server doesn't get connected.

This is 100% correct. I had a personal phone on my corporate system and while I was in HR, handing in my resignation, unbeknownst to me they wiped my phone of all email, contacts, calendar, the works. It took me nearly two months of threats of legal action for them to recover my personal data from a system-wide backup and burn it to a CD for me. They were completely within their legal rights to wipe, but I still think they sometimes abuse the power like they did with me.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[morcguy]

Read the agreement you probably signed ans chances are you agreed to let them do this.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

94, nice not letting the man get you down, lucky man lol.

As for the legality, I am almost sure that I did not sign anything giving them rights to do this. I did see the permissions to completley wipe the phone when I connected the e-mail account on the phone, but not sure if that would legal permission so to speak.

FoxKat, at this point I just let them know that they had wiped the phone but of course they never responsed to it. Unfortanatley they didn't do backups as it was a personal device. That being said if it was their company owned device I would understand a lot better. But it wasn't, I never aggreed to it, and frankly I was kind of pissed at the time. Those feelings have boiled over, but I have a feeling this company is going to give me crap in my furture professional life. For that reason I want to have as much ammo as I can. Not saying it would help any, but worth a shot.

I'm more pissed about the personal files then anything. And unfortanatley the phone was stock, no root.

 

[justin82]

i know as soon as i hook to corporate email i have to agree to the terms of service stating they can do it . though this is first time i heard of someone getting it done . it's for there safety if you loose the phone they can wipe it.

 

[FoxKat]

94, nice not letting the man get you down, lucky man lol.

As for the legality, I am almost sure that I did not sign anything giving them rights to do this. I did see the permissions to completley wipe the phone when I connected the e-mail account on the phone, but not sure if that would legal permission so to speak.

FoxKat, at this point I just let them know that they had wiped the phone but of course they never responsed to it. Unfortanatley they didn't do backups as it was a personal device. That being said if it was their company owned device I would understand a lot better. But it wasn't, I never aggreed to it, and frankly I was kind of pissed at the time. Those feelings have boiled over, but I have a feeling this company is going to give me crap in my furture professional life. For that reason I want to have as much ammo as I can. Not saying it would help any, but worth a shot.

I'm more pissed about the personal files then anything. And unfortanatley the phone was stock, no root.

There are certainly limits that they have over what they can wipe, based on their employer/employee agreement. Whether that agreement allows for a full wipe, to include personal files or not remains to be seen, however.

I wish you luck and don't be afraid to press hard for protection of your rights. The phone is your personal property, and by rights so is any data contained on it, except if covered under an agreement giving the employer rights to that data. In my case, they had rights to their own data but not to mine so with pressure I was able to recover the portion they didn't have rights to wipe. Fortunately for me, when their system did backups of the desktop Outlook at my desk, it was a mirror of the information on the phone, so contacts, calendar, tasks and email that were personal were intermingled and all part of the backup.

 

[nikecar]

As I looked more, its called Activate Device Administrator or Exchange Device Administrator

ITs on newer Exchange servers and if they've enabled it, you've got to accept it. I know I had tried denying and never got connect. I hit accept, and I get email. simple as that.

I would say, that I'd never allow my IT folks to touch my phone. Its a "give me the settings and I'll do it myself." kinda thing.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

nikecar, yup that would be it. The nuke option I like to call it. I actually did set it up myself wi the droid account tool as a corporate account as I recall.

The big problem here for me is proving that the phone was wiped by them. Yes I'm sure they have a log of killing the exchange account, and possibly of the phone being wiped. Heck it might of been an after thought or they didn't know what they were doing. Honestly the company was unorganized enough that there was no IT, or verified HR or established leadership, but I digress.

Still if I was to bring this to court, or bring it up with the company directly and speak of legal action, what proof can I have? I'm just stuck.

Kat, thanks for your support man. Hoping for the best out of all of this.

 

[Rakasa]

is there any way to block/disable this ability? rooted/non-rooted? I'm being pressured to use my personal device for corporate email but absolutely refuse to give corporate the ability to nuke my phone for any reason. i have that myself if i need it, but corporate has no business whatsoever having that access to a personal device.

--- Rakasa

 

[FoxKat]

No way to avoid it afaik. It's a slippery slope they're going down, so they'll have something to protect themselves. For you, I would say that the control you'll be handing over to them is excessive and I wouldn't do it. I experienced this once in my life...never again.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[FoxKat]

nikecar, yup that would be it. The nuke option I like to call it. I actually did set it up myself wi the droid account tool as a corporate account as I recall.

The big problem here for me is proving that the phone was wiped by them. Yes I'm sure they have a log of killing the exchange account, and possibly of the phone being wiped. Heck it might of been an after thought or they didn't know what they were doing. Honestly the company was unorganized enough that there was no IT, or verified HR or established leadership, but I digress.

Still if I was to bring this to court, or bring it up with the company directly and speak of legal action, what proof can I have? I'm just stuck.

Kat, thanks for your support man. Hoping for the best out of all of this.

Hey, I'm pulling for you, but if you're still with them don't lose your job over it. Best of luck!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2