Technology, Law and the Workplace: Week in Review (The BYOD Edition)

Fewer employers are choosing the brand of smartphones that their employees use for work. According to recent surveys, an increasing number of companies offer reimbursement based on a "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) policy.  Not surprisingly, this has undermined sales at Research in Motion (RIM), the largest provider of enterprise smartphones selected by employers.  RIM, maker of Blackberry smartphones, has seen its prospects dim as more employees choose iPhones and Android-based smartphones and ask their company to support work use.

Though warning signs have been noted for some time, recent layoffs at RIM seem especially ominous and some commentators wonder whether the Blackberry will remain a viable competitor to Apple and Android-based phones.  The poor sales of RIM's Playbook tablet, hyped as a prime competitor to Apple's iPad in the growing enterprise tablet market, only emphasizes RIM's competitive disadvantage.

What does this mean for employers?   A diverse array of smartphones equals a more diverse array of security and privacy concerns for companies to confront.

Technology in the Workplace

• Start-up Offers Social Media Background Searches (Ohio Employer's Law Blog)
• How the Murdoch Email and Website Hacks Could Happen to You (Fast Company)
• Workplace Privacy and Monitoring: The Quest for Balanced Interests (Article at SSRN)
• U.S. DOL Seeks New Employment-Law-Related Apps (Delaware Employment Law Blog) 
• The NLRB's Assault on Employer Facebook Policies (Association of Corpoate Counsel)

Technology and the Law More Generally

• Class Action Suit Filed Against Cloud Service over Data Breach (Privacy and Information Security Law Blog)
• Is Cleveland's Improper Use of Social Media Ordinance Unconstitutional? (Shear on Social Media Law)
• When Patents Attack! (NPR's This American Life)
• New Official Site for U.S. Code Launched in Beta (LawSites)

Technology in the News

• Round of Layoffs to Start at Research in Motion (NY Times)
• First Noka, Now RIM: The Mighty are Falling (Wired Blog)
• Can the Enterprise Cloud Save RIM (Fortune)
• This is My Last Blackberry (PC Mag)
• The Kingdom and the Paywall (NY Magazine)
• Sidestepping Apple: From Amazon to Condé Nast, Companies Rethink App Strategies (Wired)
• The Cases for and Against Google+'s Real Name Policy (Atlantic Wire)

Compiled and contributed by Scott Raver