Bring Your Own Device Policy

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an arrangement in which employers let employees use personal mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to conduct both personal and company business. Although it saves your company money, BYOD regimes can also create privacy and information security nightmares. Joint guidelines issued by the Federal, Alberta and BC Privacy Commissioners call on employers to implement written BYOD policies before rolling out a BYOD program. But since the Commissioners didn’t provide an actual template or model policy, we created one. Caveat: The term “Model BYOD Policy” is an oxymoron. A BYOD must work in conjunction with the company’s privacy policies and codes of conduct as well as its technical equipment, systems and configurations. Accordingly, no two BYOD policies should ever be alike. Even so, this template, which is based on leading edge models, including from the U.S. White House, covers the key elements the Commissioners say a BYOD policy should address. Thus, while the actual rules and technical details may not work for you, the outline and approach makes the template an ideal starting point for creating your own BYOD policy.