Bring Your Own Device: Is Your Organization Ready?

Together, Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian and TELUS publish a paper on the benefits and risks of personal technology integration into the workplace

TORONTO, Dec. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - To provide guidance on organizational mobile development strategies, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, along with TELUS, explore the options for workplaces in a new white paper, Bring Your Own Device: Is Your Organization Ready? More than 27 million Canadians use mobile computing devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets and that number continues to grow. Consequently, Canadian employers are confronted with the workplace challenge of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This phenomenon poses new challenges to data security, effective corporate oversight, and employee privacy.

"Once an organization makes the decision to adopt a BYOD policy, it is paramount to follow the principles of Privacy by Design by embedding privacy and security directly into the operational process," said Commissioner Cavoukian. "By applying these systematic methods and assuring end-to-end safeguards, organizations will diminish the costly risk of data loss and in turn, witness significant long-term gains."

Consistent with the Privacy by Design principle of comprehensive end-to-end security, this new paper examines information management risks and offers practical implementation guidance to mitigate them. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the paper sets out a comprehensive five-step process:

Step 1: Requirement Documentation - Understand the usage patterns of all mobile workers.
Step 2: Technology Selection - Align the right technologies to assure compliance across the infrastructure.
Step 3: Policy Development - Establish obligations, requirements and criteria in a formal policy.
Step 4: Security - Address data security risks with effective administrative controls.
Step 5: Support - Ensure support for end-users with appropriate capabilities and processes.

"In collaborating with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to create this white paper, TELUS hopes to provide Canadian organizations with information and practical approaches that will be helpful in addressing the need for protecting proprietary data whilst at the same time protecting every Canadian employee's right to privacy," said Darren Entwistle, TELUS President and CEO.  "As the number of Canadians who adopt BYOD steadily increases, we are striving to simultaneously increase awareness of the significant benefits inherent in this movement and encourage all Canadian organizations to manage the corresponding challenges by embracing the Privacy Commissioner's Privacy by Design principles."

Canadian enterprises outpace their global counterparts in BYOD. Interestingly, fewer than half (33 per cent) of Canadian organizations have mobile device management policies and practices in place to mitigate the many security and privacy risks associated with BYOD. Further, more than half (58 per cent) of Canadian organizations lose sensitive corporate data each year through devices used by employees.

About the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

The Information and Privacy Commissioner is appointed by, and reports to, the Ontario Legislative Assembly, and is independent of the government of the day. The Commissioner's mandate includes overseeing the access and privacy provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as well as the Personal Health Information Protection Act, which applies to both public and private sector health information custodians. The Commissioner's mandate also includes helping to educate the public about access and privacy issues.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $11.3 billion of annual revenue and 13.3 million customer connections, including 7.8 million wireless subscribers, 3.3 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 776,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $300 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.8 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Fourteen TELUS Community Boards lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

SOURCE: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario

Media contacts:

Trell Huether
Media Relations Specialist
Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
Desk: 416-326-3939
Cell: 416-873-9746
Toll-free: 800-387-0073
[email protected]

Elisabeth Napolano
TELUS Media Relations
416-906-9830
[email protected]