I’m sitting on a plane right now.  Center seat … jam packed.  Guy on my left is asleep.  Guy on my right wants to talk way more than I do.  I don’t so much mind Left-Guy except when his head ends up on my shoulder.  But Right-Guy is getting into my personal space and it’s bugging me.

Back in corporate-land, there is no personal space.  Companies are very clear that all communication on company networks / devices is company property and the employee should have no expectation of privacy.  For legal reasons that needs to extend to employee-owned devices being used for corporate work as well.

But as an employee, that grates me.  It’s my phone and I really don’t want my employer to have access to my pictures, videos, ringtones, and [yahoo/g/hot/other]mail.  I need a data boundary that I know will be respected in all but the most exceptional situations. 

Companies are realizing this too.  @hyounpark_AG at Aberdeen Group has early data that says 20% of companies allow all employees to use personal devices.  That’s actually a staggering number.  The implication is that the need to set enterprise data boundaries is a problem of the present, not just the future.  Employers needs to protect corporate data and ensure compliance while respecting employee’s personal content.

But what boundary should my company set?  Is this type of flexibility a boon to employees or a bane to legal?   

True, it’s a question of both policy and technology, but I think most importantly it is a question of end-user satisfaction.  If you have employee-owned phones, your users need a good answer.  That answer might vary company to company but, like my Left-Guy / Right-Guy problem, it can’t be ignored.