List of European organizations that have banned personal messaging apps at work
28 points
1 hour ago
| 7 comments
| birdy.chat
| HN
benny_s
59 minutes ago
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At least for the financial institutions on this list, I can say they have no other choice. Regulation forces them to log everything to avoid insider trading, etc. Any communication outside of their internal systems can't be logged and is therefore a compliance risk.
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blitzar
35 minutes ago
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Been a sackable offence for over a decade in finance, I can not fathom why other sectors have been so slow to enforce some basic standards.

Recording every call, message (and in my office - thing you said at your desk) is mostly used for conflict resolution - when counterparties disagree you go to the tapes and see what was said. From there my word is my bond, it is done.

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sigmoid10
46 minutes ago
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GDPR guarantees a right to privacy even on work devices. I think you need to filter out personal messages if compliance requires logging.
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JoeBOFH
38 minutes ago
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As much as I prefer the European way of some items. I think the American way of treating the work computer as a company asset and just locking it down to an insane degree makes way more sense. Especially for areas like finance.
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sib
28 minutes ago
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Which is actually a good reason for entities subject to GDPR to forbid use of personal messaging apps on work devices... (And to forbid users to use work / official apps for personal messaging.)
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basisword
1 minute ago
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I'm surprised any company allows work to be done over employees personal apps/devices/numbers. If a colleague/boss contacted me about work via my personal number they'd be quickly told to never do it again.
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nottorp
31 minutes ago
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Of course, the consequence is you end up communicating for work on something like Teams instead of an usable chat app.
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throwa356262
6 minutes ago
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Like zoom where you chat disappears when the meeting is closed?

Or how about slack, that live in an alternate reality where outlook calndar doesn't exist?

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lossyalgo
25 minutes ago
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I refuse to install that malware on my phone. Upshot is that I don't get bothered by coworkers after hours.
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weinzierl
38 minutes ago
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"ban personal messaging apps at work"

What does that even mean? I doubt you can forbid the usage of personal messaging apps except in very exceptional cases (like a court room).

On the other hand: Using personal messaging apps for work related information is a no-go anyway because of confidentiality agreements basically everyone signs.

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rock_artist
31 minutes ago
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I also didn't fully understand if the context is:

- Ban ANY use of your personal chats / device at work (eg. your wife texts you to bring milk on the way home)

- Ban WORK communication (eg. My colleague don't understand recent commit I've made)

So the web really isn't explaining how things enforced or what is being done. I do know of some industries where you put your personal phone when entering specific locations or having stickers on cameras) but here I didn't fully understood the scope.

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inemesitaffia
27 minutes ago
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Yahoo messenger/BBM used to be popular when I was in banking and that's where banking was done. Then confirmed via email.

Now the idea is all banking related stuff is done on approved devices and clients so you can deal with retention(more like deletion) and loss.

And no personal chat clients too. If you're low enough on the pole, you don't even get to keep your personal devices with you.

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tecleandor
18 minutes ago
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Using personal messaging apps for work, for example, sending work related messages through WhatsApp or Telegram instead of using the proper corporate/official app.

You can forbid your employees to use non official apps to send work related messages for privacy, compliance, security and other reasons.

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blitzar
27 minutes ago
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Finance - no personal devices in the office and no personal (or unauthorised) messaging apps on your work devices.
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Yokohiii
1 hour ago
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I don't understand why they put this up like it's working in their favor. Their website doesn't explain anything extraordinary that makes them different from the average chat app, except that it is europe based.
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williamdclt
32 minutes ago
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I'm not reading anything in this article that seems to pretend like it's working in their favour?

It's just an article from a company about their industry, companies do that all the time for brand recognition, building trust (showing expertise in their domain), and educating potential customers about why they might need this sort of product (lead generation).

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inigyou
55 minutes ago
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What would possibly differentiate a chat app?
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Almondsetat
53 minutes ago
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E2EE? F/OSS? P2P?
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inigyou
36 minutes ago
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In reality, they don't, not really. The only important differentiator is whether your friends use it and whether you have to self-host a server to use it (which has a large impact upon point 1).
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retired
1 hour ago
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Meanwhile in Spain I use WhatsApp to contact the municipality, the GP uses it to send my blood results and package delivery drivers ask me to share my location. I hate it.
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mschild
1 hour ago
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Why not delete it? I assume that if you don't have it, they offer some other form of communication with you?
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reedciccio
56 minutes ago
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Yes, they do but they require walking to their office and deal with paper or call them during ever shrinking office hours. Take your poison.
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jagged-chisel
51 minutes ago
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Pick your poison.

“Take” sounds too threatening.

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amelius
20 minutes ago
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"Inject" is clearly the right word here.
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amelius
57 minutes ago
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Very funny.
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spwa4
1 hour ago
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TLDR: yes, governments in favor of Chat Control legislation want to make absolutely sure it doesn't apply to them.
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inigyou
55 minutes ago
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Chat Control 1 or 2?
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