Facebook employees use burner phones to talk about the company amongst themselves without being tracked

[Syntaxvgm]

Quote

That same senior Facebook employee tells BuzzFeed that there's "a growing sense of paranoia," with the burner phones a symptom of the culture.

It's typical to have a company phone that is completely managed and controlled by your IT department, and a separate personal phone- which is how it should be because BYOD policies are fucking stupid. But this is not what we're talking about here. We're talking about disposable burner phones, like your drug dealer has. 

Hey I used to have one of these exact phones
Facebook employees do not feel like they can "talk shit about the company" safely on their personal devices. 

Wiretapping employees personal devices is, of course, illegal, but facebook isn't likely specifically wiretapping their employees, they wiretap everyone and that's different and somehow ok. 

 

 

 

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-employees-paranoid-burner-phones-2018-12

[ARikozuM]

Mega corporations, here we come! 

[samcool55]

Let's hope they do it properly!

It takes a lot of dedication to properly use burner phones.

 

[DVA]

Long live the reptile race

[Syntaxvgm]

8 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Mega corporations, here we come! 

I think after the second soda wars and the great age of forced corporate mergers, we will be left with Disney and Alphabet, who will merge into our new wonderful corporate masters!

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

i feel sorry for those employees... 

[Syntaxvgm]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

Let's hope they do it properly!

It takes a lot of dedication to properly use burner phones.

 

IIRC couple years ago burner phone became a lot less easy to acquire without putting your name to it. But they're not trying to hide from government investigation, they're trying to hide what they say from facebook, who's not quite as powerful as the government yet. 

[SupremeGOAT]

fear your boss... especially when he rolls hard like zuckerburg 

 

ME AND THE SQUAD BE LIKE

[samcool55]

1 minute ago, Syntaxvgm said:

IIRC couple years ago burner phone became a lot less easy to acquire without putting your name to it. But they're not trying to hide from government investigation, they're trying to hide what they say from facebook, who's not quite as powerful as the government yet. 

The darkweb is your friend

And yes facebook is not the government, but it doesn't hurt to follow the same guidelines. Better safe than sorry.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

12 minutes ago, SupremeGOAT said:

 

 

The lady on the right reminds me of Nick Cage.

 

For reference:

Spoiler

 

[bowrilla]

Well, I wouldn't trust a phone with facebook installed on it to be safe from facebook's ears. A phone without facebook that doesn't log into the companie's networks is pretty safe from any legal and semi-legal tracking. Beyond that facebook would screw themselves hard if they did hack non-company phones that never logged into their network. You don't need burner phones for this purpose. Just don't use or even install WhatsApp, Facebook and the Facebook Messenger App... and Instagram and Twitter. Though you should be safe using any other encrypted messenger app on a non-company phone if facebook isn't severely breaking several laws.

[Velcade]

That's pretty basic.  Don't talk shit about your company on your company phone or a phone with your company's apps installed.

[CTR640]

I can't believe how govs let this piece of cancer still go on data-mining and data-rampaging everyone.

FFS, don't be a whimp and kill it with fire before it lays eggs! (Oh wait, it already laid eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Syntaxvgm]

15 minutes ago, Velcade said:

That's pretty basic.  Don't talk shit about your company on your company phone or a phone with your company's apps installed.

did you not read? First line and title!
They do not feel they can use their personal phone so they are using burner phones

 

Quote

with your company's apps installed.

How is it basic? That you can't talk shit about your company with a phone that has your company's consumer apps installed? Burner phones imply they can't remove the tracking FB has, and the facebook app is not removable on a lot of devices. This also could mean that other apps sell the data to facebook, who then targets these individuals. 

[BananaInSandals]

Time to raise a bunch of letter pigeons and sell them to Facebook employees! Safest method of communication know to the galaxy!

[Taf the Ghost]

23 minutes ago, CTR640 said:

I can't believe how govs let this piece of cancer still go on data-mining and data-rampaging everyone.

FFS, don't be a whimp and kill it with fire before it lays eggs! (Oh wait, it already laid eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

You make the assumption that Facebook *isn't* a government entity. That's the first mistake.

[Doobeedoo]

If it wasn't like this I'd be surprised. 

[Velcade]

16 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

did you not read? First line and title!
They do not feel they can use their personal phone so they are using burner phones

Did you not read what I wrote?  I imagine they all have Facebook installed on their personal phones.  Hence the use of a company app on their personal phones.

[Velcade]

17 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

How is it basic? That you can't talk shit about your company with a phone that has your company's consumer apps installed?

This is policy for most companies.  I've never worked for a company that allowed its employees to 'shit talk' the company without action.

[ravenshrike]

1 hour ago, samcool55 said:

It takes a lot of dedication to properly use burner phones.

Not really, just use it for calls to other burner phones and never text your burner number to anyone's non-burner phone. Not that difficult except for the terminally lazy.

[Syntaxvgm]

10 minutes ago, Velcade said:

This is policy for most companies.  I've never worked for a company that allowed its employees to 'shit talk' the company without action.

I understand that and that is not the point. On their PERSONAL cell phones, employees are worried they are BEING MONITORED

This isn't about the punishment, it's how they get the info. Burner phones still allow for coworkers to rat.

They are worried facebook is scooping their personal texts or messages through other apps on their  PERSONAL PHONES, enough to use a burner phone instead of a secure app because it doesn't run ios or android. And as far as I'm aware this isn't a byod situation, these phones are separate from their work entirely and they're still scooping info

[BuckGup]

Easy solution. Leave. I’m sure if you have the skills and reputation to work at Facebook you can find another morally better company to work for

[RejZoR]

Why the fuck are they working for Facebook then?

[Velcade]

3 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I understand that and that is not the point. On their PERSONAL cell phones, employees are worried they are BEING MONITORED

FB would get the info through their app or through a FB controlled network.  If you are using your company's app or network you would be naive to assume your traffic isn't monitored. 

[AngryBeaver]

8 minutes ago, Velcade said:

This is policy for most companies.  I've never worked for a company that allowed its employees to 'shit talk' the company without action.

If I want to talk shit to a friend or fellow co-worker about my company in a PRIVATE conversation then they really don't have much to stand on for disciplinary action. If I talk shit about them in a public way like social media, the news, etc... then they DO have the ability to discipline for that. If they are able to see/hear my private communications then that is a entirely new problem and crosses the line on all counts. The only reason what they do right now isn't illegal is because it isn't tied to your PII. If it is found out they can actually identify you via that information then there is a huge can of worms about to be opened... hopefully right before the can of whoop ass the government will open on them next.