Drafting BYOD Policies

The advantages of  “Bring Your Own Device” policies include increased productivity, greater employee satisfaction, and cost savings on a number of fronts. But these policies, particularly if they allow employees to retain confidential company information, bring serious risks, including the risk of  a major hack, the loss of trademarks, and vastly complicated discovery obligations. This Today’s General article by Christopher Cox and John Stratford Weil suggests that companies take a close look at the tradeoffs that a BYOD policy will mean in their particular business. Don’t rule out a blanket prohibition, but companies that do establish a BYOD policy should carefully limit what kinds of information is available to various categories of employees, establish a formal training program, update it regularly, and formulate a written policy that employees are required to accept in writing.