[Atrus]

So, I am really close to pulling the trigger and getting the BB. I have a question about calendars though.

My BB will be dual-usage in the sense that I will be on BES, but I also pay for a portion and it's my personal phone.

My employer uses Lotus Notes. I understand that it will sync with my LN calendar.

Let's say I use an Outlook calendar at home. Can I sync with that as well so both my LN account and my Outlook account will show on the BB? If so, would the Outlook entries be added to my LN calendar when the BB and LN reconcile? Doesn't bother me if they do, just curious if that would happen.

[fatboy97]

I'm not familiar with LN, but BB has separate calendars for different email accounts, so I don't think they will merge together... but again, I'm not familiar with that setup... maybe someone else might know more.

[jeffh]

...My BB will be dual-usage in the sense that I will be on BES, but I also pay for a portion and it's my personal phone...

Be sure you negotiate the IT policy with your employer in advance. If it's on BES, it isn't really a personal phone and you should have no expectation of privacy in anything you do with it, except that your employer can't listen in on your phone calls. Everything else is exposed.

Can a BES administrator read my PIN and/or SMS messages and see my phone call logs?
Yes, if the BES is version 4.1 or newer and the device is o/s code 4.1 or later.

• Starting with BES 4.1, the BES admin can log all PIN and SMS messages to the BES server, including the content of those messages.
• BlackBerry Messenger messages and conversations can also be audited by the BES administrator.
• In addition, the administrator can view all phone calls made/received to the device including date/time, number dialed, and the name of the person you are calling or who called you if that name is listed in your contact list.

Source: BES Users FAQ - BlackBerryFAQ

An IT Policy is the way a company enforces its IT Security rules on BlackBerry's that have inside-the-firewall access. These devices have BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) accounts instead of the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) accounts that consumer users typically have.

BES users get over the air synching of their Calendar, Email, Address Book, Tasks, and Memos. In return, they accept that the company can monitor all their email, log their phone calls, and in general control every aspect of their phone: whether they can install apps, use the Media Card or Bluetooth, or access the internet, for example.

IT Policies can be very strict to benign. Mine, for example, only requires me to use a password and Content Protection and sets the max timeout to 30 minutes.

If you have an employer-provided phone, and attempt to remove the IT Policy with CrackIT or any other tool, your attempt will be detected the next time you attempt to log on to the company servers, the IT policy will be pushed back on your phone, and you could face severe disciplinary consequences for violating security.

[Atrus]

Thanks for the head's up Jeff. I've read up quite a bit on the privacy (or lack thereof) on this site. From what my IT contact has told me, they currently don't look at any logs, nor do they care to.

My IT department leaves absolutely everything wide open, with the exception that they do have a 5 min timeout on the phone. I also realize they have the option to remotely wipe the device - I work for a large accounting firm, so there could be sensitive information that they'd like to remove if the phone is lost or I leave the company.

Ideally, I'd like everything to be totally private, however, after much thought there really isn't anything that happens on my phone that I would be nervous about the company finding. I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.


As for the calendars, good to know. I am HORRIBLE about birthdays and anniversaries, and I always seem to forget the events my wife tells me of 2 months prior to their occurrence - "We're going out with so-and-so Fri, don't you remember????". So, I'd like to be able to put these on my phone as I'll have my personal and professional agendas at my side at all times.

[jeffh]

As for the calendars, I put everything on one Outlook Calendar. If it needs to be private, I mark it private.

As for privacy, the admins in a large company are likely far too busy to be reading your mail, unless you've given them some cause. I don't worry about mine either.

[Atrus]

Totally agree - the company itself has over 130,000 employees. Figure that even if only 20% have a BB, that's still 26,000 users. BB is the only smartphone that they'll allow to sync with company data.

I'm just a small fish in a ocean!