Yesterday we reported on the news that people working inside The Pentagon have been instructed not to play Pokémon GO due to security concerns, and today we've got another sad tale - German automobile maker Volkswagen has told 70,000 of its staff that they have to delete the game from their phones.
The email claims that the game is a "distraction" and could cause loss of concentration in a dangerous working environment, but also points out that the location-based nature of the game may result in trade secrets being leaked to third-parties.
Pokémon GO uses the rear-facing camera of your mobile phone to superimpose monsters on your immediate surroundings, and there are clearly fears within Volkswagen that an employee could gleefully screenshot their latest catch and inadvertently leak sensitive information.
Have you had a similar message at your place of work? Let us know by posting a comment below.
[source jalopnik.com]
Comments 47
To be fair, this kinda makes sense. If you want to keep trade secrets and such, this looks like the way to go. Annoying, yes, but probably necessary.
OR just tell your employees to not play it at work? I mean, that's kinda common sense...
@PewnyPL If it is on phones that the company owns and provides to the employees, they can tell them to delete it. I'd like to see them try to win an unfair dismissal case against an employee who refused to delete it from their own phone.
"Trade secrets". Such as how to cheat emission tests?
@ImDiggerDan I don't see this as an unreasonable request. No human rights are being breached from what I can tell.
@PiplupJ BURN! Hahaha nice one
You only see the Pokemon in AR during capture and Gym battles, not after you've caught it... and even then you can easily turn it off at the press of a button, which most people do to save battery.
There's just as much risk from Pokemon Go as there is from smartphones in general... they'd be better off just banning smartphones from all areas where their 'trade secrets' might be seen.
If it is there own personal phone they have no right to tell them what content they have on it. The only thing they can do is ask them not to use it on company time. If it was me and they asked me to delete something that I didn't want to, I'd tell them to go shove it.🖕🏻
@PiplupJ NICE. I'm pretty sure they only "admitted" to cheating when the info was leaked. Clearly they don't want that happening again (the leak, not the massive scam).
When I worked in the auto industry, I was required to have a sticker over the lens of my phone camera at developmental facilities. This seems like the same kind of security measure. Pictures are worth thousands.....I always kind of wish I would have done some corporate espionage while in the buildings.....I could have made great money.
I wonder if they also banned Ingress ... which is worse than having location based gameplay ... it also has an integrated chat system.
#CompaniesKnowNothingAndOnlyBanThePopular
Makes sense, that said, thank god I don't work for Volks and my car is a Ford, which is wayy better than any volks.
Wonder which employer comes next, watch this space.
"Pokémon GO uses the rear-facing camera of your mobile phone to superimpose monsters on your immediate surroundings, and there are clearly fears within Volkswagen that an employee could gleefully screenshot their latest catch and inadvertently leak sensitive information."
...or take any photo with their camera. How is picture-taking of sensitive information unique to Pokémon Go? If that's legitimately their fear, then they should be banning all devices with cameras.
It seems more common that somebody might have a birthday party and take a picture of the cake and accidentally leak trade secrets.
At my office, we're encouraged to not take pictures at all, and if so, to make sure no computer monitors or papers are visible — so we don't leak sensitive information. Which makes sense.
So it feels like Pokémon Go is just a target, and an unfocused one at that.
Location data could reveal trade secrets?
Secret underground Volkswagen factories run by goblins confirmed.
@vincentgoodwin I think the point is that you'd know not to take a photo, but you might unwittingly snap one during a Pokemon GO session without realising.
Whether this is an acceptable demand or not depends entirely on who the phone belongs to - if it's Volkswagen's phones that it proves to employees then yeah they have every right to control what is on the phone. If the phone is the employee's own property then they have no right to control the contents. It's pretty much unenforceable in that case anyway unless they screen employee's phones, which is probably in breach of some law (obviously not a lawyer disclaimer).
As other people have mentioned, it does seem to overlook the fact that an app with camera functionality is in no way unique to Pokémon Go, so it's odd to exclude specifically this app.
Ah well, the kneejerk commands of our corporate overlords are rarely particularly well informed
@PewnyPL Their personal info are still there for grabs, that's the main concern I guess.
@Damo
My... Of course you need tons of concentration during working at cars company. I think people need to know when they can play, when they should pay attention seriously during working hour.
And what if the employee has spent money on micro transactions within the game? Will they be reimbursed by Volkswagen?
Most people turn off the AR Camera anyway. It drains more battery, takes longer to load, and makes Pokemon harder to catch.
I can imagine the reason they set up these rules in the first place is too many people are careless on how they play the game and probably had a few incidents. I know I facepalmed myself into a coma seeing the way adults handle playing Pokemon Go just by walking and sitting.
Wish they had an english translation of the email, google can't translate images.
Unless they are company phones, I don't see how they can tell their employees what they're allowed to have on their own devices. They can, of course, tell them not to use the app while working (which seems like common sense), but telling them what they can have on their personal phones seems a step too far. For that matter, employees could just lock their phones, and the company would not be able to find out.
Anything can be a distraction to a bored man.
My older sister is a financial advisor with one of the major banks here in Canada. They have a private staff forum type thing where they can talk about their work experiences, share work stories and give work advice. She told me that 95% of the topics on the staff forum are about Pokemon Go.
I imagine they've had a few situations now (some people are unbelievably careless while playing Pokemon Go) and decided the easiest way to deal with it is to make the staff not have the app at all.
To be honest, if people can't work out that there's a button to turn off the AR functionality, the probably shouldn't be working anyway. And playing Pokémon Go is only a distraction in a dangerous working environment if they are playing it while the should be working, which they should be punished for anyway, whether it be Pokémon Go or anything else. Basically, my point is that saying that is a bit pointless, really.
Seems unnecessary. They would have to delete all of their apps from their phone using that same reasoning. Do they want to delete snapchat as well since that uses the camera? Do they want to surgically remove the GPS since even with that on anything and other apps can still track your location? They could just give out pagers and take away all their cell phones if they wanted to "prevent things".
Do the phones belong to VW or the employees.
@PiplupJ
I swear I was certain someone would make that joke as soon as I read the article's headline.
Lol. It's like employers have created a sport to find new ways to piss off their workforce.
@Mayoo Yes, companies should be omnipotent and know everything! Letting them simply react and respond to stuff is far too...erm...normal...
@PewnyPL It's not that easy. My work there is a strict rule of no cell phones on you while working but people don't listen.
@PiplupJ I'm not sure why, but this made my day.
"Notice to all employees: you all have 24 hours to remove any camera sensors from your phone because you might use them to take pictures of sensitive technology."
@GrailUK I'm not saying they should know everything, but they should at least research a little bit. Just googling Niantic would have brought up Ingress easily.
I am not against ignorance. I am against going the easy way and choosing to ignore.
This only applies to factory workers, not actual retail showroom sales people, right?
lol @Frank90 thinking a Ford is a good car.
@muhep At least in Brazil Ford is great as a popular company. Isn't a Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, but way better than Fiat/Volks/Renault.
1, 2... KUANG
F-CAR FORGET ALL USAGE
BORT
Jerks shouldn't be playing on their phone at work anyway.
Looks like the Note 7 is going to be handy since you can lock apps and folders behind your eye...
Nobody shall know it's on your phone! MUHAHAHAH
VW should've just banned cell phones, in their entirety, from sensitive areas. I know a few medical companies in the US that ban cell phones with cameras from their facilities, as you could potentially take photos of patients records, or the patients themselves, which is illegal. They get caught and its gigantic fines for the company and even the potential to end up in jail. It has happened many times before.
So this doesn't surprise me one bit and I'm actually surprised they didn't just ban all cell phones, as many other companies have done.
If it's not on a company owned phone then they should screw right off. No employer has the right to tell you what you can do with your personal property, they can however instruct employees from refraining to play it at work.
@Agent721 Other companies ban cell phones on their property, i've been on oilfield sites that do this, because it's the only thing they can actually do. They can restrict what personal property is allowed on site but they certainly can't tell their employees what they can do with their own property, that's illegal. VW are being massive losers here, i guess they need even more bad PR.
Well, I guess the employees could go buy a cheap flip phone and cell plan to use as their work phone and leave their regular smartphones with "Pokémon Go" at home.
@PiplupJ
Good one! XD
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