France Bans 'Recreational Apps' From Government Staff Phones (apnews.com) 42
France announced Friday it is banning the "recreational" use of TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and other apps on government employees' phones because of concern about insufficient data security measures. Reuters reports: The French Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini, said in a statement that ''recreational" apps aren't secure enough to be used in state administrative services and "could present a risk for the protection of data." The ban will be monitored by France's cybersecurity agency. The statement did not specify which apps are banned but noted that the decision came after other governments took measures targeting TikTok.
Guerini's office said in a message to The Associated Press that the ban also will include Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, gaming apps like Candy Crush and dating apps. Exceptions will be allowed. If an official wants to use a banned app for professional purposes, like public communication, they can request permission to do so. Case in point: Guerini posted the announcement of the ban on Twitter.
Guerini's office said in a message to The Associated Press that the ban also will include Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, gaming apps like Candy Crush and dating apps. Exceptions will be allowed. If an official wants to use a banned app for professional purposes, like public communication, they can request permission to do so. Case in point: Guerini posted the announcement of the ban on Twitter.
Custom ROM Govt Apps Only (Score:2)
Why would they allow it to begin with? Not your phone so no custom for you.
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Why would they allow it to begin with?
Because they're not Nazis. The default should always be to give employees the personal freedom to make their own decisions. There should only be restrictions if they can be justified for business reasons.
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Why would a person even want to do something personal on a work machine? I'm very happy to not do anything personal on my work devices. Is this maybe for workplaces that don't allow personal devices?
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Why would a person even want to do something personal on a work machine?
Why not? If you don't trust your employer, maybe you should work somewhere else.
"You aren't allowed to run personal apps on your work phone because we aren't a trustworthy organization." Really? That should be the official policy?
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Re: Custom ROM Govt Apps Only (Score:2)
> If you don't trust your employer, maybe you should work somewhere else.
Some organizations, including government, keep logs of incoming and outgoing communications from employees, sometimes mandated by law, sometimes by choice.
Nobody wants their personal shizzle lingering around waiting to be unearthed at some point.
Also, the more entwined your work and personal life, the harder it is to separate them.
Re: Custom ROM Govt Apps Only (Score:1)
What if this anarchic citizen thinks public officials actually do less harm by wasting time at their deep state jobs?
Re: Custom ROM Govt Apps Only (Score:3)
Honestly?
People who think all government is bad government are an existential threat to a country.
If you're putting people in office who *don't* believe the government helps people, they're not going to help people when they're in office.
Re: Custom ROM Govt Apps Only (Score:2)
And some wonder why you got such fail government. Here's why.
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It's different if it's government because of the taxpayer-funded aspect. Especially in France right now where Macron is unilaterally raising the retirement age because he says the money isn't there. If a government employee has time for recreation while on the clock especially using the device provided to them by taxpayers to provide a public service then maybe that job isn't that important in the first place. Add on the poor judgement being shown by not recognizing any of that and doing it anyway.
Also I
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The "business reason" in this case is they're the state and other states (potentially even allies) would be delighted to spy on them given half the chance. So too would other bad actors who see a way to spy on the goings on of departments or individuals.
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They can choose what to install on their own phone. A employer provided phone is not their personal toy. I have two cell phones. My personal, which I do with as I please. And my work phone, which has the apps I need to do my job.
And stop throwing around the "nazi" term for every damn thing you disagree with. It's stupid and makes you look like a moron.
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permit the tools required for the WORK device to do it's WORK. If you want to create dancing penguin pr0n, do that on your PERSONAL phone, not your WORK phone.
It's not complicated - WORK owns this device, and WORK says what you can and cannot do on it. You own YOUR phone and YOU decide what you can an can't do on it. But WORK is not required to provide connectivity for it.
Corollary (and I've had to administer this) : IF there is no other internet reception within 3
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Can you install games on your work PC?
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That's precisely the point though... This way they allow people normal use of their phones but limit some specific usage which results in them still using these phones which should be generally controlled and safe.
The alternative would be that they have both a work and a private phone which results in people using a completely unsecured and unmonitored phone in the same environment. Besides it being stupid to have to carry 2 phones, it's also a far greater security risk because many people use phones withou
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Don't fool yourself; 2023 is still pretty late to the party. Recreational 3rd-party cellphone software has been a serious threat to national security for at least the last 10 years, possibly the last 20.
Pros and Cons (Score:1)
From a security perspective, this is a clear win. It will come at a cost, though, as the staff will no longer be carrying their government phone with them most of the time - it'll be left at their desk and calls/messages/email will be missed. You can't expect people to carry two phones with them at all times, and the one that gets left behind is the one that doesn't support their personal life.
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You can't expect people to carry two phones with them at all times
Well...you can expect that...purses, bags, and briefcases are still a thing. Or, you can grasp the reality that spouses, family members, etc can store more than one phone number on their phone...and just use the common sense to call you at your work number, during work hours.
Re: Pros and Cons (Score:3)
You know, in France it's actually against the law to send emails or otherwise bug employees after work hours? Mail servers get set up to not deliver email outside some set hours etc.
Also, govt and official communication is moving to self-hosted and federated matrix: https://matrix.org/blog/2018/0... [matrix.org]
Re: Pros and Cons (Score:2)
s/is moving to/has moved to/g
They are only doing that _now_??? (Score:3)
So they have generally allowed people to install apps on their business-provided phones? Insanity!
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Yes?? Same everywhere, they only recently started requiring people in the US government to remove TikTok, but not other recreational apps from their government phones
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As a peon, I would never install personal stuff on my professional devices, it's just common sense but gov people seems more relaxed about this.
Your loss. Everybody else does it.
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As a peon, I would never install personal stuff on my professional devices, it's just common sense but gov people seems more relaxed about this.
Governments are WAAAY more strict on this front than private companies. Most private companies consider things like company phones or company cars perks, and the whole point of them is to allow people to use them privately, so I think you have completely misunderstood your contract, or your are working in a security restricted environment and the requirements for not using your devices privately comes from the government NOT your employer.
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Maybe the US government lets the companies that are within their jurisdiction pass. States are usually fine with surveillance of their own, by their own, with only a thin line of privacy protection laws (that exist in some places at least) holding the state back from using that information arbitrarily against people.
But that is a different issue in its own respect. Where I'd like to direct EU citizens towards this article here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/... [eff.org]
But I digress. France, and mo
Better Late Than Never (Score:2)
At least that is consistent (Score:2)
Not like all the other countries just banning TikTok without explaining why all the other spyapps are still allowed.
Re: At least that is consistent (Score:2)
Indeed, I'm very much in favor or this approach. Not ban any specific app or company, but instead make it a more general rule: if you don't need X for work, it shouldn't be on your work phone.
Also, OP makes it fun of the fact, but IMO it makes sense the announcement was made on twitter: that's how target audience -those on twitter, amongst others- is reached. Those who aren't on (twitter) are less concerned.
A friend works at a major ISP. For their own wellbeing, I told them it would even better for them to
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US is worried about China spying. France is worried about China spying and US spying.
Re: At least that is consistent (Score:2)
It's a Riot! (Score:2)
So that's why they're rioting. I knew there was a reason!
A good idea (Score:3)
Government phones should have a whitelist of approved apps to minimize the attack surface. Aside from that, personal devices should not be permitted to connect into government wifi or VPNs. And users should be trained and impressed upon the dangers (and potential disciplinary action) if they attempt to circumvent the rules.
Liz Truss (Score:3)
People working in government should not be able use phones that aren't in complete control of anything on it, and no government or government-adjacent business should be done on personal phones.
Security? (Score:2)
Haha, security? The real problem is people wasting time and interruptions on these instead of working.
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WTF? When did government start allowing government devices to be used for personal stuff?? This used to be a problem. but time sucking addiction apps were never like just getting a personal email or checking a website which was still logged. Did they just stop logging and give up doing anything at all?
Why did it get so bad they have to make a formal policy about this stuff when it should have been policy from long before the cesspool formed?
if you want your own BS use your own phone.
They'll develop a new one (Score:2)
The Francophone.
Fairer (Score:2)
It looks fairer than banning TikTok and allowing Facebook. Allow both or deny both.