Exchange Server - Privacy?

[Vladimir Hidalgo]

My wife has bought a Lumia 520 (by her own pocket and not mandated by the company she is working with) and after two weeks of use (and enjoyment!, very nice for such budget phone) she decided to add the company email account (Exchange Server) to her phone email accounts, after setting up the account we saw a notice about "security police changes" (sorry, phone is in Spanish but that's roughly the message) and then the phone prompted to enter a new password.

She's ok with that, but after like 3 days GPS did not work anymore, not even customer support of Claro (El Salvador) could make it work. She did not use it that much so she let it that way, well, like 1 week ago the speaker phone does also not work anymore.

I also got a Lumia 520 at the same time she did, but mine works perfectly (kind of overheats with Waze, but it's fine for everything else).

My question is: ?can Exchange Server policies disable GPS and Speakerphone?. We gave the phone for repair and I can't try to remove the Exchange account to test if it is the problem, but I would like to know if that could be a possible cause of problem?.

Thank you very much for your commentaries!.

 

[Jason Drum]

I had the same exact experience for the first paragraph. I have had no issues with anything on the phone after I was prompted to use a lock screen pin. I'm no expert, but I would think it's a different problem and not the exchange server policies. Good luck.

 

[jmshub]

Exchange itself cannot disable features on phone, but it's possible that her company's IT department could be using an additional Mobile Device Management (MDM) in addition, which could offer additional management features, such as disabling features in the phone.

 

[alveswes]

To sum up, no. Exchange Server policies apply only to password policies when it comes to Windows Phone 8. It is more than likely that your wife's 520 is defective so I would recommend replacing it.

Reference

 

[Vladimir Hidalgo]

Thank you all for your answers.

About the "Mobile Device Management (MDM)" this is something that could be installed automatically along with the exchange account setup or does she had to install some sort of additional software?, because if she did not install anything by herself besides setting up the account.

Also I've reading on Google about the privacy of the phone after the Exchange account setup, some websites say that syncing can go as far as syncing your personal photos and SMS, others says only email, calendar and contacts, but I would like to be sure that the Exchange server can't "request" the phone her private photos/sms/etc

@alveswes: phone is in revision right now, if technicians can't repair it then they replace it, but I had to ask so we don't break the new phone by setting the account again.

 

[Vladimir Hidalgo]

@alveswes, I've just read the PDF reference. When I get back the phone I will remove the account immediately.

There's things like permission to "allow attachments", "RemoteWipe", "AllowStorageCard", "Bandwidth reductions".

I don't know, those are a lot o compromises for just wanting to see if there's new mail on the company account.

Thank you all.

 

[Kebero]

As someone who works for an MSP, I can tell you those things ate there for good reason. That's the pitfall of BYOD. If you want your device to carry company information, you have to let your device be subject to company rules.

 

[Vladimir Hidalgo]

It does certainly makes a lot more sense after you made that point, even is my wife is in no key position so data is not confidential, I can see how this is desirable for the upper positions of the company.

I guess she will be better without the Exchange account, after all if the company does not provide other way to check the company e-mail than "Outlook" on her desktop they can't get mad on her by not reading an email when she's out of office.

Thank you all, at least I'm glad that GPS/speakerphone must be faulty and not an Exchange policy.

 

[Kebero]

It does certainly makes a lot more sense after you made that point, even is my wife is in no key position so data is not confidential, I can see how this is desirable for the upper positions of the company.

All company data, technically is partially confidential. At the very least, her emails are company property. The company has every right to enforce restrictions on systems that contain their property. I don't mean to rant, but this is sort of a sore point for me

 

[AndrewMBaines]

The security settings are done via the ActiveSync policy - that's the software that MS use to pass emails to phones. It's not directly Exchange security, but it is the glue between your phone and Exchange.
Same is used for Android, Apple and the newer Blackberries, though the available policies vary between devices. Defaults force the pin and screen time out settings. Not sure what else can be set.
In addition, they may be using additional software to manage the devices - not something I have direct experience of.