Last week we mentioned a ZDNet interview where RIM CIO Robin Bienfait was quoted as saying that RIM “Records everything” their employees do. I was not surprised since I know hundreds of companies that record practically everything their employees do. Our buddy Al Sacco of CIO.com seems to have gotten word from RIM that Bienfait’s words were taken WAY out of context. Now I am truly surprised… How do you take “Everything. I record everything.” out of context?
It looks like when Bienfait said she “Records everything” she was talking about a subsection RIM employees trying out a new feature set. Bienfait was talking about the pointless/useless BlackBerry Mobile Voice System that allows companies to record both voice and data conversations. It looks like even RIM is not recording voice calls though they are offering/enabling the functionality for other companies to do so. What RIM does record is data that is transmitted over voice channels like SMS and data channels like email and chat.
I can totally see how ZDNet confused recording data sent over voice channels into actually recording conversations. Voice calls are technically just data transferring over voice channels… Looks like RIM really knows how to split hairs. 🙂
I am still scratching my head about what Bienfait meant when she said “Everything I have that’s on RIM is recorded and retained as RIM. So if they want to have a chat with somebody and it’s not a chat that’s within RIM’s domain, then they may want their own personal device.” I guess I just have a different definition of “everything.” On the other hand if you don’t want your employer to spy on your communications you are better off getting your own device since they do have the right to record anything that goes over company owned property since you have no expectation of privacy.
DavidB ( View Profile) - Posts: