Some news of Android 11 are more visible than others. In addition to more obvious changes to how notifications work, there are others under the hood regarding security such as location changes. One of them is the way in which Android 11 works on business mobiles, respecting your privacy better than previous versions.
The separation between the work profile and staff is not something new. It was released on Android Lollipop, although it only applied to own devices or BYOD. In Android 11, this separation also reaches the company’s devices, managed by the IT department.
Privacy even on the company mobile
When you use a mobile to work, you will generally find two options. Either you use a work profile on your personal mobile or your company provides you with a work-only terminal, managed by the IT department. The problem of the latter type is that according to Google studies, many company mobile users are concerned about their privacy and activity monitoring by the company.
The change in Android 11 is subtle but important. This release brings the privacy protections of the work profile to business mobiles. The IT department can activate the work profile regardless of whether it is a personal or company mobile.
In order for this change to be possible, the work profile of Android 11 has had to gain new functions until then only available on mobile phones managed entirely by the company, such as asset management protection, personal use policies to restrict what Applications can use or manage hardware functions (Bluetooth, camera, removable storage).
For this, in Android 11 for companies, there is a fundamental change in device management, with a separation in data management from the visibility of that data. In this way, the IT department can limit the use of messaging applications, but not see what applications it uses outside the work profile.