I looked through your links. I don’t see anywhere that SMS can be read. The permission kind of makes sense as there is a security component to filter spam/phishing type texts. Sophos themselves claim they don’t store any of that data.

I hadn’t ever seen the call log one and I’m not sure what that would even be used for. It was interesting though.

App lists is common across all MDMs. It’s used to ensure apps are being updated and on fully owned corporate devices some apps will be blocked.

It seems like many don’t really understand how this technology works. That said, it’s better to be overly careful and I agree with others in the comments. If you want me to use a mobile device for work you can provide it, I don’t put MDM on my personal device*.

*the exception being our own MDM we have setup to manage our personal devices more easily.

[–] 520@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I looked through your links. I don’t see anywhere that SMS can be read.

From the link, emphasis mine. SMC is the MDM in question

Read SMS or MMS
Allows an application to read SMS messages stored on your device or SIM card.
Malicious applications may read your confidential messages.
SMC usage:

Read the initial configuration and further server notifications.
2. Read all SMS for Backup.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yep, it’s part of their message filtering that I mentioned.

This link provides more information and explicitly states the following:

Sophos Mobile does not track privacy data such as contacts, SMS and call history, browser history, bookmarks, or emails. Sophos Mobile does not access any data outside of the Sophos container.

and

Sophos Mobile does not track privacy data such as contacts, SMS and call history, browser history, bookmarks, emails, or data on the SD card.

Sophos has a strong cybersecurity focus which, I’d imagine, is why they have the message filtering option that they do.

[–] 520@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

...why would they need to backup all SMS messages for a filtering option? That just plain does not compute.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

The short answer is to restore it:

Restore SMS backup

I’m not a Sophos admin, never have been, so I can only speculate but it might be to restore a message that was altered due to the filtering if captured incorrectly.

I’m also not sure why it specifies SMS but not RCS. I do know Sophos uses SMS to communicate between a device and Sophos Central.

Without more context and information it’s hard to say what exactly happening from the permissions KB.

I can’t definitively say it’s not possible but I’ve never heard of an MDM that allows an admin to read user texts. I appreciate the links, it helps to understand where you’re coming from.

I still remain skeptical but, like I said, better to be over cautious than under. I’d be leery of any company that tried requiring me to use my personal device with MDM.

Everywhere I’ve worked with BYOD it’s been optional to use your personal device. If you were in a role that required it you’d get a company provided device.