BBC staff concerned at bosses tracking mobile devices

51 per cent say that they do not want to be tracked at all

51 per cent of BBC staff say that they do not want to be tracked at all (Getty Images)

BBC staff have expressed concerns after being informed by the corporation that it can track employees’ work mobile devices.

The BBC is in the process of introducing new technology which allows company-owned electronics to be tracked. They say that they hope that this will enable them to find lost and stolen devices.

However, a survey of BBC News staff by the corporation asking them for their views on the issue revealed a number of concerns over the tracking technology.

51 per cent say that they do not want to be tracked at all, 27 per cent said they did not mind and 21 per cent said that they were not opposed to the idea of being tracked but would prefer another operating system such as Find My iPhone.

Furthermore, when asked if they trusted the BBC not to misuse the tracking system, just 5 per cent of BBC News employees said they do. 81 per cent of surveyed staff said they did not trust their employees in this respect.

A BBC spokesman told The Guardian: “The BBC uses a variety of commercially available systems to operate and manage its portable communication devices. Some of these systems have additional features that can allow location information to be determined where the device supports it.”

“These features are not turned on by default, and the BBC only chooses to turn them on in specific circumstances, and with the co-operation of the users involved…Monitoring of email accounts is invariably undertaken in relation to criminal or disciplinary investigations and staff are fully aware that access and monitoring can occur in certain circumstances."