Contact us today!
(518) 203-2110

Evolve IT

Evolve IT has been serving the Saratoga Springs area since 1995, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Those Cute Little Emojis May Be Putting Your Data at Risk

Those Cute Little Emojis May Be Putting Your Data at Risk

As the world of technology grows increasingly mobile, emojis are appearing in the most unlikely of places, like business communications. Even though emojis may seem rather cute and innocent, their use by employees may cause more problems than they’re worth. :-O

For the uninitiated, emojis are those little graphics seen in lines of text. Emojis are commonly used in social media communications and are now being implemented in more and more mainstream apps in an effort by developers to appeal to the public's seemingly insatiable appetite for the fun little images. Domino's wants you to order pizza with an emoji, while some businesses even swear by the little icons for subject lines in their marketing email.

First off, it should be well understood by every emoji-loving professional that not every work colleague shares their enthusiasm for the ways of the emoji. In fact, there are still many in the business world who absolutely loathe emojis and find their use unprofessional and downright insulting. Whether or not their feelings are justified, this reality needs to be taken into consideration and emojis should be left out of business communications. After all, losing a sale because of an emoji is definitely not worth it.

Also, users of emoji need to tread carefully when selecting which emoji to use. An emoji carries the same weight as words; they contain meaning, emotion, and subtext. Although unlike words, which can be vetted by dictionaries and the precise meaning be easily determined, emojis can easily be misinterpreted, seeing as the image can carry two completely different meanings for two different people.

Take for example the case of a Pennsylvania man found guilty of threatening his ex-wife by using the :-P emoticon. Though utterly ridiculous, legal precedent doesn’t bode well for careless emoji users the world over. Therefore, use of emojis in the business environment should be put on hold until more clarity can be attached to their meaning, which may be a day that never truly comes.

To make matters worse, employees using emojis could open your network up to potential security risks. Consider this argument put forth by TechRepublic’s Jack Wallen: “Twitter, Facebook, and Google can use emoji to track your employees and target their devices with ads. No business wants their users to be transmitting any more data and information than necessary. And if your employees' usage of their Android and iOS devices are being tracked by Twitter, Facebook, and Google, those seemingly innocent emojis could cause problems. It's not too much of a stretch to see how this can evolve from advert targeting to device tracking, or it could even land your company in a court defending an employee's innocence.”

In other words, emojis give us a reason for online marketers to view potentially sensitive company files for the sake of pushing targeted ads across your company’s devices. This is a slippery slope in terms of network security that could lead to stolen information and ads containing links to malware.

Additionally, like the Pennsylvania man in hot water for using the wrong emoji, you don’t want to be liable if one of your employees made such a blunder from a company device or company account.

The surest way to alleviate the risk associated with emojis is to disable them with your Mobile Device Management solution and content filtering solution. It may take some time to go through and extinguish the emoji feature across different apps, and it may even require blacklisting some apps entirely, but in the end, it will be worth it if it means protecting your data from the threat posed by those cute-looking-but-not-so-innocent characters. For help, call Evolve IT at (518) 203-2110.

Comments

 
No comments made yet. Be the first to submit a comment
Already Registered? Login Here
Guest
Thursday, 14 November 2024
If you'd like to register, please fill in the username, password and name fields.

Captcha Image

Blog Archive

Free Consultation

Sign up today for a
FREE Network Consultation

How secure is your IT infrastructure?
Let us evaluate it for free!

Sign up!

Free Consultation
 

Tag Cloud

Tip of the Week Security Technology Internet Best Practices Cloud Hackers Privacy Email Productivity Business Malware Business Computing Software User Tips Workplace Tips Google Hosted Solutions Microsoft Computer Upgrade Efficiency IT Support Mobile Devices Innovation Smartphone Windows 10 Gmail Network Security Ransomware Hardware Office Backup Apps Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Communication Hacking Operating System WiFi Facebook The Internet of Things Social Media Bandwidth Microsoft Office Firewall Smartphones Content Filtering Mobile Device Management Money Cybercrime Network Website Managed Service Provider Outlook Wireless Technology Employer-Employee Relationship Android Two-factor Authentication History Apple Small Business Phishing App Best Practice Alert Mobile Computing communications Big Data Networking Safety Data storage Unified Threat Management Windows Quick Tips Data Experience Remote Computing Shortcut BYOD Downtime Streaming Media DDoS Help Desk Passwords Word Micrsooft Visible Light Communication Disaster Heating/Cooling Data Management Business Growth Business Management Retail Robot Advertising Recovery Society Sports Spam Competition Google Wallet Entrepreneur Managed IT services Information Technology Running Cable Presentation Domains Windows 8 Internet of Things Windows XP IT Services Hosted Solution Bluetooth Artificial Intelligence Documents Hacker Tech Support Compliance Application Automation Drones Memory Social Customer Service Printer Browser Deep Learning Virtual Desktop Wireless Router BDR Unified Communications Securty Encryption Office 365 Document Management Vendor Management Law Enforcement SaaS VoIP Saving Money Analytics Lithium-ion battery Cortana intranet Proactive IT Monitors Network Congestion Save Money Social Networking Music Displays Public Speaking Virtualization Cryptocurrency Laptop IP Address IBM End of Support Google Docs Education Government Augmented Reality Keyboard Cleaning Holiday YouTube Search Processors User Black Market Writing Office Tips LiFi Staffing Hard Drives
QR-Code