Workers don't trust employers with their mobile data and privacy It is now common practice for people to take their mobile phones and tablets into the workplace and share data over the corporate network, but over two thirds of people in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany do not trust their employers with their personal information, according to new research. In an online survey of almost 3,000 employees, only 30 per cent said they completely trust their employer to keep personal information private and not use it against them in any way. Those in the UK were most trusting, with 34 percent saying they completely trust their employer, compared to 31 per cent in the US and 24 per cent in Germany. "The reality is that if these devices are used to get corporate email, employers can see work email and attachments on a mobile device as easily as they can on a PC," said Ojas Rege, VP of strategy at security firm MobileIron, which sponsored the research. That's a gulf between expectations and reality. Rege told the Telegraph that the distrust employees feel towards their employers is largely down to a lack of transparency within organisations. While most employees realise that their corporate laptops are fully visible to their employer, the policies around bringing mobile devices into work are less clear. "It's a new set of technologies, so there's immediately some level of confusion," said Rege. Another thing is that IT departments are traditionally not very good at communicating; it's not their core competence. The report revealed that employees want their companies to explain in detail the purpose of seeing certain information on the device, and how they separate the personal content from work content, in order to build trust among employees. A fifth of respondents also said they would like their employers to ask their permission in writing before accessing anything on the device. "Transparency is the only way to drive trust," said Rege. The user doesn't know what the employer is doing, and if the employer intends to reduce that trust gap they've got too get much more transparent, much more communicative, create understanding.