Apple announces a cool new upgrade. Consumers start downloading it, YouTubers start reviewing it. What about your business? Should it care about the impact of a highly-touted new productivity feature?
Why would you deny your employees a cool new feature?
Security: DeepSeek has the potential to send American intellectual property directly to China. Your company may not be allowed to store any of its information off-shore. Part of a “zero-trust” mindset is to turn things off by default and only enable them as needed or where justified. Unauthorized mirroring can serve as a vector for cyberattacks, allowing malicious actors to monitor activities, steal data, or control devices remotely. This poses a significant threat to both individual and corporate security. (ProPrivacy has a relevant article)
Privacy: if your computer is being remotely managed, it’s possible a remote user could then access the connected iphone, giving them access to personal information that’s unrelated to the work device. The inadvertent gathering of personal app information can lead to non-compliance with privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Organizations could face legal liabilities if they fail to manage this data appropriately. Infosecurity Magazine has an article about this. Personal applications may be an increase IT department risk. 9to5Mac has a related article as well.
Compliance: certain environments like Healthcare or Fintech prohibit access to sensitive data which is much more easily accessible on a mobile device
Accidents: if your laptop is airplaying or otherwise screen-shared, personal phone data could inadvertently be visible to a group of people, causing significant embarrassment
Battery: the phone’s battery will deplete faster if it’s being shared over WiFi with a Mac
Legal: You may be breaching your device management agreements as the mirrored computer may not be managed by your corporate solution, creating a gray area of what is or isn’t actually managed
Distractions: your phone already distracts you: why move all those notifications to your work device where you’re supposed to be focused on productivity?
If you have a modern MDM (mobile device management) solution, you can block the use of unapproved applications. If you’ve got a good managed service provider (MSP) helping you, you can just say “block iPhone Mirroring for our org” and your IT partner should be able to implement it easily for you.
Mann is a Jamf MSP, specializing in workflow automation like these for many organizations. Check out mann.com/jamf for more info.
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