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Wary BPOs switch off camera phones

IT’s a tough call for Gurgaon’s BPO employees. Many call centres at this tech hub have reportedly clamped down on the use of camera mobile phones within their premises in an attempt to stop data theft.

Some BPOs have issued formal notices in this regard but others have reportedly told employees informally not to carry “cellphones having cameras inside the call centre premises”.

Some call centres have only asked senior workers not to use camera mobiles inside the office building while others have stopped employees from taking any kind of mobile phone into the office. One call centre taped off the camera portion of such mobiles to render them incapable of recording images.

A few BPOs confirmed the ban off the record, but IBM Daksh issued an official response saying: “IBM values confidentiality of client data. Based on security controls specified by each client, usage of mobile phones is regulated at IBM Daksh centres.”

Ashok Tyagi, Senior Vice-President, Enabling Services of Genpact, added: “We don’t implement any ban on the use of mobile phones at Genpact. However, all employees are advised to use their mobile phones in a manner that does not impede with their operations or disturb their colleagues.”

However, family members of employees, especially women, are particularly worried — it has only been two months since a Bangalore BPO worker was raped and killed by the driver of the office vehicle as she was being dropped.

“We work all through the night. If our parents have to contact us, they keep hunting (for us) on the office numbers now. Earlier, we could be contacted anytime,” a woman worker says.

But a call centre administrator, who wished to remain anonymous, counters: “With the call centre industry being rocked by incidents like the Karan Bahree (spying) episode, client confidentiality has become a major concern. That is the reason why some restrictions are being imposed on the use of camera cellphones.”

He adds: “There were some other instances too, that have made clients act proactively and demand restrictions.”

Why & when

June 2005: British tabloid The Sun carried out a sting to show that Gurgaon-based content writer Karan Bahree was ready to sell confidential banking data for $5,000.

September 2005: Gurgaon Police arrested call centre employee Amit Juneja on charges of stealing confidential data from his office, Saffron Global Ltd.

(www.financialexpress.com)

 
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