Google starts sharing your texts with your employer

A new Android update allows employers to access and archive messages on your phone.

Google released the new feature, known as RCS Archival, to allow employers to gain access to RCS (Rich Communication Services) messages, including high-res media and read receipts, sent via Google Messages on fully managed work phones. The archival feature already existed for MMS (multimedia) and traditional SMS (largely text-based), the company noted.

The feature update “improves the user experience,” a Google spokesperson told Newsweek, because employers had previously been blocking RCS messaging because it could not be archived as is compelled by compliance requirements.

Why It Matters

The update has for some raised new concerns over workplace privacy in the United States, and challenges assumptions many employees hold about the confidentiality of their texts on company devices.

Workplace emails have long been monitored for compliance and legal reasons. Employees, however, often considered their text…