Thursday 12 July 2012

Microsoft, please wipe my phone. I don't need it anymore...

While trying out a ROM based on stock 4.0.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich); I noticed a scary warning when setting up Exchange ActiveSync to my work account:

So I'm thinking: would I really like someone else to be able to:
  • change the way passwords work on my phone?
  • change the lock screen settings on my phone?
  • change the encryption on my phone?
  • remotely wipe all data on my phone without warning?
I could easily imagine our daughter playing with the unlock screen, and triggering a remote wipe. Which would be fun for the first 1 to 2 seconds. Then pain for the subsequent 1 to 2 days.

How would one combat this (to me) potentially draconian IT policy?

Turns out (like most things with android); it's relatively easy - provided you invest a few minutes. The exchange sync provider,  like most things, is shipped independently as an APK file. The source code for the the provider is freely available, and if you don't like how it works -- well change it damnit...

Better yet - someone has already compiled it and packaged up the APK file. So all you really need to do is install it. xda-developers has all the goodies... To be clear:

  1. Download the APK from the link
  2. Delete the stock Email.apk file
  3. Copy the patched version in it's place
  4. Setup an exchange account as you normally would.
    Instead of the scary Exchange policy - you get a nice message that it will be ignored and a disclaimer that you are on your own.
Easy peasy. Kids can now draw pretty pictures with the lock screen without fear of triggering a remote wipe.