Personal

A device ownership designation indicating the device is owned by the end user rather than the organization, typically managed via User Enrollment.

What to Know

Personal ownership affects what management capabilities are available and what privacy expectations apply. Personal devices enrolled through User Enrollment maintain a separation between personal and work data, preventing IT from accessing personal apps, photos, or messages. Organizations must balance security needs with user privacy concerns, and the ownership designation determines which policies are enforceable and which would be considered overreach.

Common Scenarios

Enterprise IT: BYOD programs treat personal devices as partially managed — IT can enforce security requirements on corporate data (email, files, apps) without controlling the entire device. User Enrollment on iOS/iPadOS creates a managed partition that IT controls while leaving personal data untouched. Personal Macs typically require User-Approved MDM, which limits management scope compared to corporate-owned devices.

MSP: MSPs supporting clients with BYOD policies must clearly document what is and isn’t managed on personal devices. This includes educating users that the organization can wipe corporate data remotely but cannot access personal photos or browsing history. Liability and support boundaries should be explicit in service agreements.

Education: Schools rarely manage personal devices beyond guest Wi-Fi access or optional BYOD programs for older students. K-12 schools typically provide corporate-owned devices to ensure consistent management, avoid privacy concerns, and meet CIPA filtering requirements that are difficult to enforce on personal devices.

In Addigy

Addigy displays ownership type for enrolled devices and can apply different policy sets to personal vs. corporate-owned devices. Admins should configure Smart Groups to segment devices by ownership and deploy less intrusive policies to personal devices to respect privacy expectations while still protecting corporate data.