It happens at almost every business at some point. A staff member resigns. The handover is rushed. You focus on the transition, the notice period, finding a replacement. And then, somewhere in the chaos, you realise: they still have the company phone. Or the laptop they've been using for work for the last two years is actually their personal laptop — and they've taken it home, as they always did.
What happens next depends entirely on one question: who owns the device?
In most cases, when an employee uses a personal device for work, you have no legal right to demand it back, no ability to wipe it remotely, and no way to recover the business data on it. Every client contact, every work email, every pricing document they accessed — it all stays with them.
What data typically lives on a work device
What's on a staff member's work phone or laptop when they leave
Every number saved to the phone, every WhatsApp conversation with clients
Years of client and supplier correspondence, proposals, negotiations
Quotes, price lists, margin information — competitive intelligence of real value
CRM logins, cloud storage access, accounting system credentials saved in the browser
Contracts, HR files, client records, project files saved locally or in apps
For field staff — a record of every client site visited, supplier relationship mapped
The two very different scenarios
Does this actually happen in Mauritius?
More often than businesses publicly admit. Mauritius is a small economy. Most industries are effectively one or two degrees of separation — your sales manager today is your competitor's sales manager in six months. When they move, they take institutional knowledge. If they took their phone too, they take your client relationships with it.
The most common version of this isn't malicious. The staff member doesn't intend to steal data. They just keep using the same WhatsApp number they've always had, and their clients naturally continue to reach out to the number they know. Your customer relationship walks out the door quietly, with no confrontation and no legal remedy available to you.
What Mauritius law says
Under the Data Protection Act 2017, your business is responsible for the personal data of clients and employees that you process. If a departing staff member retains access to that data on a personal device, and if that data is subsequently disclosed, misused or compromised, your business bears potential liability — even though you had no control over the device.
The law doesn't distinguish between data held on company devices and data held on personal devices used for work. What matters is whether you had appropriate safeguards in place. A business that allowed personal devices for work without any data handling policy or exit procedure is in a weak position if a complaint or breach occurs.
Even if you currently allow personal devices for work, having a written device and data policy signed by employees significantly improves your position. At minimum, this should specify that all work-related data is company property, that employees must delete it on departure, and that logins to company systems must be surrendered on the last day. A rental agreement with company-owned devices makes all of this automatic — no policy enforcement required.
The exit checklist most businesses don't have
IT exit checklist — what to do when a staff member leaves
Steps 3, 4 and 5 are only possible if the device is company-owned. If your team is on personal devices, you're essentially dependent on the goodwill of a departing employee to cooperate with steps you have no power to enforce.
The practical fix — and what it actually costs
The solution is straightforward: move your team to company-issued devices. The practical question is the cost. For most businesses in Mauritius, the assumption is that buying devices is expensive — and it is, upfront. But rental removes the upfront cost entirely.
A Motorola G35 business smartphone on a 36-month rental costs Rs 534/month per device, inclusive of support and 48-hour replacement. That's less than most businesses pay in phone allowances to staff using personal devices — with full legal ownership, remote wipe capability and a clean exit process included.
The question isn't whether you can afford to provide company devices. It's whether you can afford not to.
Get your team on company devices — starting from Rs 267/month
Full legal ownership. Remote wipe. 48h replacement. Clean exits. From Rs 267/month per device, all-inclusive.