None of the companies I have worked with do that. What we do instead is we disable their login, and we also make sure that the PC is encrypted, so that if they do not return it, they will, of course, have to pay us for it, and then they can wipe it and reinstall and do whatever they want to do with the physical hardware.
Most people just return the hardware. Actually, now that I think about it, I think only once did we have an issue with getting the hardware back and we had still ended up with the hardware back after like a nine month delay.
Ours wouldn’t brick the laptops, but we do have software on them that let’s us remote wipe them. They will do that if they dont get the device back in a timely manner.
As the other commenter said there are a lot of options. I used to be in charge of imaging and we just used SCCM to deploy. I had to pass on these roles as my responsibilities changed and the team that was getting it deemed it to complicated… go figure. They complained enough and found smart deploy and they accomplished getting it because of its ability to wipe pcs.
If your Apple account is separate and the uploaded backups are untouched by the company solution, then yes (in other words, if file deletion doesn’t sync into your iCloud backup)
Note that the company might use the management tool to block you from connecting personal accounts!
Most competent companies lock down laptops so that even if they didn’t return them, it would be a useless brick
None of the companies I have worked with do that. What we do instead is we disable their login, and we also make sure that the PC is encrypted, so that if they do not return it, they will, of course, have to pay us for it, and then they can wipe it and reinstall and do whatever they want to do with the physical hardware.
Most people just return the hardware. Actually, now that I think about it, I think only once did we have an issue with getting the hardware back and we had still ended up with the hardware back after like a nine month delay.
Ours wouldn’t brick the laptops, but we do have software on them that let’s us remote wipe them. They will do that if they dont get the device back in a timely manner.
Just in case it comes up later, since I assist in purchasing for the company I work for, what software is it?
As the other commenter said there are a lot of options. I used to be in charge of imaging and we just used SCCM to deploy. I had to pass on these roles as my responsibilities changed and the team that was getting it deemed it to complicated… go figure. They complained enough and found smart deploy and they accomplished getting it because of its ability to wipe pcs.
There’s all kinds of options like Microsoft Intune to corporate antivirus + data protection solutions
If my company wipes my Mac through such a system, but I have it hooked to my own personal Apple cloud account, can I go buy a new Mac and restore it?
If your Apple account is separate and the uploaded backups are untouched by the company solution, then yes (in other words, if file deletion doesn’t sync into your iCloud backup)
Note that the company might use the management tool to block you from connecting personal accounts!