Yes, as stated in the « Is it legal to monitor employees` personal devices? » section, it is legal if the computer contains work-related information or if the employer has a clear BYOD policy that is known to all employees. But again, employers should be reasonable about how and when monitoring is done. « Ministers urgently need to ensure better regulatory oversight of online surveillance software to ensure individuals have the right to privacy, whether at work or at home. The decision comes after a US software company fired a Dutch employee who was working remotely for refusing to leave his webcam on for « 8 hours a day ». Assessing the legality of productivity monitoring based on the high privacy expectations generated by home protection Workplace surveillance technology has reportedly increased during the pandemic as employers shift to more distant forms of work. « New technologies allow employers to have a constant window into their employees` homes, and the use of technology is largely unregulated by the government. In addition to video surveillance systems, there are various employee-friendly options that should be considered if the primary goal is to monitor overall productivity and ensure that company resources are being used properly. Employee productivity monitoring software is a great way to balance the benefits of monitoring with the risks of intrusion into employee privacy. The revelations came after some of Teleperformance`s 10,000 UK employees were told that cameras, including the AI-based scanning system, would be installed next month to allow employees to continue working from home. Yes. While it is legal for employers in the UK to monitor screen content and keystrokes, this type of monitoring should only be considered if there is a legitimate business reason to do so. It is also considered illegal for employers not to inform their employees about surveillance.
As a general rule, it is always recommended to establish clear monitoring strategies. Employers may need to obtain written agreements for certain types of surveillance, such as keystroke capture in some cases. But that doesn`t mean there aren`t legal issues you need to solve. GDPR rules require you to tell your employees how you intend to use and store personal data. « Ultimately, workers should not be subjected to digital surveillance without their informed consent, and there should be clear rules, rights and expectations for businesses and workers. » Yes, employee monitoring policies, manuals, etc. are mandatory. Strategies help set policies for the behavior of employees and company devices inside and outside the workplace. Companies should have comprehensive monitoring strategies in place that cover: In the FNASS case, the Court held that Article 8 applies when the French State requires elite athletes to provide complete information every three months on their whereabouts in the context of the fight against doping, including weekends and holidays (§§ 155-159). Although the Court found that this was an interference with Article 8, it found no violation of the facts because of the specificity of the sport and the legitimate aim pursued by the interference. However, it is clear from the Court`s reasoning that regular monitoring would not normally satisfy the requirement of proportionality. That clearly appears to be the case where it concerns reasons of private interest of the employer, such as the monitoring of productivity, and not the attainment of the legitimate public objective pursued in the context of the FNASS.
While the FNASS case provides some support for the requirements to explain how working time was used (and for some occupations, limited aspects of non-working time), it is important that the case require an agency to individually submit the relevant data by the employee, rather than obtaining this information through tracking or monitoring. The union also called on the government to consider banning camera surveillance in homes, making it illegal for employers to use webcams to screen workers outside of meetings and conference calls. Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: « We`re used to the idea of employers controlling workers, but when people work from home, it takes on a whole new dimension. The distinction between control of the flow of communications and control of content is not overly weighted in the case-law of the ECtHR beyond the workplace and should not necessarily be regarded as applicable where the worker works at home. The Grand Chamber of the Court has repeatedly held that data protection should not be interpreted restrictively and refers to data relating to an « identified or identifiable » person (see Amann, § 65). This not only includes data such as websites visited, but even extends to « broader informational self-determination, which allows individuals to invoke their right to privacy with respect to neutral but collected, processed and disseminated data » (Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy, § 137). In the Benedik case, for example, the Court found that the collection of data relating to a dynamic IP address could infringe Article 8. Dynamic IP addresses (e.g. the type of IP address that most home networks have) are in principle visible to other Internet users and can be collected by them.
Even if these addresses change and are therefore not strictly personal to a person, they can reveal details about them, such as their location and online behavior patterns.