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EU Companies Can Monitor Employees' Private Conversations While At Work (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights has granted EU companies the right to monitor and log private conversations that employees have at work while using the employer's devices. The ruling came after a Romanian was fired for using Yahoo Messenger back in 2007, while at work, to have private conversations with his girlfriend. He argued that his employer was breaking his right for privacy and correspondence. Both Romanian and European courts disagreed.
Before everybody gets in a big huff, this applies only to devices the employer owns and lets employees use, not personal devices employees bring to work. The title here is slanted and a little misleading...
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
The information presented here is, indeed, grossly miseading. There is no such thing as an employer's right to monitor private communications in the EU; on the contrary, at leastmin some European countries, like, say, Germany, illegitimately monitoring an employee's private communocation may actually land someone in jail.
You can't even be bothered to read the submission above?
The court case wasn't if he was fired for "wasting time", it was whether the company has the right to monitor what happens on their own computer systems.
As for how much time he wasted, for all you know he spent half the day talking to his girlfriend. I doubt it was simply a quick 5-minute chat during a mid-morning break.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
I just read the first link above, and it seems to be just the activity itself, not specifically any "inappropriate" content such as phone-sex.
But it also didn't say how much of the workday he spent talking to his girlfriend. I would assume it was quite a bit, since he went out of his way to avoid the employer's messenger account, and used his own which he figured was safe from monitoring. If it was simply a message here and there, why fire him? It was probably dozens of messages all day long.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
As some already reported, this is a highly misleading headlines.
1. It's not EU, but ECHR, so much wider (it includes non-EU countries such as Russia or Turkey).
2. The ECHR sets a minimal amount of human rights protection, not a maximal one - ECHR saying "we don't have any objection about it" doesn't mean it's legal in all ECHR countries, national government can pass higher levels of protection if they want.
3. The ruling itself doesn't say "it's all fine to spy on employees in general", it said that in that specific case it's fine - it was a work mail account (not a private one), ...
I advise you to read http://modulus.isonomia.net/la... for example, that gives a more detailed analysis on the ruling and reporting of it.
How is it common sense that it's allowed to record and log a private conversation without prior consent? Even call centers have to let you know you are being recorded, why can an employer do it without consent?
Company equipment or not, I don't think it's ok to record my conversation without my consent or knowledge.
If it's in my contract, fine. I signed that and it's now with my consent.
If my employer doesn't want me to use the equipment for private conversations, let me know or fire me. Don't just violate my rights.
Court or not, this is unacceptable in my opinion.
The call center isn't notifying their employee that the conversation is being monitored. That's a given. They're notifying the "customer" on the other end of the line that the conversation is being monitored. It's not forced on you, you can find another job where you are not provided computers and telephones. Then you won't have to worry about it. For example, if you get a job digging ditches, they probably won't be monitoring your shovel.
He was using a company provided email account to discuss his STDs with his girlfriend. The company policy was not to use the company email account for personal business, and it was in his contract. They asked him if he was using it for private use, he said no, they checked and found he was so fired him. He complained that it was an intrusion on his right to privacy (which is a human right in the EU), but the court felt that as it was a company computer and email account he couldn't expect privacy.
It's all down to the use of his employer's property.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC