Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU Companies Can Monitor Employees' Private Conversations While At Work (softpedia.com)

Posted by timothy on from the whose-time-whose-dime dept.

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.

13 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. It's your company's equipment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you want to argue with your girlfriend, use your own cellphone. Jesus.

  2. Well Duh! by thechemic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    9 years later, we have a court ruling on common sense.

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
    1. Re:Well Duh! by killkillkill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they liked the guy's work they wouldn't have fired him. It was probably only a contributing factor and a convenient reason to put on the HR form.

    2. Re:Well Duh! by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.
  3. Monitor by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it enough to RTFA to discover whether he was fired for the having non work related conversations during work or for the actual content of those conversations?

    Because I see some difference between monitoring the activity and monitoring the content.

    1. Re:Monitor by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.
    2. Re:Monitor by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      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
  4. Wait... by EmeraldBot · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."
    1. Re:Wait... by EzInKy · · Score: 4, Informative

      That too was addressed in the ruling. From TFA:

      "The ruling also said that, from now onwards, companies should also explain and notify employees if they monitor and log all their Internet activities, and they should also get consent from the employee in writing."

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    2. Re:Wait... by phishybongwaters · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well you could, and I do, argue this extends to the network, so if you are on your personal device but using THEIR network, the ruling still applies. That said, I really doubt this gives them the right to break encryption or demand the keys. It's not the content of the discussion really, it's about the wasted time they got paid for.

  5. That, and with contractual agreement not to use th by demon+driver · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  6. Misreported by CAPSLOCK2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All reports miss an important part.
    Nobody went out to look at this guys private messages. During the course of an investigation into his performance at work some private messages were discovered. He argued that this alone was a violation of his privacy. The judge decided that the employer did the right thing. The employer was not intentionally looking for private messages and he did not read them when he discovered they were of a private nature.

    This is not a cart-blanche to spy on employee's.

  7. Misleading headline by Kilobug · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.