German Court Rules Bosses Can't Use Keyboard-Tracking Software To Spy On Workers (thelocal.de)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Local: The Federal Labour Court ruled on Thursday that evidence collected by a company through keystroke-tracking software could not be used to fire an employee, explaining that such surveillance violates workers' personal rights. The complainant had been working as a web developer at a media agency in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2011 when the company sent an email out in April 2015 explaining that employees' complete "internet traffic" and use of the company computer systems would be logged and permanently saved. Company policy forbade private use of the computers. The firm then installed keylogger software on company PCs to monitor keyboard strokes and regularly take screenshots. Less than a month later, the complainant was called in to speak with his boss about what the company had discovered through the spying software. Based on their findings, they accused him of working for another company while at work, and of developing a computer game for them. [...] So the programmer took his case to court, arguing that the evidence used against him had been collected illegally. The Federal Labour Court agreed with this argument, stating in the ruling that the keylogger software was an unlawful way to control employees. The judges added that using such software could be legitimate if there was a concrete suspicion beforehand of a criminal offense or serious breach of work duties.

Comments

TL;DR version

[war4peace]

1. Company A used blanket monitoring software on its employees' machines;
2. Employee was caught by above-mentioned software working for another company while at work at company A;
3. Employee argues proof gathered was gathered illegally.
4. Court agrees with employee.

Outcome might have been differently if company A would only have monitored suspected employees instead of all of them.

Re:TL;DR version

[Tom]

That is not entirely true.

Keeping human dignity intact at the workplace is great in Germany, but that doesn't mean that there are not ways to do it. In larger companies, where you have a workers council, getting their agreement is one way to do it. In all companies, having a suspicion and acting on it instead of doing some kind of Big Brother mass surveilance will most likely not get thrown out in court.

What we in Germany don't like is treating workers as hamsters in a lab and recording every little thing they do just because you can.

Re:TL;DR version

[houghi]

Same in Belgium. First you need to inform the employees what you intend to do and why. e.g. recording calls from customers MUST be recorded. It also means that you not only must inform the customer, but also the employee.
You can do screenshots and even complete recordings of the screen, but only during the conversation with the customer. And again the employee must be informed with that and even needs to give his OK. Yes, I have had people who refused. Those people did not last long and that had nothing to do with the fact they refused. It was just not a the right job for both of them.

There are also serious restrictions on filming employees.

I believe that this all comes because Europe and the US see privacy in a different thing.
In the US everything is public, unless it is private. In the EU everything is private, unless it is public.
This is obviously not 100%. You could compare it a bit with opt-in vs. opt-out.

That means that even in a public place you will have some sort of right on privacy. Your data belongs to you and can not just be sold to others.

If a friend asks for my phone number at a third mutual friend, they will not just give it. They will ask me permission to give it.
That means that my N+1 has my phone number, but not HR. There is no need for them to have it.

So it is very different from what would be standard in the US.

Re:Make all workers sign a Contract...

[Anonymous Coward]

Europe abolished slavery long time ago: no contract can override the laws. What you propose is totally illegal. You have a right to a reasonable privacy even at work. You have the right to call your wife on the work phone to say you will be late or to call to cancel a prostate testing, and doing that without your boss or anybody eavesdropping.

Only a terminally ill society allow this kind of shit.

Keyboard tracking

[wonkey_monkey]

German Court Rules Bosses Can't Use Keyboard-Tracking

Keyboard tracking?

09:00 Keyboard is on desk
09:01 Keyboard is on desk
09:02 ...

Well, you get the idea with that.

my cisco story

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked for cisco a long time ago and have a friend who's been there almost from the very beginning. he moved to europe and stayed with cisco. he told me a story. it goes like this:

in the US, cisco installs spyware on EVERY pc laptop (along with fake certs that allow them a MitM access to their pseudo encrypted network i/o). in the US, cisco does not tell their employees this, exactly; they just say 'they have the right to monitor employees' but they don't say anything more than that and most cisco employees (the younger ones, at least) are kept ignorant. I saw them reading personal email on work systems, etc etc. really stupid!

in europe, cisco is FORCED to tell employees much more detail about their spying and keylogging. it was via this route (lol) that I found how what cisco is really up to. the guys in holland, germany (etc) know they are being monitored (to the extent that its legal) but in the US, employees are kept in the dark.

note, this is not about cisco; its probably EVERY large corp in the US. the point is: the US is too business-friendly and consumer/employee hostile. overseas, its much more balanced. they have more rights over there, in general, and companies don't OWN their fucking asses like they do here.

folks, be careful if you work for a large corp in the US. you have been spied on, data logged and MitM'd. and likely, you had no idea, either, since no one told you (for certain).