Companies Can't Use Keyloggers to Spy on Employees, Says German Court

[LASER_oneXM]

The German Federal Labour Court has ruled that companies can't install keyloggers to monitor employees because such an action violates personal privacy rights.

The court ruled on this matter in a lawsuit filed by a web developer against a media agency located in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Company fires programmer based on keylogger data
The developer had worked for the company for four years, but he was fired in April 2015, a month after the company installed keylogging software on employees' devices without prior notification. Besides tracking key presses, the software also took screenshots of the users' screen at regular intervals.

The company fired the employee because he used his work computer to write code for a computer game for another company. The firm argued it was against company rules to use work computers for personal matters and fired the employee without notice on the same day.

Judge rules that employee monitoring via keyloggers is illegal
The judge agreed with the developer's argument, ruling that keylogging software is taking employee surveillance one step too far, albeit he did say that companies are allowed to deploy such software when they have a good reason to believe employees are breaking the law.

Nonetheless, the judge said keyloggers should not be used to track employees and resolve work disputes. The judge also ruled that the developer's firing was now void.

In the past four years, companies that sell surveillance software have argued that using keyloggers was a legally acceptable practice [1, 2, 3].

 

[DJ Panda]

Somewhat similar but here in Wisconsin some buisnesses are encorperating microchipping their employees.

Wisconsin company holds 'chip party' to microchip workers

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

This kind of thing is generally frowned upon with US Firms because it can result in litigation. For example the MSP I work for we have to sign a document that explicitly states we will never spy or monitor any employees activity under any conditions. Even executives hired have to sign it. The reason is, we've become aware of successful litigation regarding employees at other firms who successfully sued because of undeclared spying.

Of the thousands of firms we handle as an MSP I am not aware of any performing any spy activity and if they request it from us we usually deny it unless both the employer and employee approve of the monitoring.

 

[Trooper]

Somewhat similar but here in Wisconsin some buisnesses are encorperating microchipping their employees.

Wisconsin company holds 'chip party' to microchip workers

Insanity.