Can your boss film you at work ?

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Computer activity tracking, keystroke loggers… workplace surveillance devices are all the rage and potential abuses are precisely in the sights of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL), which has just published an enlightening press release on the subject.

An intrusive device

The personal data watchdog has imposed a fine of 40,000 euros on a company that it has chosen not to name. This company operates in the real estate sector and has been monitoring its employees disproportionately.

This is the case for a particularly intrusive video surveillance device that captured images and sound of employees on the premises. The CNIL specifies on this subject:

The company did not justify any exceptional circumstances concerning the continuous recording of sound and images via the video system. Such actions constitute an excessive infringement of employees' rights.

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The authority also sanctioned the use of software that monitored the activity of certain employees. The latter was supposed to judge their work and productivity by automatically detecting if an employee stopped typing on the keyboard or moving their mouse for 3 to 15 minutes, with potential salary deductions as a result.

Moreover, this particularly marked surveillance is not a relevant method for assessing professional investment, according to the CNIL: “However, the periods during which the employee does not use his computer may also correspond to actual working time as part of his duties (meetings or phone calls, for example)”.

Spying on your employees is a bad idea

The risk associated with this system is also that it “can lead to the capture of private information”. This is the case for personal emails or passwords. The data police have therefore decided to make this case public ” in order to ‘inform any person subjected to such devices “. The company concerned has agreed to immediately withdraw its surveillance software.

Aside from these legal risks, employee surveillance seems like a very bad idea for companies. According to research by David Welsh, a professor at Arizona State University, these strategies tend to encourage employees to break rules or engage in small acts of sabotage: taking unauthorized breaks, deliberately working slower, or stealing equipment more often. More information about this in our previous article here.

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