ICO Calls on Organisations to Consider Both their Legal Obligations and the Rights of their Employees Before Implementing Any Monitoring in the Workplace

On 3 October 2023, The Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”) published on its official website a Guide (“Guide”) for employers on legal, transparent and fair monitoring of employees. Accordingly, research commissioned by the ICO reveals that 70% of the public would find monitoring by an employer intrusive.

ICO calls on organizations to consider both their legal obligations and the rights of their employees before implementing any monitoring in the workplace.

According to this Guide;

• Aimed at employers in both the public and private sectors, the new guidance provides clear guidance on how monitoring can be carried out legally and fairly. As well as outlining the legal requirements, it includes good practice advice to help employers build trust with their employees and respect their right to privacy.
• Monitoring may include tracking calls, messages and keystrokes, taking screenshots, webcam footage or audio recordings, or using specialist monitoring software to track activity.
• According to this Guide, if an organization wants to monitor employees, it should take the following steps: “Raising staff awareness of the nature, scope and reasons for monitoring. Having a clearly defined purpose and using the least intrusive means to achieve that purpose. Have a legal basis for processing employees' data, such as consent or legal obligation. Providing employees with information about any monitoring in a way that is easy to understand. Retain only information that is appropriate for its purpose. Conducting a Data Protection Impact Assessment for any monitoring that is likely to pose a high risk to the rights of employees. Making personal information collected through monitoring available to employees if they make a Subject Access Request (SAR).”

The Guide provides an overview of the processing of personal data for employee monitoring. It also addresses specific monitoring practices, including the use of biometric data.

You can access the news about the Guide on the official site of ICO here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr