Employers who spy on staff threatened with fines amid rise in home … – The Telegraph

Employers who spy on staff have been threatened with fines by the privacy watchdog amid a rise in home working.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said it will “take action” against companies that conduct “excessive” monitoring of workers following an uptick in bosses tracking calls, messages and keystrokes since Covid. 

Emily Keaney, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: “As the data protection regulator, we want to remind organisations that business interests must never be prioritised over the privacy of their workers. 

“We are urging all organisations to consider both their legal obligations and their workers’ rights before any monitoring is implemented. 

“While data protection law does not prevent monitoring, our guidance is clear that it must be necessary, proportionate and respect the rights of workers. We will take action if we believe people’s privacy is being threatened.”   

A source close to the regulator said that fines are among a number of sanctions that the ICO could level against companies that breach privacy rules in this area. For the most serious breaches, the ICO has the power to impose fines of up to 4pc of a company’s global turnover. 

The ICO’s new guidance on monitoring workers said that any tracking must be done in the “least intrusive” way possible and workers must be explicitly made aware of the “nature, extent and reasons for monitoring”.

The warning comes as employers increasingly seek to carry out checks on staff productivity amid a rise in home working triggered by the Covid pandemic.