One Flordia-Based Tech Company Who Took Employee Surveillance Too Far.

Corporate surveillance technology increased by 58% from 2019 to 2020 (Migliano, 2022).

COVID-19 moved the workforce from in-person supervision by leadership to at-home with less physical management. Companies feared productivity would be negatively impacted and sought ways to monitor employees’ work. One company that took surveillance too far was the Florida-based software development firm Chetu. Chetu has international telemarketer employees, and one worked remotely in the Netherlands.

The Florida-based company demanded that the Dutch employee turn his web camera on throughout his workday. When the employee refused, he was fired. The U.S.-based firm fired the employee because of “Refusal to work; Insubordination.” However, the Dutch officials disagreed because the employee was rightly allowed to have his privacy and not turn on his camera. The Dutch court cited the European Convention of Human Rights as protection to the employee and his right to privacy. The court order stated, “video surveillance of an employee in the workplace, be it covert or not, must be considered as a considerable intrusion into the employee’s private life” (Belanger, 2022).

More specifically, the law that protected the Dutch citizen was Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which respect his/her private and family life, home, and communications.

Chetu tried to dispute the charges and claimed that webcam monitoring is the same experience as monitoring an employee in an office. They argued that they could use the webcam to view their employees instead of being physically located and seen. However, the court argued that unliked in-person, video meetings could be recorded and stored.

After this case, employees in the Netherlands are more protected from invalid all-day webcam requests and surveillance.

References

This is the court order in dutch: https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:RBZWB:2022:5656

Belanger, A. (2022, October 10). Florida firm’s webcam surveillance violates human rights, Dutch court says. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/florida-firms-webcam-surveillance-violates-human-rights-dutch-court-says/

Cornell Law. (2013, December). EU data privacy laws. LII / Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/eu_data_privacy_laws#:~:text=EU%20Treaties%20and%20Charters&text=Article%207%20provides%20for%20the

Migliano, S. (2022, August 8). Report: Privacy Risks of Employee Surveillance Software (C. O’Donnell, Ed.). Www.top10vpn.com. https://www.top10vpn.com/research/covid-employee-surveillance/