German Court Rules Companies Can't Use Keyloggers as Evidence for Employee Dismissal

[engine]

A German court has said a company went too far and violated the workers' personal rights when it used a keylogger to monitor the employee's activity with a view to dismissal.

Apparently, the employee was using the company computer during work breaks to write software for a family business, and the court felt that it was not a serious enough breach of duties to justify dismissal.

The Federal Labour Court agreed with this argument, stating in the ruling that the keylogger software was an unlawful way to control employees. The judges added that using such software could be legitimate if there was a concrete suspicion beforehand of a criminal offence or serious breach of work duties.

Therefore the court determined that because the evidence used to fire the employee had been obtained illicitly the programmer’s termination should now be void.

German Court Rules Companies Can't Use Keyloggers as Evidence for Employee Dismissal [thelocal.de]

[keyplyr]

Yes, how dare they violate basic human privacy rights by using a Keylogger to snoop on a private citizen.. that's the CIA's job!