Your boss knows where you're going: Did you get a car from work? Your employer may be following you! For the first time, the Privacy Protection Authority is publishing a document that clarifies the issue of surveillance of employees and details what an employer can and cannot do.
The Privacy Protection Authority of the Ministry of Justice publishes a public communiqué, which for the first time makes order on the subject of monitoring employees and details the obligations that apply to employers who wish to track the location of their employees.
Your employer may be following you (illustration), Photo: Getty Images
The document, obtained by Israel Hayom, was written following numerous inquiries received by the Privacy Protection Authority from employees whose work vehicles were fitted with GPS systems that enable the employer to monitor and monitor the use of the vehicle.
Practice of monitoring
A source in the authority explains: "We identified some time ago, following inquiries we received, that there is a phenomenon regarding employers who require employees to install an application or tracking system that physically tracks them, both on mobile phones and in work vehicles. This is a practice that allows the employer to monitor the employee's presence, but significantly violates his privacy."
In recent years, as more and more people have started working outside the office, the practice of installing GPS in work vehicles has become more and more common. Most often it is done on employees who are engaged in sales, deliveries, installations, transportation and the like.
GPS device (illustration), photo: Reuters
But not only. The tracking system basically allows the employer to know almost everything about his employee. For example, if he goes for a medical check-up in the middle of the day, if he prays in a particular synagogue, or if he meets for a job interview with a competitor.
In fact, the location data collected allows employers to infer highly sensitive information about a person's social relationships, financial status, health status and lifestyle. Imagine a situation in which an employee asks her employer to go for a medical examination in the middle of the day and her location data indicates that she is in a fertility clinic. This is information she did not want to disclose to her employer and disclosing it violates her privacy.
The Authority's opinion draws the boundaries, so that each employer and employee will know exactly what can and cannot be done.
The Privacy Protection Authority of the Ministry of Justice publishes a communiqué document to the public, which for the first time makes order on the subject of surveillance of employees (illustration), photo: Joshua Yosef
"We understood that this phenomenon needs to be addressed so that an employee knows that such surveillance can only be legal if it is related to the specific tasks the employee is performing," the source explains. "Also, if the employee agreed to you and the monitoring was not done outside of working hours."
Only if there is a legitimate and essential purpose
You should know that collecting an employee's location data violates his privacy and can only be done if it has a legitimate and essential purpose for the workplace and must be proportionate. Even in cases where the action is legitimate, employers have an obligation to ensure that the information is not collected after work hours, who uses the information, how it is stored, for how long, etc. In addition, the use of a system that collects location data will be made only after it has been checked that there is no other alternative – for example, an application on the phone that allows reporting on arrival and departure from places.
! For the first time, the Privacy Protection Authority publishes a document that clarifies the issue of surveillance of employees and details what an employer can and cannot do (illustration), photo: Getty Images
The authority also notes that the employer must explicitly define the purpose of collecting the information. Thus, for example, in the case of regular office work, it will be difficult to indicate a legitimate interest of the employer that would justify continuous collection of employee location data.
As stated, it is forbidden to collect location data of an employee after the end of working hours and most importantly, the employer must obtain the employee's specific consent that his vehicle is ready, and inform him in full transparency regarding the purposes and use that will be made of the information collected. In addition, if you have consented to have a tracking device installed in your car, it does not mean that your employer is now allowed to use the data to monitor your working hours.
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