4.2. When and what monitoring activities are permissible? Modern technologies enable employees to be tracked over time, across workplaces and their homes, through many different devices such as smartphones, desktops, tablets, vehicles, and wearables.255 Monitoring activities are forms of personal data processing that can occur during the recruitment process (e.g. if an employer checks data of aspirant employees on social media), for the length of the contractual relationship (e.g. video surveillance, GPS on vehicles used by employees) 4. Specific personal data processing context
and even after the end of the working relationship (e.g. if an employer monitors former employees’ LinkedIn profiles to ensure that they are not infringing a non-competition clause).256 In certain situations, the employer may be legally obliged to perform certain forms of tracking (e.g. install tracking technologies in vehicles to be sure that a driver does not exceed a certain number of driving hours per day). In other cases, the employers may have a legitimate interest in monitoring employees (e.g. for security reasons; for safety reasons; to prove unlawful conduct of an employee). However, monitoring employees poses risks from a fundamental rights perspective. Systematic or occasional monitoring can infringe upon the privacy rights of an employee, and limit employees’ channels by which they could inform employers about irregularities or illegal actions of superiors and/ or colleagues threatening to damage the business or workplace.257
255 Ibid. 256 Ibid. 257 Ibid.
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