scholarly journals To Post, or Not to Post – That Is the Question: Employee Monitoring and Employees’ Right to Data Protection

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-214
Author(s):  
Adrienn Lukács

Nowadays social media have a growing importance in several areas of our lives. They are used for numerous objectives: self-expression, keeping in touch with acquaintances, communication or obtaining information about the latest events and news. During their use the individual shares a significant amount of personal data. This conduct can have serious implications for employment. The (prospective) employer is interested in the surveillance of these sites for several reasons, as he/she can easily gain insight into the individual’s private life and obtain, without costs, detailed information about him/her. The legal problem arising is that the employee’s fundamental rights – namely the right to privacy and the right to data protection – collide with the employer’s legitimate interests.The aim of the paper is to highlight the different rights and interests present on the two sides of the parties in the employment relationship; focusing on the employee’s right to data protection and on the employer’s legitimate interests in monitoring employees. As a result of the paper, I will draw attention to the legal problems lying behind social network background checks and monitoring. I will provide recommendations on how users and employers can continue using these sites while still preserving privacy.

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 722-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin M. Pfisterer

AbstractIn recent years, the CJEU has impressively brought to bear the protection of the fundamental rights to privacy and protection of personal data as contained in the CFREU. The Court’s decisions in the Digital Rights, Schrems, Tele2, and PNR cases have reshaped the political and legal landscape in Europe and beyond. By restricting the powers of the governments of EU Member States and annulling legislative acts enacted by the EU legislator, the decisions had, and continue to have, effects well beyond the respective individual cases. Despite their strong impact on privacy and data protection across Europe, however, these landmark decisions reveal a number of flaws and inconsistencies in the conceptualization of the rights to privacy and protection of personal data as endorsed and interpreted by the CJEU. This Article identifies and discusses some of the shortcomings revealed in the recent CJEU privacy and data protection landmark decisions and proposes to the CJEU a strategy aimed at resolving these shortcomings going forward.


Author(s):  
Oreste Pollicino ◽  
Marco Bassini

The decision of the Court of Justice in Schrems follows the Digital Rights Ireland and Google Spain stances in the Court process of revisiting the data protection framework in Europe in light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Through the invalidation of Decision 2000/520/EC of the Commission on the adequacy of the US safe harbor principles, the Court of Justice has relied on a very extensive interpretation of the right to private life and data protection. As in the former decisions that have let emerge the existence of a new digital right to privacy, this judgment mirrors some degree of manipulation by the Court of Justice, justified by the goal of protecting as much as possible personal data in the new technological environment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orla Lynskey

AbstractArticle 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights sets out a right to data protection which sits alongside, and in addition to, the established right to privacy in the Charter. The Charter's inclusion of an independent right to data protection differentiates it from other international human rights documents which treat data protection as a subset of the right to privacy. Its introduction and its relationship with the established right to privacy merit an explanation. This paper explores the relationship between the rights to data protection and privacy. It demonstrates that, to date, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has consistently conflated the two rights. However, based on a comparison between the scope of the two rights as well as the protection they offer to individuals whose personal data are processed, it claims that the two rights are distinct. It argues that the right to data protection provides individuals with more rights over more types of data than the right to privacy. It suggests that the enhanced control over personal data provided by the right to data protection serves two purposes: first, it proactively promotes individual personality rights which are threatened by personal data processing and, second, it reduces the power and information asymmetries between individuals and those who process their data. For these reasons, this paper suggests that there ought to be explicit judicial recognition of the distinction between the two rights.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 357-385
Author(s):  
Antonio Felipe Delgado Jiménez

The balancing function, between worker and employer, of the fundamental rights in the field of the labor relationship is analyzed, while emphasizing that the right to privacy is not an unlimited right, but that it can yield to other constitutional rights. Likewise, the right to the protection of personal data is studied – distinguishing it from the right to personal privacy – which aims to guarantee the freedom of the individual in relation to their self-determination regarding the processing of their personal data by third parties.


Author(s):  
Tigran D. Oganesian

The article considers the legality of mass surveillance and protection of personal data in the context of the international human rights law and the right to respect for private life. Special attention is paid to the protection of data on the Internet, where the personal data of billions of people are stored. The author emphasizes that mass surveillance and technology that allows the storage and processing of the data of millions of people pose a serious threat to the right to privacy guaranteed by Article 8 of the ECHR of 1950. Few companies comply with the human rights principles in their operations by providing user data in response to requests from public services. In this regard, States must prove that any interference with the personal integrity of an individual is necessary and proportionate to address a particular security threat. Mandatory data storage, where telephone companies and Internet service providers are required to store metadata about their users’ communications for subsequent access by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, is neither necessary nor proportionate. The author analyses the legislation of some countries in the field of personal data protection, as well as examples from practice. Practice in many States is evidence of the lack of adequate national legislation and enforcement, weak procedural safeguards and ineffective oversight, which contributes to widespread impunity for arbitrary or unlawful interference with the right to privacy. In conclusion, we propose a number of measures aimed at improving the level of personal data protection in accordance with the international standards. In order to provide guarantees and a minimum level of adequate data protection in the face of new challenges to human rights in an ever-changing digital environment, the author proposes to solve a number of pressing issues. Firstly, States should not have the right to ask companies for and have absolute access to user data without a court order. Secondly, the process of sending a request and receiving data from a telecommunications company should be regulated in detail and transparent. The availability of specialized judges with technical expertise shall be valuable


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhivka Mateeva ◽  

In the age of the information society, the possibilities for problems of personal data protection related to the danger and threat of adverse consequences for the individual are extremely high. Violation of the right of the individual in connection with the disclosure of personal data is an encroachment on privacy. This paper examines the nature of the right to the protection of personal data, which is an integral part of the right to privacy. On the basis of the analysis of the right to protection of personal data, its essential features, characteristic for the basic human rights, are derived. On this basis, the role of the right to personal data protection is outlined, finding application in various spheres of modern life.


2021 ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Greta Angjeli ◽  
Besmir Premalaj

One of the fundamental human rights protected by various international conventions is the right to the protection of privacy, or as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect private and family life. Affiliated to this right is also the right to data protection, which is described by various authors as a modern derivation of the right to privacy protection. The protection of personal data in the context of privacy protection was jeopardized by the rapid and widespread of information technology, automated data processing and the risk of access to this data by unauthorized persons on the network. The legal regulation for the non-violation of the right to respect private life by the processing of personal data with automated systems was one of the challenges of many states which had to allow the use of artificial intelligence for the benefit of further economic and social development, at the same time they had to ensure the protection of the personal data of their citizens. In this context, the EU has issued another regulation on personal data protection (General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of artificial intelligence on the right to respect private life and the legal protection of personal data from misuse through artificial intelligence.


Author(s):  
Agnese Reine-Vītiņa

Mūsdienās tiesības uz privāto dzīvi nepieciešamas ikvienā demokrātiskā sabiedrībā, un šo tiesību iekļaušana konstitūcijā juridiski garantē fiziskas personas rīcības brīvību un vienlaikus arī citu – valsts pamatlikumā noteikto – cilvēka tiesību īstenošanu [5]. Personas datu aizsardzības institūts tika izveidots, izpratnes par tiesību uz personas privātās dzīves neaizskaramību saturu paplašinot 20. gadsimta 70. gados, kad vairāku Eiropas valstu valdības uzsāka informācijas apstrādes projektus, piemēram, tautas skaitīšanu u. c. Informācijas tehnoloģiju attīstība ļāva arvien vairāk informācijas par personām glabāt un apstrādāt elektroniski. Viena no tiesību problēmām bija informācijas vākšana par fizisku personu un tiesību uz privātās dzīves neaizskaramību ievērošana. Lai nodrošinātu privātās dzīves aizsardzību, atsevišķas Eiropas valstis pēc savas iniciatīvas pieņēma likumus par datu aizsardzību. Pirmie likumi par personas datu aizsardzību Eiropā tika pieņemti Vācijas Federatīvajā Republikā, tad Zviedrijā (1973), Norvēģijā (1978) un citur [8, 10]. Ne visas valstis pieņēma likumus par datu aizsardzību vienlaikus, tāpēc Eiropas Padome nolēma izstrādāt konvenciju, lai unificētu datu aizsardzības noteikumus un principus. Nowadays, the right to privacy is indispensable in every democratic society and inclusion of such rights in the constitution, guarantees legally freedom of action of a natural person and, simultaneously, implementation of other human rights established in the fundamental law of the state. The institute of personal data protection was established by expanding the understanding of the content of the right to privacy in the 70’s of the 19th century, when the government of several European countries initiated information processing projects, such as population census etc. For the development of information technology, more and more information on persons was kept and processed in electronic form. One of the legal problems was gathering of information on natural persons and the right to privacy. In order to ensure the protection of privacy, separate European countries, on their own initiative, established a law on data protection. The first laws on the protection of personal data in Europe were established in the Federal Republic of Germany, then in Sweden (1973), Norway (1978) and elsewhere. Not all countries adopted laws on data protection at the same time, so the Council of Europe decided to elaborate a convention to unify data protection rules and principles.


Author(s):  
Анастасия Юрьевна Сивцова

В статье приводится анализ источников, регламентирующих процесс регламентации персональных данных, анализ норм российских нормативных правовых актов, закрепляющих основные права человека и гражданина, основные конституционные права осужденных на жизнь, здоровье. Автором поясняются некоторые аспекты нормативного регулирования понятия «персональные данные осужденных», право на личную жизнь. На основе научного анализа мнений ученых-юристов автором выстраивается логическая цепочка нормативного регламентирования заявленных дефиниций. В ключевом выводе по данной работе автором дается определение категории информации в следующей трактовке: персональные данные в отношении лиц, содержащихся в следственных изоляторах и осужденных к лишению свободы, - любая информация, относящаяся к прямо или косвенно определенному или определяемому подозреваемому, обвиняемому или осужденному, включающая в себя сведения о частной жизни, связях с родственниками и друзьями, пристрастиях, половой идентификации и предпочтениях, социальном и финансовом положении, о взглядах и убеждениях, о состоянии здоровья, в том числе совокупность информации, способная привести к идентификации осужденного. Предлагается авторская классификация персональных данных специальных субъектов. The article provides an analysis of the sources that regulate the process of regulating personal data, an analysis of the norms of Russian normative legal acts that reflect the basic human and civil rights, the basic constitutional rights of convicts to life and health. The author explains some aspects of the statutory regulation of the concept of "personal data of convicts", the right to privacy. Based on the scientific analysis of the opinions of legal scholars, the author builds a logical chain of statutory regulation of the stated definitions. In the key conclusion of this work, the author defines the category of information in the following interpretation: personal data in relation to persons held in pre-trial detention centers and sentenced to imprisonment - any information related directly or indirectly to a certain or identifiable person, suspect, accused or convicted person, including information about private life, relationships with relatives and friends, addictions, sexual identification and preferences, social and financial status, views and beliefs, health status, including a set of information that can lead to the identification of the convicted person. The author's classification of personal data of special subjects is proposed.


Author(s):  
William Bülow ◽  
Misse Wester

As information technology is becoming an integral part of modern society, there is a growing concern that too much data containing personal information is stored by different actors in society and that this could potentially be harmful for the individual. The aim of this contribution is to show how the extended use of ICT can affect the individual’s right to privacy and how the public perceives risks to privacy. Three points are raised in this chapter: first, if privacy is important from a philosophical perspective, how is this demonstrated by empirical evidence? Do individuals trust the different actors that control their personal information, and is there a consensus that privacy can and should be compromised in order to reach another value? Second, if compromises in privacy are warranted by increased safety, is this increased security supported by empirical evidence? Third, the authors will argue that privacy can indeed be a means to increase the safety of citizens and that the moral burden of ensuring and protecting privacy is a matter for policy makers, not individuals. In conclusion, the authors suggest that more nuanced discussion on the concepts of privacy and safety should be acknowledged and the importance of privacy must be seen as an important objective in the development and structure of ICT uses.


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