The company is judged to be able to see the content of the employee's messenger application

ByCheon Fong Liew

Sometimes while you are surfing on the job or sending personal mails, you may think that it is a daunting task, but in Europe, "a company is a private message that employees sent during their duties You can check the contents of the "was issued. The content of this decision,European Convention on Human RightsI will detain all the countries that ratify.

Private messages at work can be read by European employers - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35301148

Romanian Bojan Babrescu was fired at the company he was working at in that year in 2007. At that time, the company requested to disclose the contents of the Yahoo Messenger application used by Babrescu, he said that he actually viewed the message. Babescue filed a lawsuit in Romania's court, saying that this act is infringing privacy right and it is illegal, but the complaint has been rejected.

So Babescue, for the sake of refinementEuropean Human Rights CourtOn 12 January 2016, the European Human Rights Court stated that "" Even if a company includes personal messages of employees, it is necessary to confirm the contents of the message during the duties It is possible to do ".


BBC NewsAccording to Mr. Babescu, he was sending and receiving messages in the Yahoo Messenger application during his working hours, and that there were a mixture of work messages and private messages in it. According to the judgment of the European Human Rights Court, "It is natural that companies (employers) want to confirm the contents to judge whether their duties were properly carried out, regarding the act of sending and receiving messages done during working hours That is the right to read the contents of the message ". However, one out of eight judges is an important issue concerning the privacy right as it is disagreeing that it may be a ban on the Internet as a whole, so read the contents of e-mails and messages without constraints It seems not to admit that.

In addition, there was an internal regulation banning the private message sending acts during the working hours for the company that Babrescu was working for, the fact that Mr. Babrescu was advised about the private message sending action, that Babrescu Circumstances such as that the company does not have access to other data stored in the PC are taken into consideration, and conditions under which the employer is deemed a legitimate act to read the content of the private message of the employee There is also room for interpretation that it is limited.

Lillian Edwards, a professor who studies Internet law at Strathclyde University who was asked for an opinion on this case, said, "In this case, employers are prohibiting employees from using the Internet outside of their work Although it is not supported by most people, it is pointed out that the act of forbidding the use of any Internet other than involving business is totally legal. "While talking about it, while using the Internet for personal reasons during his duties Considering that it is not reasonable to think about forbidding anything, even considering that the right to have a private life is maintained even during duties.