Companies have right to track employee internet use, rules European Court

Businesses are allowed to follow the online behaviour of their employees, ruled the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after a case in which an employee was sacked for holding private chat conversations during working hours, writes De Morgen.

In 2007, Bogdan Mihai Barbulescu was dismissed by a Romanian company for sending private chat messages to his wife and brother via his business Yahoo Messenger account, which is against the company rules. Barbulescu initially denied the allegations, but his boss replied by handing him a printout of the chat messages, and then firing him.

Barbulescu took the case to the European Court because he felt that his former employer had violated his privacy. Now, eight years later, the ECHR has ruled in favour of Barbulescu's boss, concluding that it is not "unreasonable that an employer would want to verify whether or not employees fulfill their professional duties during working hours."

The Court also pointed out that Barbulescu's Yahoo account was intended for professional, and not private use. The company therefore did not violate any privacy laws by accessing the transcripts of the chats.

It is the first time that the European Court gives a ruling on how far employers may go in controlling the online communications of their employees.