Laws

FDPIC – Expl­ana­ti­ons on the employer’s right to access an employee’s pri­va­te data car­ri­ers in the event of a suspec­ted cri­mi­nal offense

The employer is often con­fron­ted with the que­sti­on of what his com­pe­ten­ces are in hand­ling pri­va­te data car­ri­ers (e‑mails, home dri­ves, USB sticks, CD-ROMs, paper docu­ments, etc.) as pos­si­ble evi­dence in the event that an employee is suspec­ted of having vio­la­ted the Cri­mi­nal Code. A fre­quent­ly cited exam­p­le is that of the employee suspec­ted of having dis­c­lo­sed manu­fac­tu­ring secrets to third par­ties via e‑mail. In such cases, the employer must not only ask hims­elf how he should phy­si­cal­ly secu­re the pri­va­te evi­dence, but also whe­ther and under what con­di­ti­ons he may access its con­tent at all in order to sub­stan­tia­te his sus­pi­ci­ons. Becau­se of his duty to pro­tect and respect the employee’s per­so­na­li­ty, the employer is gene­ral­ly not entit­led to access the con­tents of pri­va­te data car­ri­ers. Evi­dence coll­ec­ted in vio­la­ti­on of per­so­na­li­ty may be con­side­red inad­mis­si­ble in court. The employer, on the other hand, has access to busi­ness cor­re­spon­dence at any time.

Source: FDPIC – Expl­ana­ti­ons on the employer’s right to access an employee’s pri­va­te data car­ri­ers in the event of a suspec­ted cri­mi­nal offense

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