Keylogger software tracks all keystrokes.
Image: dpa
The Federal Labor Court has ruled that employees on their company PCs must not be controlled by spyware. There is one exception though.
Dhe Federal Labor Court has drawn strict limits on the use of spyware on company computers for covert surveillance of employees. So-called keyloggers, which secretly log all keystrokes on a computer and take screenshots, are not permitted for monitoring work behavior, the Federal Labor Court ruled in Erfurt on Thursday. This only does not apply if there is a concrete suspicion of a criminal offense or a serious breach of duty by the employee.
In their landmark judgment, the federal labor judges rated the use of the spyware as a massive encroachment on the personal rights of employees. The digital data was obtained illegally and should not be used in court. Like the lower courts, they therefore declared the termination of a programmer from North Rhine-Westphalia to be invalid. Based on data from the keyboard spy, his boss had accused him of using parts of his working hours on the company PC for private purposes.