Privacy breach | Firm reprimanded for secretly tracking employee's car movements

An employer acted unlawfully by secretly tracking the car movements of one of its employees, a watchdog has ruled.

The Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner (JOIC), the Island’s public body for data protection, found that civil engineering firm Brenwal had covertly tracked a worker’s movements in a company car over the course of one month, following concerns that the worker was “not devoting all of their time to work duties, during their working hours.”

The employee said they were totally unaware of the surveillance - which reportedly took place during working hours of 7.30am and 4pm– adding that they quit their job after making the discovery.

The JOIC report said the worker “was completely unaware that a tracker had been placed on their work owned vehicle and, accordingly, unaware of the potential implications on them e.g., that their whereabouts were being constantly monitored during working hours and that the information gathered from the tracker could potentially be used in the context of disciplinary proceedings.”