Employer breached my privacy

elsien

A_Lert said:

If there is any chance they could have made an indecent image then I'd consider reporting it to the police, even if you're not certain such an image was made. Ie, any time when an undressed adult or child could have been in the webcam's field of view.

A little disproportionate, do you not think? 

Undervalued

JamoLew said:

If its this then its all legal and above board

ActivTrak is a cloud-based monitoring tool that lets you track which applications your employees are using and which websites they are visiting. You'll need to download and install an ActivTrak tracking agent – which is the monitoring software – on the computer you intend to monitor.

You are using their hardware in their time - they are allowed to monitor what you are doing on their hardware in their time

Are you 100% certain they have been activating the webcam or have you misunderstood what they have been doing/monitoring ?

Even then - it may well be totally legal

What distress have you suffered from doing your job - or do you have something to feel "guilty" about

Exactly this ^^^^^^^

OP, you were at work and using the company's equipment! 

If you were in your office, any member of staff in the same room would have seen what you were doing. I struggle to see how this is different?

You were of course behaving professionally when you were at the computer and working, doing the work you were paid to do rather than surfing the net for you own amusement? If so, why are you concerned?

74jax

Undervalued said:

JamoLew said:

If its this then its all legal and above board

ActivTrak is a cloud-based monitoring tool that lets you track which applications your employees are using and which websites they are visiting. You'll need to download and install an ActivTrak tracking agent – which is the monitoring software – on the computer you intend to monitor.

You are using their hardware in their time - they are allowed to monitor what you are doing on their hardware in their time

Are you 100% certain they have been activating the webcam or have you misunderstood what they have been doing/monitoring ?

Even then - it may well be totally legal

What distress have you suffered from doing your job - or do you have something to feel "guilty" about

Exactly this ^^^^^^^

OP, you were at work and using the company's equipment! 

If you were in your office, any member of staff in the same room would have seen what you were doing. I struggle to see how this is different?

I was always doing my job as if I was in the office, but as mentioned in my post further up, all teams meetings I NEVER used my home background, always an inbuilt teams background.
I have photos, a dog, even my decor is nothing to do with them.
When working from home I did a couple of hours extra because the laptop was just on, some times hubby would bring me a coffee, I don't want them seeing my private life. 

My husband work do not allow any teams meetings with your home background, this came about when someone only had their bedroom as a working space, so now it is policy to use a Teams background at all times.

Monitoring your websites, key strokes etc is entirely different to switching on your webcam and seeing into your home. 

oh_really

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/inside-invasive-secretive-bossware-tracking-workers

Search for more specific info.

There is an implied duty of trust associated with your contract.

Have a read...https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-11/Technology_Managing_People_Report_2020_AW_Optimised.pdf

Are you a trade union member?

Undervalued

oh_really said:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/inside-invasive-secretive-bossware-tracking-workers

Search for more specific info.

There is an implied duty of trust associated with your contract.

The link you have provided, although interesting, is to an article on a campaigning website rather than anything neutral. It is not a definitive statement of the law.

You mention also "an implied duty of trust associated with your contract". Indeed but it is far from uncommon for employers to make all kinds of checks on what their employees do, even when in the office rather than at home. So clearly not everything is taken on "trust" and significant monitoring of somebody you are paying is perfectly lawful.

TBagpuss

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/employee-surveillance-during-lockdown-legal#gref suggess that it may not be legal, particularly if thy did not have a policy warning that you might be monitored. What does your company's IT policy say? 

I think a key issue is what you want to achieve?

Do you simply want to ensure that it stops and doesn't happen in future? If so, then raising your concerns with whoever is your companies Data Protection Manager and with HR might be the way forward.

I think that you could make a subject access request to find out whether they recorded or retained anything , or whether it was 'only' live viewing with nothing saved.
ACAS or your union if you are a member might be able to give you advice on whether they have broken the law or not.

Undervalued

TBagpuss said:

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/employee-surveillance-during-lockdown-legal#gref suggess that it may not be legal, particularly if thy did not have a policy warning that you might be monitored. What does your company's IT policy say? 

I think a key issue is what you want to achieve?

Do you simply want to ensure that it stops and doesn't happen in future? If so, then raising your concerns with whoever is your companies Data Protection Manager and with HR might be the way forward.

I think that you could make a subject access request to find out whether they recorded or retained anything , or whether it was 'only' live viewing with nothing saved.
ACAS or your union if you are a member might be able to give you advice on whether they have broken the law or not.

I would agree that if this was done without any policy or warning in place, then the employer may well have crossed the line. However, I suspect that is unlikely and that somewhere in the depths of the company's IT policy, company handbook or correspondence about home working there will be clauses allowing monitoring.

Even if there was not, the OP is aware now so they need to think very carefully about whether it is in their overall best interest to "rock the boat" about what has happened. 

The vast majority of employees could easily find somewhere in the home to set up their work computer with a neutral background or something they don't mind showing. The computer is presumably switched off outside of working hours.

Also, most employees working from home have enjoyed considerable savings in travel and other costs and many will have been able to squeeze in some other activities that wouldn't have been possible in the office. Some sadly will have abused this and done as little work as they could get away with. Inevitably that will lead to employers wanting to check that they are getting their money's worth which is of course annoying for the majority of honest employees who have been doing their very best.

JamoLew

Undervalued said:

TBagpuss said:

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/legal/employee-surveillance-during-lockdown-legal#gref suggess that it may not be legal, particularly if thy did not have a policy warning that you might be monitored. What does your company's IT policy say? 

I think a key issue is what you want to achieve?

Do you simply want to ensure that it stops and doesn't happen in future? If so, then raising your concerns with whoever is your companies Data Protection Manager and with HR might be the way forward.

I think that you could make a subject access request to find out whether they recorded or retained anything , or whether it was 'only' live viewing with nothing saved.
ACAS or your union if you are a member might be able to give you advice on whether they have broken the law or not.

I would agree that if this was done without any policy or warning in place, then the employer may well have crossed the line. However, I suspect that is unlikely and that somewhere in the depths of the company's IT policy, company handbook or correspondence about home working there will be clauses allowing monitoring.

Even if there was not, the OP is aware now so they need to think very carefully about whether it is in their overall best interest to "rock the boat" about what has happened. 

The vast majority of employees could easily find somewhere in the home to set up their work computer with a neutral background or something they don't mind showing. The computer is presumably switched off outside of working hours.

Also, most employees working from home have enjoyed considerable savings in travel and other costs and many will have been able to squeeze in some other activities that wouldn't have been possible in the office. Some sadly will have abused this and done as little work as they could get away with. Inevitably that will lead to employers wanting to check that they are getting their money's worth which is of course annoying for the majority of honest employees who have been doing their very best.

Or asking the employees to go back into the workplace to the sound of indignant "but I can work fine from home"

Most employees don't appreciate then when in the workplace with provided IT systems, then their actions will probably also be monitored.

It may be that the employer in question used software that they weren't aware activated webcams hence their actions in shutting that aspect down - although its actually very very easy even without monitoring software especially if the PCs are connected to the same network

Savvy_Sue

It doesn't get over the problem of what else may come into view when you're WFH on a video call, but it was made clear to us that we must be properly / professionally dressed when WFH, and there would be video meetings with your manager - not to check on your dress or lack of it specifically, but I'm pretty sure it was to make sure you weren't working in PJs all day. 

Gavin83

Savvy_Sue said:

It doesn't get over the problem of what else may come into view when you're WFH on a video call, but it was made clear to us that we must be properly / professionally dressed when WFH, and there would be video meetings with your manager - not to check on your dress or lack of it specifically, but I'm pretty sure it was to make sure you weren't working in PJs all day. 

I’m not really sure what the issue is with this to be honest. I often work in my dressing gown. Sure, it’s casual but putting on a shirt and tie wouldn’t make me any better at my job.

If I have a video meeting then I’ll obviously get dressed but even then I generally just wear a tee and jeans. I wouldn’t even consider wearing the same attire as I would were I attending the office.