Geolocation Monitoring of an Employee from the Perspective of Article 8 of the ECHR - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Legal Studies, 12, 2 (2023) 1–17

DOI: 10.47745/AUSLEG.2023.12.2.01

Abstract. Current technological and economic development has resulted in the increasing demand for and expansion of surveillance techniques that enable the precise monitoring of employees and objects in the workplace.One such technique is geolocation monitoring, which raises many questions and controversies regarding Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.The employment relationship is characterized by the specific inequality of its parties and the conflict between their rights and interests. This conflict on the basis of the use of geolocation surveillance in the workplace takes the form of a conflict between the function and the right of the employer to organize the work process and monitor their expenses and the right of the employee to respect for their private life.In order to ensure adequate protection of the employee’s privacy on the one hand and to determine the reasonable scope of acceptable interference with Article 8 of the ECHR in the case of the use of geolocation monitoring in the workplace on the other hand, it is necessary to strike a fair balance between relevant interests and rights of the employment relationship parties.This article aims to analyse the ECtHR’s approach to the issue of GPS surveillance in and outside the workplace and to answer two questions: (1) whether the ECtHR’s conclusions differ in the case of workplace geolocation from geolocation used in other circumstances and (2) whether the ECtHR’s findings differ in the case of employee geolocation monitoring from other forms of workplace monitoring.

Keywords: geolocation, surveillance, right to privacy, GPS, ECHR, employee monitoring