In January 2015 the Commission for the protection of privacy (the "Privacy Commission") published a new brochure about privacy in the workplace. The brochure contains a summary of all previous opinions and recommendations on the matter and discusses the main points of some of them.
Privacy in the workplace is a theme that everyone is concerned with to some extent, and it continues to raise a lot of questions. Therefore, the Privacy Commission decided to publish a brochure entitled "Privacy in the workplace: myth or reality?".
The brochure focuses primarily on prevention and takes as its starting point the question of what employers and employees can and should do to deal with personal data in a correct and privacy-friendly way. The Privacy Commission emphasises the importance of communication, yet at the same time it emphasises that its role in this respect is only indicative and not decisive.
The brochure provides an overview of all opinions and recommendations concerning privacy in the workplace that have been adopted since 1998. The overview is followed by a brief discussion of some of these opinions and recommendations, e.g. on whistleblowing policies, the use of electronic communication tools in the workplace, and the recording of telephone conversations.