Employers must ditch 'Big Brother' attitudes, says DPC

At a Privacy Laws and Business seminar in London, David Smith, assistant data protection commissioner, explained the DPC's draft code of practice on personal employee data held by employers.

"Employers should err on the side of caution," he said. "The fact that one employee may send an abusive email is not a reason to monitor all emails. Employees have the right not to be continuously watched."

Smith added that under the Data Protection Act 1998, "there's very little justification for continual monitoring".

Sandie Hopkins, operational risk manager at Barclays, said her company first scanned email and internet use after finding pornography on the system.

She said: "We were looking for misuse of resources and time, so we set out clear terms of reference. We did a random check of 20 employees' accounts, and we did not check personal emails."

Hopkins said that restricting the search to certain types of files, such as jpeg and video clips, made the search targeted.

Smith added that although most of the attention has focussed on monitoring and surveillance of employees, the code is designed to protect individuals against a wave of potential technological intrusions.

He said: "Technology is enabling people in HR to exploit sources of information that they couldn't before. Technology can easily deliver up electoral role or credit-referencing information."

The draft code of practice covers all aspects of HR from online applications for job openings to genetic testing and is available at http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk .

The consultation period ends on 5 January.

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