Employers have to be clear with their employees about the usage of office monitoring, the UK’s privateness watchdog has warned.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says employers should make their employees conscious of the character, extent and causes for monitoring.

It comes as new analysis commissioned by the ICO reveals that almost one in 5 individuals (19%) consider they’ve been monitored by an employer.

Monitoring can embody monitoring calls, messages and keystrokes, taking screenshots, webcam footage or audio recordings, or utilizing specialist monitoring software program to trace exercise.

However, the ICO has right now printed new steering by which it says any monitoring have to be needed, proportionate and respect the rights and freedoms of employees.

Emily Keaney, Deputy Commissioner of the ICO, insisted the watchdog will “take action if we believe people’s privacy is being threatened”.

“Our research shows that monitoring at work is a real cause for concern, particularly with the rise of flexible working – nobody wants to feel like their privacy is at risk, especially in their own home,” she stated.

“If not conducted lawfully, monitoring can have a negative impact on an employee’s wellbeing and worsen the power dynamics that already exist in the workplace.

“We need individuals to concentrate on their rights underneath knowledge safety regulation and empower them to each determine and problem intrusive practices at work.”

The new steering from the ICO – the UK’s unbiased regulator for knowledge safety and knowledge rights legal guidelines – says workers should inform employees about any office monitoring and ship it in a means that’s “easy to understand”.

Monitoring should even have a “clearly defined purpose” and use the “least intrusive means” to attain it, based on the brand new steering.

The ICO says any knowledge collected needs to be processed in keeping with knowledge safety legal guidelines, and needs to be made out there to employees by way of a Subject Access Request (SAR).

“We are urging all organisations to consider both their legal obligations and their workers’ rights before any monitoring is implemented,” Ms Keaney stated.

“While data protection law does not prevent monitoring, our guidance is clear that it must be necessary, proportionate and respect the rights and freedoms of workers.”

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As a part of the brand new steering, the ICO has commissioned a brand new survey which exhibits that 23% of youthful employees – these aged between 18 and 24 – consider they’ve been monitored at work.

It is greater (25%) for these aged between 25 and 34, whereas solely 11% of older employees – these aged over 55 – consider they’ve been monitored.

Of those that took half within the survey of round 1,000 UK adults, 70% stated they might discover it intrusive to be monitored by an employer.

Around a fifth (21%) stated they might not discover it intrusive to be monitored by an employer in any means.

Older employees (76%) had been additionally extra prone to discover office monitoring intrusive, in comparison with youthful individuals (60%), whereas males (22%) had been extra prone to really feel snug with monitoring in comparison with girls (16%).

The steering from the ICO comes following the rise in workers working from house for the reason that COVID pandemic.

In May, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that greater than eight out of 10 individuals who labored from house through the pandemic deliberate to hold on hybrid working sooner or later.

The proportion of individuals planning to work primarily from house additionally rose from 30% in April 2021 to 42% in February 2022.