Are you thinking about implementing employee monitoring but worried about how legal it is? To be honest, it is definitely legal in most jurisdictions – as long as you follow the right approach.

To avoid the legal implications of employee tracking, here are some best practices you should follow:

• Know the laws

Regulations vary in different jurisdictions, so you need to know what laws apply to you. In the US the ECPA legally allows monitoring for business purposes, but in the EU the GDPR is slightly stricter.

Some compliance-friendly monitoring software such as Controlio have a specific GDPR mode that will disable features to make it compliant with regulations. Alternatively if you need to comply with other regulations t is possible to adjust the settings yourself.

• Provide detailed notice

Always inform employees they’re being monitored and come up with a clear and transparent policy that outlines what data will be collected, why it’s necessary, and how it will be used. For example, you can explain that Controlio will be used to track work hours, app usage, and web activity for the purposes of monitoring attendance and productivity.

• Get consent

Although consent isn’t required in all jurisdictions, it is still a good way to reduce legal risk and build trust. If some monitoring is considered essential, make it clear – but make the rest optional.

• Limit the scope

As a rule, only collect the minimum amount of data necessary for business purposes – no more. It is best if you are able to avoid any monitoring that is too invasive too.

Using Controlio’s features you can technically monitor employees very closely and track personal emails and IM communications, capture screenshots, log keystrokes, or even record videos. All these things are potentially invasive however, and should only be used if absolutely necessary.

• Limit access to data

The only people who are able to access monitoring data should be those in roles that require it. Aside from that you can consider letting employees access their own data to reassure them that personal information isn’t being monitored. It is easy enough to do this in Controlio, or you can even set it up to email reports to employees at fixed intervals.

• Ensure data security

Some regulations (i.e. GDPR) require strict handling of personal data. However even if it isn’t applicable, you should take steps to ensure the data you collect is stored securely using encryption and other methods to protect against data breaches.

Following these best practices should help you to monitor employees without having to worry about running into trouble on the legal side of things. In fact, as a side benefit they will also help reassure employees that their privacy isn’t being infringed upon.

Keep in mind that your monitoring policies and best practices should evolve with the times. As such, make it a point to review them on a regular basis, get feedback from your employees, and make sure they align with any new regulations that may surface in the future.