European Human Rights Ruling Provides Insights on Privacy for U.S. Companies

There are important lessons for U.S. and multinational companies after a recent decision from the European Court of Human Rights on whether an employer's monitoring of an employee's electronic communications violated his right to privacy.

The employee, Bogdan Bărbulescu of Romania, was fired after using the company's internet and accessing Yahoo Messenger for personal reasons during the workday, according to the ruling.

When asked about the decision, Philip Gordon, an attorney at Littler Mendelson, told Legaltech News that there is a lesson for U.S. multinational employers with subsidiaries in the European Union (EU) and EU employers. Before undertaking content monitoring in real time, “EU employers should structure the monitoring in a way that would permit them to demonstrate the monitoring was reasonable under the circumstances,” he said.