Can employers legally monitor employee activity on office-issued computers?

Should employees expect and just accept random monitoring activities on their office-issued computers? The National Privacy Commission says not all the time. 

On Tuesday, the NPC released guidelines based on the Data Privacy Act of 2012, showing companies and their employees when employers are allowed to check activity on work computers, and when they're not.

NPC wrote, "Hindi automatic na violation ng batas ang pag-monitor ng employer sa activities ng employee gamit ang office-issued computer." According to the Commission, the Data Privacy Act allows monitoring as long as it is done within the limits of the law.

What is allowed by law

If employers wish to monitor employees' work computers, the company must first make sure the purpose for the tracking is clear both to the employer and employees. Per an advisory opinion dated Nov. 28, 2018, monitoring is legal if it is carried out to manage workplace productivity, protect employees, or safeguard business assets and intellectual property. The law also allows remote monitoring to prevent secondhand liability, meaning in cases where the "employer assumes legal responsibility for the actions and behavior of employees."

However, the monitoring must remain proportional to the company's actual needs.

"Personal data of the employees shall only be collected, used and stored by the employer, through computer monitoring, if the purpose sought to be achieved cannot be fulfilled by any other less privacy-intrusive means," according to the advisory.

This tracking must be done openly, as "secret surveillance" is heavily "frowned upon." Employees have the right to know the exact purpose of the monitoring, when and how it will be carried out, which personal data may be collected, who has access to the records, the duration of the data storage, how their data will be protected, and the procedure on how employees can file complaints if they feel their data privacy rights have been violated.

"Dapat alam ng employee na may monitoring, malinaw ang layunin nito (halimbawa, para sa productivity o security), at hindi sobra o mas intrusive kaysa sa kinakailangan," the NPC wrote on Facebook.

What is illegal

Any form of stealth tracking is prohibited. Also deemed "excessive and disproportionate" is the use of software that tracks and records employees' keystrokes or takes random screenshots. That is, unless the company can justify the use of these extreme tracking measures.

Even on company property, workers still retain their basic rights. As the NPC concluded, "Hindi ibig sabihin na puwede nang i-monitor ng employer ang lahat nang walang limitasyon o malinaw na patakaran. Kahit office-issued ang computer at nasa oras ng trabaho ang employee, may karapatan pa rin siya sa data privacy."