Monitoring People In Covid Times: A Necessity Or Nuisance?

To help prevent the spread of the virus, many states, employers and other organisations have come up with creative ideas and technologies for monitoring their citizens, employees or clients. Although some of the collected data is sensitive, Czech public authorities have adopted a flexible approach. The Office for Personal Data Protection approved the temperature monitoring of individuals entering certain premises (by cameras or no touch thermometers) as legitimate and even necessary in order to fulfil the employer's legal obligation to maintain a safe work-place. The Office even agreed that it is in the public interest of the state to order telco operators and banks to monitor the location of individuals and their use of payment cards. Even authorities that are usually cautious about unwarranted "spying", such as the Labour Inspectorate, have indicated that the boundaries of what is permissible may be extended in these extraordinary times. Nevertheless, you should always double check before rolling out a super-smart (but also super-invasive) new gadget or service that could invade other people's privacy.

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