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ARTICLE · 18 JULY 2013

Employers Must Follow Privacy Protocols When Implementing Biometric Attendance Systems

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In response to concerns about employee attendance and building security, some employers have chosen to implement biometric attendance systems in the workplace.

CanadaEmployment and HR
Barbara Stratton
Barbara Stratton
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In response to concerns about employee attendance and building security, some employers have chosen to implement biometric attendance systems in the workplace. These systems allow an employer to monitor employees' work hours by measuring biological characteristics like fingerprints, handprints or facial features and associating this measurement with an identified individual. As biometric systems record personal information about identifiable individuals, their use by employers is subject to the requirements of privacy legislation.

The interplay between biometric attendance systems and employee privacy has been addressed by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC) on two occasions: Investigation Report P2008-IR-005 and Investigation Report F2008-IR-001. In both cases, the employer implemented a biometric attendance system in order to more accurately record attendance and reduce instances of "buddy punching", a practice where one

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