Surveillance of Employees in The Work Place

Background

It is very common for employers to install some forms of employee monitoring devices in the work place, e.g. hidden video cameras, surveillance software in respect of the usage of email and access to the Internet as well as the recording of telephone calls.  As more and more employees are being monitored at work, some argue that these surveillance activities constitute an intrusion into an individual’s privacy rights.

Under Hong Kong law, the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance ("Ordinance") protects the privacy of individuals in relation to personal data, being any data (i) relating directly or indirectly to a living individual; (b) from which it is practicable for the identity of the individual to be directly or indirectly ascertained; and (c) in a form in which access to or processing of the data is practicable.