In January 2016 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
delivered a judgment in Bărbulescu v. Romania
regarding a Romanian employer's rights to access an
employee's private communications. The court determined that
the employer had acted lawfully when it monitored an employee's
email account, supporting the decision of the Romanian civil court
to dismiss the employee's appeal in earlier years. However, in
a recent turn of events, an appeal was made from the Chamber of the
ECHR to the Grand Chamber; and on September 5, 2017, the decision
was reversed. This is highly unusual, and the Grand Chamber came
down more in favor of the employee's right to privacy.
Facts of the Case
Bărbulescu was a sales engineer working for a private
company in Romania. His employer had a strict policy of prohibiting
the use of its equipment (including the Internet) for personal use.
His employer asked him to set up an email account, specifically to
reply to client queries. Bărbulescu
