Advice

[SlightlyfreakedouT1]

I was sacked this week. The week before I made a complaint to my boss that the company IT man had been logging onto my worktop whilst I was using it at home. My friends husband (who runs an IT company)confirmed this by looking at the logs for the remote access.

What I did not realise is that the IT man in question is my ex-bosses brother in law. I am unsure if this is a criminal offence or not and whether I should pursue it?

At no point was I told I was being monitored. Their defence was that he was performing updates.

"There is no right to data privacy in the uk on equipment you don't own."

There absolutely is. If the equipment is also available for personal use, as laptops and mobile phones frequently are, the employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy. That doesn't mean they can breach any rules the employer might have about acceptable use, but the employer doesn't just get to monitor everything they are doing.

They dont have to tell you if its suspected criminal activity. Ie fraud.

Their justification will be that the op was lying to them taking time off sick when she was going for an interview and that they suspectedmher figures were false.

That's an exception if I read that link correctly.

Evalina

The issue here is they said he was doing maintenance, how would she prove that it was monitoring her? He has full rights to access their own lap top and the data on it. However I suspect they were in the lap top looking for evidence, which is not monitoring as such.

Op, why did you just accept the accusation then and not fight it?

I've missed a bit of the conversation - when she said the figures dont add up she also said something like 'it's not working for us'. I instantly felt guilty about the interview thing and assumed that the company I had the interview with had told them about it which is why I didn't defend myself. In the last 2 months, 3 other people who had worked there for some years all left and I saw how they got treated once they had given their notice in it wasn't very nice.

There absolutely is

I can assure you there is not. In some countries like Finland there is, and employees need to sign a release for companies to access their own equipment and anything personal on it. In the U.K. They do not.

You threw the head up and left.

You should have fought it because now they can quite rightly say they didn't sack you

The op can't hardly claim data privacy when she let someone else snoop all through the work laptop can she?

Neither side has behaved well. But snooping on someone through a webcam (if this did happen) I think is beyond the pale.

The issue here is they said he was doing maintenance, how would she prove that it was monitoring her? He has full rights to access their own lap top and the data on it. However I suspect they were in the lap top looking for evidence, which is not monitoring as such.

Not to watch the OP through the camera at home though eh?

It's like saying they can watch you in the toilets just because you are in their office. Er - no they cannot.

OP - you need to take this further and speak to someone at your local police station. Only they will be able to take away the equipment and look at what Mr IT man has been viewing in staff's houses. Also, with the question of a reference, I'd say 'I am unable to ask for a reference as there is an ongoing police investigation into their practices however I can furnish you with my documented evidence of pay and commission'.

Also, it was obvious that they had been told to sack me by the owner of the company who was not in that day and so there would have been no point asking them for an explanation as the decision had been made higher up. Like I said, I just knew as soon as I raised the issue that they were going to get rid of me and so it was pointless getting into any conversation with them about it. I knew I was getting sacked and my main concern in those 5 minutes was how I was going to get home and how I would be stuck for a vehicle until I sort myself out. I had already decided to leave so I didn't see the point in discussing it. I now realise I should have asked for a full explanation maybe. They most certainly were not saying I had done anything untoward though.

The op can't hardly claim data privacy when she let someone else snoop all through the work laptop can she?

Yes she can. If someone is viewing you in the shower through your webcam, and you ask someone else to say 'do you think someone is viewing me through the webcam' it does not make the person being viewed through the webcam worse than the person viewing her through the webcam. FFS.

They were saying your figures didn't add up?

Not to watch the OP through the camera at home though eh?

Of course he can't do that, but she has no evidence he was. The light comes on when the web cam is activated and if she was concerned she could put a bit of sticky tape over the lens. If he was watching her this is something else entirely. If you were sitting in front of the lap top, looking at the news or whatever, you'd know immediately if the camera was on. It lights up and can't be missed.

alternative I was asking a question hence the ?

"I can assure you there is not."

You can "assure me" all you like. In this country employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy and employers cannot, without prior warning or notification, go trawling through (say) email correspondence which is clearly and obviously private, whether the employer owns the piece of equipment used to send/receive it or not.

Plenty of case law and guidance available.

Thats not true bluntness. There was times when I was in the office and I had a problem with my emails or he said he needed to do a remote update and he would phone me up and get me to click on the teamviewer app that generated a number that i would have to give to him and the light didnt come on. A few weeks later, when i met him for the first time, he came into my office to do something on the lap top and so I left him to it. It was only when he popped up that day I was on a google hangout to my boyfriend that I realised the permissions check box had been unchecked so that he did not have to get a number from me to get on the lap top. My friends husband confirmed this when he looked at it. After that, I put a plaster over the web camera and my friends husband turned off the microphone. I dint use it for anything personal after that apart from reading the news and logging into my personal emails.

Who uses google hangout to their boyfriend on work laptop? I would never ever do that. Maybe I'm paranoid but t I have Whatsapp and messages for that. And private email stays on my own phone or tablet

No the light does not always come on when the webcam does. I can set my webcam up so that it runs without the light. It's not difficult.

If they suspected some kind of fraud, the logical thing to have done would have been to have asked her to hand in her laptop for analysis, not to have the IT guy log on remotely late at night while she was at home.

Plenty of people use work laptops to use social media, and not everyone wants to carry round 2 x laptops and 2 x phones with them, so inevitably will check email, do hangout calls etc on them. I do, especially when travelling for business.

Clearly I'm paranoid 🤐

You can "assure me" all you like. In this country employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy and employers cannot, without prior warning or notification, go trawling through (say) email correspondence which is clearly and obviously private, whether the employer owns the piece of equipment used to send/receive it or not

They can. They own it. I don't like it either but they absolutely can. 100 percent. They own what is stored on it and can access at any time.

I stand corrected on the light though, I've never had a lap top that didn't light up when the cam was switched on, but if it can be deactivated then fair enough.

If you're sure he was watching and listening to you and not just looking at data, then yes go to the police.

But snooping on someone through a webcam (if this did happen) I think is beyond the pale.

The Op doesnt know that or have proof of that he watched her. She had proof he had remotely accessed it.

Op doesnt matter if you they were going to sack you.

Their case will be

Op was suspected of fraud (the figures bit) so we began monitoring. ITunchecked the permission box because of suspected criminal activity. Criminal activity gives them ground to inform the employee.

While monitoring we found the op misusing company property. Streaming music, chatting to friends/boyfriend. We then discovered that when she called in sick it was actually for an interview. We know that she allowed someone to access the laptop (because we were monitoring) and check the security. They then adjusted the settings.

We decided to speak to her about the suspected fraud. But when we did she only asked how she was going to get home. We said we would call a taxi and she left. She gave no defence or would even discuss it.

At this point we had not decided to dismiss her. We simu eanted to discuss it. Talk it out and see if it was a mistake or intentional. If it was a mistake, how could we work with her to ensure it didnt happen again.

We decided to not pursue criminal charges for fraud.

She has responded by making accusations that are baseless and for which she has no proof.

My boyfriend lives an hour and a half away so it wasnt unusual for us to set up the google hangout whilst I was also working on the laptop and he would just kind of be there all night but unlike the IT man, I knew he was there and invited him into my home. I thank you all for the responses even the ones that make me feel really stupid. I really do not know what to do though still. I will feel stupid even explaining this to a police officer and like it has been pointed out, I have no proof do I.