By Ashley Young-
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) probing Barclays have said that the bank’s staff have a right to have their details private.
Barclays is being probed by the United Kingdom’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), over allegations that the British bank spied on its staff, the ICO revealed on Sunday.
Today, an ICO spokesperson told The Eye Of Media.Com that Barclays staff have a right to expect their details are kept private. The spokesperson said:
”Barclays staff and all individuals have a right to expect their details are kept private. Monitoring of details is not strictly prohibited but the public need to be clear about expectations that any monitoring has tangible benefits.
There must always be transparency and all monitoring should be conducted in a manner that is fair, lawful and proportionate”.
The bank is being probed for illegitimately using a system used by the bank to track staff at work. Barclays uses a solution from Sapience Analytics to monitor how much time staff actually spend at their desk.
On its website, Sapience Analytics states: “By providing automated work pattern reporting, real-time analytics and advanced IT asset management tools, Sapience delivers unprecedented visibility into how people work, with actionable insights to better manage cost and performance across teams and organisations, and guide in-office and remote workforce deployment strategies.”
The bank says it is tracking individual workers by using anonymised data.
A number of employers in the Uk have deployed tracking software to oversee the working patterns of employees working from home to ensure they are actually putting in the hours they claim.