Summary

It is common that people use employer’s means of communication for both professional and personal communication. Usually everything is fine until some kind of a problem or doubt arises, for example, in relation to the reliability of the employee. In that case, the employer may be interested in familiarising itself with the information being submitted or having been submitted via the means of communication available to the employee. It is here that the question arises regarding how the employees’ right to the confidentiality of messages is protected.
The article addresses the most widespread reasons for monitoring employees’ means of communication. The author notes that the need for monitoring the means of communication may not be related to checking on employees exclusively, but it is also sometimes directly necessary for the normal functioning of the everyday work processes of an undertaking or organisation. The article also introduces the survey carried out by the author on how much and to what extent do employers monitor the means of communication at the disposal of their employees.
Estonia lacks legislative requirements for employers for the establishment of a procedure on the use and monitoring of means of communication. It makes drawing a line between legal and illegal monitoring of employees difficult. In 2010, the Data Protection Inspectorate published a guideline on processing personal data in an employment relationship. It is based on the advisory guidelines by the European Working Group on Data Protection. Unfortunately, it is not entirely clear how binding the principles in these guidelines are to employers. The author finds that the rules that determine protection of fundamental rights of people and decide on possible violation of these rights should have legal force. All the more so because in Estonia the violation of confidentiality of messages is punishable pursuant to criminal procedure.