Structured Consulting Sweden recently fired two employees after spying on their online conversations with software they had installed on the workers’ computers.
Tomas Hedin, who worked from home using a company owned computer, was dismissed after a conversation with a colleague about their employers. The husband and wife owners turned up at his home shortly after dismissing his colleague, and forced him to sign a dismissal agreement.
The management had used software from SpectorSoft to monitor their habits, having asked employees to install routine software updates which had the spying software installed.
Following a complaint to his union, Hedin had his dismissal withdrawn but he has since resigned over the incident in which the employer accused him of having a theoretical conversation on how to cheat them.
According to prosecutor Hakan Roswall, Structured Consulting was within its rights to install spyware on its own computers.
“As long as you own the computer you have the right to install spyware that keeps track of everything from bank transactions to web cameras,” he told Goteborgs-Posten.
However, Sweden’s data protection laws deem it illegal for employers to monitor workers without the staffmembers’ consent.