{"id":36929,"date":"2019-02-24T12:37:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T09:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/blog\/articles\/gdpr-biometrika-dedomena\/"},"modified":"2019-02-24T12:50:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T09:50:50","slug":"gdpr-biometric-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/articles\/gdpr-biometric-data\/","title":{"rendered":"GDPR: The next day: Biometric data and employment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GDPR has been in place since May 25, 2018, and every day we reveal that adjusting to its requirements affects the philosophy and operation of a business. One such issue is the entry \u2013 control of employees<\/strong> by taking biometric data (e.g. fingerprints). Why is that so? Because while I can \u201cclock on, on behalf of my colleague\u201d so that my colleague \u201chas a little bit more of morning sleep\u201d, I cannot deceive the smart machine that \u201creads the fingerprints or the iris\u201d. The GDPR sets strict barriers to such choices.<\/p>\n

Pursuant to Article 9 par.1 of the Regulation, the processing of biometric data is generally forbidden for the purpose of undeniably identifying a person.<\/em> Such processing is permitted, exceptionally, with the explicit consent of the Subject and in any case in accordance with the consensus guidelines No. 259 \/ 28.11.2017, adopted by the European Data Protection Board. It is a crystallized position of the Working Party 29 that there can be no question of free consent<\/strong> in the case of a \u201cpower imbalance\u201d, as is the case for the employer-employee relationship.<\/p>\n

Already since the application of Law 2472\/1997, the Data Protection Authority<\/strong> has issued decisions on the processing of biometric data in the workplace. In these decisions, the position of the Greek Authority<\/strong> is developed that such processing is not necessary to achieve the employees’ time schedule compliance monitoring. As a result, such records constitute an excess<\/strong>, the abusive nature of which is not waived by any employee’s consent.<\/p>\n

The Decision 56\/2009 of the DPA<\/strong> in a relevant case, is Indicative of the scope of the exception. According to this decision, the Authority did not find it illegal to use fingerprint recognition equipment because it concerned specific employees who would have special access to a particular site, which could be classified as the highest security due to compliance with \u201cCertification Authority Keys\u201d namely on the basis of the public interest. In fact, this decision deals with the issue in terms of authorization, substance, and legitimacy and not technical, as the specifications had already been met: (a) data encryption, (b) non-maintenance of data, and (c) non-connection to a central system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The decision 50\/2007 is indicative of DPA\u2019s consistent position <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Decision 50\/2007 for another case is indicative of the Authority\u2019s consistent position. Although the company\u2019s argument was based on the fact that \u201cthe system is based on the method of finger\u2019s geometry and the data collected from it are recorded and stored in a file that is encrypted while fingerprints are neither collected nor stored\u201d<\/em>, the DPA has overtaken the specific arguments and insisted that \u201cthe introduction and use of biometric data is a processing of personal data of employees which is not necessary for the purposes of monitoring the entry and\/ or exit to premises\/buildings and observance of their entering and leaving hours and is therefore illegal\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, receiving biometric data at a working environment is only possible by way of exception<\/strong>. Balancing the needs of the company and the requirements of the Regulation undoubtedly leads to choices that will also prevent the company from being harmed and employees\u2019 rights not be affected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n

Petrini Naidou<\/a>
\nSenior Associate<\/em><\/h4>\n

P.S. A brief version of this article has been published in Greek in MAKEDONIA Newspaper (February 24, 2019).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GDPR has been in place since May 25, 2018, and every day we reveal that adjusting to its requirements affects the philosophy and operation of a business. One such issue is the entry \u2013 control of employees by taking biometric data (e.g. fingerprints). Why is that so? Because while I can \u201cclock on, on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[692,515,690,214,693,584,600,583],"class_list":["post-36929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-biometric-data","tag-data-protection","tag-dpa","tag-gdpr-en","tag-gdpr-and-employment","tag-personal-data","tag-personal-data-protection","tag-petrini-naidou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36929"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36934,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36929\/revisions\/36934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koumentakislaw.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}