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Alberta Privacy Commissioner Comments on Keystroke Logging
The Alberta Privacy Commissioner recently held that a regional library did not have the authority under Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to collect an employee's personal information through keystroke logging software.
The library's director had the keystroke logging software, which records everything done on a computer, installed because of some concerns about the employee's productivity. The employee was not told about the software, but discovered and disabled the program himself shortly after it was installed. No one at the library ever viewed the collected information. The employee complained to the Privacy Commissioner.
The Commissioner found that the keystroke logging program collects "personal information". Even when the information relates to an employee's work activities, it has a personal component in that it can reveal how much work an employee does, the employee's style or manner of doing the work, etc. However, the library did not have authority under the Act to collect that information. The Act allows a public body to collect information that is necessary for an operating program or activity of the public body. Here, the evidence did not establish a sufficient concern about the employee's productivity to warrant keystroke logging, and the keystroke log information was not necessary to manage the employee.
The Commissioner emphasized that even had there been legitimate concerns about the employee's productivity, keystroke logging software would only have been appropriate had there been no less intrusive way of collecting sufficient information. Keystroke logging involves a continuous monitoring of an employee's working life, and is therefore highly intrusive.
The library has expressed concern about the Commissioner's decision, stating that employers have now lost an objective way of measuring workers' performance. However, the decision relates solely to the particular circumstances of this case - the Commissioner did not rule out keystroke logging completely in all circumstances. That being said, the Commissioner's comments should make employers think carefully about using keystroke logging software to monitor employee activity.
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