Thanks to Reginald (34), everyone within the organisation can switch off their GPS trackers for a short time now
For my work, I often travel to customers. That is why I have a company lease car. The car is equipped with a GPS tracker. That is handy, so my colleagues will always know where I am, and they can keep customers informed of, for example, the time of arrival. It also helps the guys from the planning department. I do not have a problem with that at all.
The point is, however, that I am also allowed to use the car for private purposes and that I cannot switch off the GPS tracker then. It is really not that I have something to hide. But why would my colleagues have to know where I have been during the weekend and at what time? Maybe they won't even look, but you never know if there is a curious colleague who feels like snooping around. It's just none of their business.
The point is, however, that I am also allowed to use the car for private purposes and that I cannot switch off the GPS tracker then.
I have to say that normally I am not the complaining type. But the more I thought about it... I just did not enjoy driving my car anymore, with the idea that my employer was ‘watching’. Then I decided to ask my employer how the GPS data are recorded in my own time and who has access to these data. It turned out that they had not given this any thought at all, just like I thought.
Maybe it is naive, but I don't believe that my employer did something with those data, that it was really just ignorance.
It is terribly busy here now, so I really had to bring it up a few times, but in the end, they came up with a reply: the location data of all lease cars were recorded 24/7. That is quite a lot of private data. Maybe it is naive, but I don't believe that my employer did something with those data, that it was really just ignorance. But well, you never know how that will be in the future.
It turned out that they had not given this any thought at all, just like I thought.
The good news is in any case that my employer finally did take action, and that you can switch off the GPS system in your own time now. And data have been destroyed. Meanwhile, this has also been communicated to all my colleagues, who also started asking questions because of my action on the matter.
Did you know that...
- You have the right to know which personal data an organisation records about you? This is called the right of access.
- You can find a model letter (in Dutch) on our website that you can use to ask an organisation for access to your personal data?
Links
* The privacy stories on this website are based on actual reports to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Due to the privacy of those involved, the personal data and some circumstances have been changed. We use models (stock photography) for the images in these stories.
Why is protecting personal data so important? These people share what happened to them.