A plastics factory in Alicante has been sentenced to compensate one of its workers for using facial recognition technology to monitor him without first informing him or requesting his consent, as elDiario.es has exclusively revealed.
The Social Court number 2 of Alicante considers in its ruling that the company's actions constitute a very serious breach of the employee's privacy. The company acted illegally with the use of biometrics, so it will have to pay the worker compensation of 6,251 euros.
The convicted company, Albero Forte SL, used an image of the employee that was intended for other purposes to include it in its facial recognition surveillance system database, when it had really requested consent only to use it on the website, social networks and for advertising purposes.
This is a pioneering ruling in Spain on the use of facial recognition to illegally spy on workers, although the court has imposed the lowest possible penalty for very serious offenses, according to the Law on Infringements and Sanctions in the Social Order.
One of the key points of the ruling is “proportionality of a biometric system”, which considers whether “it is necessary” to use it for the purposes of the company or excessive. In this case, it is considered that the benefit does not compensate for “the loss of privacy” that the affected employee has suffered.
The company, with almost 500 workers, will appeal the sentence although it is still unknown if it has used this facial recognition system without the consent of other workers and how many would be affected by this alleged infraction.
