MD006Electronic mail and collaboration monitoring

The recording of what passes through the organization’s messaging and collaboration platforms.

Pillar: MD | Monitoring and detection
Sources cited: 13
Added: 30 AUGUST 2026
Updated: 20 SEPTEMBER 2026

Control	Jurisdiction	Source	What it establishes	Prerequisite or recommendation
MD006/EUMandatory	European Union	Regulation (EU) 2016/679, articles 5(2), 6, 9, 12, 15, 22, 35, and 88European Parliament and Council · read 11 Aug 2026Opinion 2/2017 on data processing at work (WP249)Article 29 Data Protection Working Party · read 11 Aug 2026	The grounds on which processing may rest, the burden of showing it, the categories whose processing is prohibited outright save on a named ground, what a person asking has to be told and by when, the limit on deciding about someone by machine alone, when an impact assessment is owed, and the leave each member state has to set its own employment rule.	A ground under article 6 has to be identified before anything is collected through the recording of the messaging platform, and whatever more specific rule the member state has made under article 88 applies on top of it. Consent is rarely that ground in an employment relationship, since it has to be freely given and the imbalance there makes that doubtful.
MD006/CoEMandatory	Council of Europe	Bărbulescu v. RomaniaEuropean Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber · read 11 Aug 2026	That private life and correspondence reach into the workplace, and the six criteria against which any monitoring measure is weighed.	Private life and correspondence extend into the workplace, including where a worker’s private use of a work device breaks the employer’s rules, and a monitoring measure is to be assessed against six criteria, prior notification and the availability of a less intrusive method among them. The case was decided on that monitoring itself: the employer read the content of a worker’s messaging account.
MD006/ATMandatory	Austria	Arbeitsverfassungsgesetz, sections 96 and 96aNationalrat · read 29 Aug 2026	That a control measure touching human dignity has no legal effect without the works council’s consent, and that consent for automated processing and for assessment systems can be replaced by a conciliation board while consent under section 96 cannot.	The works council’s consent is the condition of the recording of the messaging platform having legal effect, and the threshold is whether it touches human dignity.
MD006/FIMandatory	Finland	Laki yksityisyyden suojasta työelämässä (759/2004)Parliament of Finland · read 29 Aug 2026	One act for the whole subject, holding processing to what is directly necessary, naming the conditions for cameras and for opening the employer’s electronic mail, and putting technical monitoring through a cooperation procedure before it is introduced.	Retrieval of messages belonging to the employer is open only after the employer has arranged the absence alternatives in section 18, and only on the four conditions in section 19, with a signed report of the retrieval given to the employee.
MD006/FRMandatory	France	Code du travail, articles L1121-1, L1222-4, and L2312-38République française · read 16 Aug 2026	Consultation of the social and economic committee before the decision, prior knowledge for the worker, and proportionality to the task.	The committee has to be informed and consulted before the decision to record the platform, and the worker informed that what passes through it is kept.
MD006/DEMandatory	Germany	Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, section 87(1)(6)Bundestag · read 16 Aug 2026	Co-determination by the works council over the introduction and the use of technical devices intended to monitor conduct or performance.	The works council has to agree before introducing the recording of the messaging platform, and again on the manner in which it is used.
MD006/ITMandatory	Italy	Legge 20 maggio 1970, n. 300, article 4Parliament of Italy · read 11 Aug 2026	That an instrument from which remote monitoring may follow is permitted only for stated purposes, and only after a union agreement or an authorization.	An agreement with the union representatives, or failing that an authorization from the labor inspectorate, is required before installing the recording of the messaging platform.
MD006/NLMandatory	Netherlands	Wet op de ondernemingsraden, article 27(1)(l)Staten-Generaal · read 16 Aug 2026	Consent of the works council for an arrangement directed at or merely suitable for observing presence, conduct, or performance.	The works council has to consent before any arrangement governing the recording of the messaging platform is adopted, amended, or withdrawn.
MD006/NOMandatory	Norway	Forskrift om arbeidsgivers innsyn i e-postkasse og annet elektronisk lagret materialeArbeids- og inkluderingsdepartementet · read 29 Aug 2026	When an employer may look into a work mailbox or a worker’s personal areas on its equipment, that monitoring of internet use is outside what it may do at all, and that the regulation cannot be contracted around.	The mailbox provided for the work is reached only where it is necessary for daily operations or another legitimate interest, or on reasonable suspicion of a gross breach of the duties of the employment or of grounds for dismissal. The same holds for what was deleted from it and survives on a backup.
MD006/PLMandatory	Poland	Kodeks pracy, article 22(3)Sejm of the Republic of Poland · read 20 Sep 2026	That monitoring of a worker’s official electronic mail is open only where it is indispensable to an organisation of work permitting full use of working time and to the proper use of the work tools provided, that it may not violate the secrecy of correspondence, and that the same provisions, and with them the procedure of article 22(2), reach every other form of monitoring used for those purposes.	Monitoring of a worker’s official electronic mail is open to the employer only where it is indispensable to an organisation of work permitting full use of working time and to the proper use of the work tools provided. Those two purposes are the whole list, and neither of them is the protection of information. The monitoring may not violate the secrecy of correspondence or the worker’s other personal rights.
MD006/ESMandatory	Spain	Ley Orgánica 3/2018, articles 87, 89, and 90Cortes Generales · read 16 Aug 2026	A right to privacy in employer-provided devices, and the express prior information owed before camera images or location data are processed.	Criteria for use, drawn up with the participation of the workers’ representatives, and express prior information to the workers, are required before putting the recording of the messaging platform into operation.
MD006/GBMandatory	United Kingdom	Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-Keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018Secretary of State · read 30 Aug 2026	The closed list of purposes for which an employer may intercept communications on its own system, and the four conditions on doing it, of which one is telling everyone who may use the system.	Recording what passes through the employer’s own messaging system is interception in the course of transmission. It is authorized on the express consent of the system controller, for a purpose in the closed list, and on four conditions, of which the third is that the system controller has made all reasonable efforts to inform every person who may use the system that communications transmitted by it may be intercepted.