The Right to Privacy in Employment: In Search of the European Model of Protection

Abstract

The very breadth of the concept of privacy along with its contemporary tendency to merge with the idea of greater transparency in public life present a real challenge when it comes to enclosing it within legal frames. This task seems to be particularly difficult in the employment context, where the Information Revolution by altering the nature of work, and as a consequence the character and reach of employer supervision, has considerably blurred the frontiers between employees' personal and professional lives. Thus far, in Europe those challenges have not been addressed in a distinct way, but rather through a unique pluralist architecture, build upon co-existing national, supranational and international norms of privacy protection. This contribution, basing on, by necessity, cursory analysis of the conceptual as well as normative foundations of European model of protection of privacy rights, will reflect upon the need of its further particularisation with regard to employment context.