Plastic Forte fined for violating employee privacy using facial recognition

A Spanish manufacturing business was fined by the country's data protection authority for violating the privacy of its workers using facial recognition.

Alicante-based Albero Forte Composite (aka Plastic Forte) argued it was using facial recognition to keep track of employee attaendance and working hours.

However, the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) ruled (pdf) that its use of the technology constituted 'a highly intrusive identification system for people’s fundamental freedoms.' 

The regulator also said in its ruling that Plastic Forte should have conducted an impact assessment setting out the 'necessity and proportionality' of the system, and that the company had failed to disclose the existence of the system and how data was managed to its workers.