[spelunker]

> I avoid workplaces which force shit like this. So do all the good developers I know, because they're people who can afford to be choosy.

So you and your choosy developer friends work at a place where IT can't access your corporate email?

[enzo1982]

In Germany (and probably the whole EU) it's illegal for an employer to read an employee's mails without approval of the workers' council for each individual case.

[Piskvorrr]

"probably the whole EU" [citation-needed]. German privacy law is very strict. This might be a good thing, don't get me wrong - but extrapolating this to all the other 27 member states is pure nonsense.

[enzo1982]

Requiring approval of the worker's council is how an employer's demand to read an employee's mail is usually handled in Germany. I did not mean to imply that it is handled the same way in the whole EU, just that unsubstantiated monitoring is likely illegal in the whole EU.

[enzo1982]

The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that an employee's communication may not be monitored without prior notice and without specific reasons. [1]

This ruling applies not only to the whole EU, but to the 47 member states of the Council of European, including for example Russia and Turkey.

[1] https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-rule-of-law/-/echr-m...

[Piskvorrr]

I'm aware of this, yet "prior notice + specific reasons" != "approval of the workers' council for each individual case"