the decision led to the sanctioning of a haulage company for installing GPS devices on company vehicles.

The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, following a decision dated 16 January 2025, fined a haulage company for unlawfully monitoring around 50 employees during their working hours, using a GPS system installed on company vehicles. The Authority intervened following a report by a former employee of the company, who was subjected to such remote monitoring during his working hours.

The inspections, conducted in cooperation with the Privacy Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, revealed that the GPS system continuously tracked data relating to the location, speed, mileage and status of the vehicles (e.g. when they were switched off or on), without complying with privacy legislation and in a manner that did not comply with the provisions of the authorisation order issued by the Territorial Labour Inspectorate.

In particular, serious shortcomings were found in the information provided to workers, such as the omission of the specific methods of data processing and the absence of information on the possibility of directly identifying the drivers of the monitored vehicles. These processing operations were found to be contrary to the guarantee measures indicated in the Labour Inspectorate’s authorisation, which provided, inter alia, for the anonymisation of the data collected and the adoption of technological solutions to limit the collection of personal data that were unnecessary or excessive in relation to the purposes of security and company organisation.

In addition, the data collected was stored for a period of more than five months, in violation of the principles of data minimisation and data retention limitation established by the EU Regulation.

As a result of the numerous violations found, in addition to the EUR 50,000 fine, the Garante ordered the firm to provide adequate information to employees and to bring the data processing carried out through the GPS system into line with the requirements set out in the authorisation order of the Territorial Labour Inspectorate.

The firm remains available for any clarification.