
German Commissioner for the Protection of Confidentiality and protection personal data said Thursday that it imposes large fine in the known company H&M clothing after research which took place at the beginning of the year. According to the investigation, H&M is accused of systematic monitoring employees in Germany. The fine was 35,3 million euros ($ 41 million).
The Hamburg data protection commissioner had said in a statement that the Swedish company gathered personal information for its employees, which could be considered harmless but may even involve details of family matters and religious beliefs.
The information was stored on a network in which they had access up to 50 administrators. These elements essentially created one detailed profile of employees.
According to the protection commissioner data, Johannes Caspar, "the collection of information about their privacy and the recording of their activities led to a particularly intense violation of the civil rights of employees".

As we said above, the commissioner has been aware of the incident since the beginning of the year and has launched an investigation. THE infringement was discovered when the data of employees became visible to all individuals in network of H&M.
H&M said in a statement that the practices in Nuremberg (where the violation took place) did not comply with the company's instructions. However, he stated that assumes full responsibility for the incident and has already apologized to the affected employees. The company said it would consider the fine.
Casper is pleased with H&M's decision to give compensation to employees at the Nuremberg service center. Also, according to Security Week, the company has received measures to prevent future privacy breaches. H&M “shows the intention to give employees the respect and appreciation they deserve for their daily work in the company".