Can my employer put cameras in the workplace?

The gradient runs from door to desk. Usually lawful: cameras at entrances, tills, warehouses and stockrooms for security and theft prevention — with visible signage, a defined purpose, short retention and works-council involvement where national law requires it. Almost never lawful: continuous filming of individual workstations (“performance surveillance”), cameras in break rooms and canteens (rest is private), and absolutely not in toilets, changing rooms or nursing rooms — that is sanctioned everywhere, often criminally. Covert cameras are the extreme exception: the ECtHR’s López Ribalda Grand Chamber judgment allowed a Spanish supermarket’s hidden cameras only because of concrete, serious theft suspicion, tight targeting and short duration — as a routine tool they are unlawful, and several DPAs have fined retail chains heavily for normalising them. Home office: your employer may not require webcam-always-on surveillance in your home; a Dutch court famously called a US employer’s webcam demand a human-rights violation, and DPA guidance across Europe follows that line. Your rights against workplace cameras: ask for the camera policy and legal basis (Art. 13), request footage of yourself (Art. 15 — it must be findable), and challenge placements via the works council or your DPA. A camera that films the smoking area “by accident” is a placement decision, not an accident.