The Hsinchu District Court has ordered a woman to pay NT$10,000 to her colleague as compensation for peeping at their salary slip without consent, which was an infringement of privacy.
A woman, surnamed Peng (彭), was accused by her colleague, surnamed Liu (劉), of looking at private documents on her desk eight times from December 2023 to June last year, the verdict said.
Liu said she was infuriated and frightened that Peng had entered her work area three times in half an hour on June 28 last year, which was Liu’s day off and the day when their company released the mid-year bonus salary slip.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Peng said she walked around the office to ensure safety whenever she left the office late.
Peng said she saw Liu’s salary slip when she walked past Liu’s workstation, adding that she entered Liu’s work area and looked at it out of curiosity.
Other than that time, she did not walk into Liu’s work area, and she did not flip through Liu’s belongings, and therefore did not infringe on her privacy, Peng said.
Peng peeped at Liu’s work station five times, but it only lasted several seconds each, which could hardly be a violation of privacy, a judge said.
However, the court said Peng looking at Liu’s salary three times, which lasted 10 seconds each, on June 28 last year was a breach of privacy as there was no consent or proper reason.
It is reasonable for Liu to seek compensation, as she mentally suffered due to the privacy infringement, the judge said.
Liu had asked for a NT$50,000 compensation, but that is too much considering their job duties, wealth, the extent of the privacy infringement and because they are still colleagues, the judge said, adding that a NT$10,000 compensation would be appropriate.
In other news, the Hsinchu District Court fined a man NT$5,000 for contravening the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by putting a sticker on his neighbor’s doorbell camera 36 times in March, and 67 times in January and February.
The man, surnamed Huang (黃), said that the doorbell camera was filming his door so he tried to protect his privacy.
The court said Huang should have sorted it out in a legal, legitimate and rational way instead of putting a sticker on his neighbor’s doorbell camera the way he liked.
His action was a nuisance and infringed on the property of his neighbor, the court said.
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