German executives from the Swedish modegigant H&M have identified a series of employees ' personal data such as health problems, sex partners and menstrual problems.

It reports the German radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk.

data Collection was carried out by the supervisors, who had the task of creating a friendly atmosphere, where employees, among other things in their coffee breaks were encouraged to tell about their privacy.

the Information should, according to the German media has been used to determine whether employees should continue in the job or not.

It was through a flaw in the computer system that the employees at the H&M office in the southern German city of Nuremberg was aware that there was a secret folder, where the leaders gathered sensitive data on them.

According to the Bayerischer Rundfunk gathered the leaders of information to hold private conversations with their employees without telling them, that it was said, were collected.

Nuremberg-the office has over 700 employees. So far, the German media not found the motive behind dataregistreringerne, but it has been happening for a long time.

the Case is now with the German data protection authorities, which has its seat in Hamburg.

Hamburg's Police are responsible for data protection, Johannes Caspar, calling the action "criminal".

"It is a big breach against the personal data act in such a way that we haven't seen it in several years," he says to the German media.

Modevirksomheden risk a fine of more than € 20 million equivalent to almost 150 million Danish kroner.

It is 'unacceptable that we have staff who have been affected by this, and the administrator of personal data in Germany has contacted the concerned data protection authorities,' writes H&Ms press division to the Swedish news agency TT.

/ritzau/