If you’ve missed this development of late, the word on the street is that prospective employers are not just using Google to search for whatever may be available on the Internet — they are asking applicants to provide their Facebook passwords to allow the prospective employer to peruse their Facebook page. Our colleagues over at… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Employee Privacy
Subscribe to Employee Privacy RSS FeedFinal regulations published on protection of genetic information
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Andrew Matzkin The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its final regulations implementing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) on Tuesday. The Regulations do a nice job of explaining the real-world application of GINA, and especially how GINA may impact normal HR activities which companies may (mistakenly) assume are not covered by GINA…. Continue Reading
More on Supreme Court Ruling in Quon
Posted in Employee PrivacyAnd as promised in our last post, here is the latest Client Advisory on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Quon case.
Breaking News: Supreme Court Issues Decision in Employee Privacy Case
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Martha Zackin As we’ve blogged in this space,, back in December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear City of Onatario v. Quon, a case on the privacy of text messages sent by a government employee on employer-provided devices. Specifically, the Court agreed to consider whether a police sergeant assigned to a Ontario, California… Continue Reading
Connecticut Woman Files First Suit Under Federal Law Prohibiting Genetic Discrimination
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Jennifer RubinA Connecticut woman has filed a charge of discrimination under the Federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”), which prohibits discrimination against employees based upon their status as carriers of genetic information. The woman claims her status as a carrier of the BRCA2 gene, a gene sometimes associated with the elevated risk of… Continue Reading
More on last week’s NJ Supreme Court decision -
Posted in Employee PrivacyThe decision we blogged about in this space last week is creating quite a bit of buzz in both privacy and employment law circles. My employment law colleagues in our New York office have authored an analysis of the decision here: Employment Alert: New Jersey Supreme Court Finds Privacy Rights in Employee E-Mails And, the… Continue Reading
BREAKING NEWS: NJ Court Upholds Employee E-mail Privacy
Posted in Employee PrivacyIn a precedent-setting decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court today ruled that a company should not have read e-mails a former employee sent to her lawyer from a private Web account through her employer’s computer (See November 5, 2009 Privacy and Security Information blog post). According to the Star-Ledger, the court, which determined the company’s… Continue Reading
T Minus 10,080 Minutes and Counting…..
Posted in Employee PrivacyWe have just one week to go before all entities that own, store, license — or basically do anything with — personal information of Massachusetts residents must comply with the Commonwealth’s new data security regulations. Things to consider: Have you done your risk assessment? Looked at what you collect and how you collect and how… Continue Reading
Data Privacy Day – Tip #4 – Transactional Best Practices for Lawyers
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Michael Arnold and Jennifer RubinEven though lawyers working on both sides of an M&A transaction during the due diligence phase might immerse themselves in a “confidentiality bubble”, they still must be careful not to disclose or access confidential employee information in the course of that transaction. Attorneys evaluating potential transactions might be tempted… Continue Reading
Data Privacy Day – Tip #3 – The weakest link??
Posted in Employee PrivacyMy lunchtime speaking engagement was at the International Association of Privacy Professional’s Boston KnowledgeNet. I had the pleasure to share the panel with Mike Spinney from SixWeight (www.sixweight.com) and identity theft guru Robert Siciliano. We had a spirited discussion about privacy training and awareness. You can access their blogs in the panel to the right…. Continue Reading
More Detail on Quan Case
Posted in Employee PrivacyMy colleague, Martha Zackin, has published a more extensive discussion of the issues before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Quan case – ELB Law Information: Supreme Court to Hear Case re Employer’s Access to Employee’s Text Messages
Supreme Court will review some issues in Quon Case, denied review to other issues
Posted in Employee PrivacySome additional information on yesterday’s post regarding the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Quon case. The high Court agreed to hear some, but not all of the issues presented by the Ninth Circuit decision in the case. The Court will consider whether a police sergeant assigned to a SWAT team had a reasonable expectation… Continue Reading
Supreme Court To Decide Privacy of Employee Texts
Posted in Employee PrivacyU.S. Supreme Court this morning decided to hear a case on the privacy of employee text messages sent on employer-provided devices, reports the Washington Post (see below). The case–City of Ontario v. Quon–could have profound implications on employee privacy rights, according to a Baltimore Sun report. It involves an Ontario, California police officer who sent… Continue Reading
Breakfast and social media policies
Posted in Employee PrivacyRelated to the last post — is your company working on its social media employee policy? If not, you should be. If you happen to be in Boston, Mintz Levin is hosting a breakfast briefing on social media in the workplace next week. Register here
Some startling statistics regarding social networking issues in the workplace……
Posted in Employee PrivacyYou might be surprised to know that social networking policies, governing employee use of blogging, Facebook, Twitter and the like, are still a rarity at many business, including teaching hospitals. And, you might be equally surprised to hear that studies are revealing that medical students are displaying cavalier attitudes towards the protection of patient confidentiality…. Continue Reading
When employee handbooks don’t tell the whole story…..
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Cynthia and Jennifer The discussion of employer access to employee emails in our September 21 blog entry continues with another appellate court decision about workplace privacy rights. In Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., the court completely rejected an employer’s attempt to rely upon an email policy to gain access to an employee’s… Continue Reading
$1.8 Million Verdict in Pretexting Case
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Cynthia and Michael A Cook County, Illinois jury recently awarded $1.8 million dollars to Kathy Lawlor, who claimed that her former employer, North American Corp. of Illinois, violated her privacy rights by hiring a private investigator who fraudulently obtained her telephone records through the use of “pretexting” – or by pretending to be… Continue Reading
What is “reasonable expectation of privacy” in an employment context?
Posted in Employee PrivacyWritten by Cynthia and Jennifer A recent decision by the Maine Supreme Court highlights the tension between an employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy in conducting personal business through a company’s computer system and the individual’s right to prevent the company’s publishing of such material. In Fiber Materials, Inc. v. Subilia, the Maine Supreme Court dismissed… Continue Reading
IAPP Privacy Academy 2009
Posted in Employee PrivacyThe IAPP Privacy Academy is taking place in Boston this week. Privacy professionals from all over the world are gathered to catch up on the latest developments and best practices. I’ll blog a bit from the Academy and pass on some of the tidbits.
Long-Awaited California Decision on Cameras in the Workplace
Posted in Employee PrivacyCalifornia Supreme Court has finally issued its decision in a workplace privacy case finding that an employer’s placement of a hidden camera in an office used by two employees did not violate the employees’ right to privacy. This case has drawn much attention as it worked its way through the appellate courts. My colleagues in… Continue Reading
