Unfortunately, Zhou says most employers are not obligated to answer truthfully-and withholding your consent could get you fired. Your employer may explain this in a company privacy policy or an employment contract, or you may have to ask. " knowing exactly who has access to your information and choosing platforms where your employer doesn't have that.
"Having notice is the most important thing," says Zhou. Zhou says the simplest way to protect your digital privacy rights could be to find out what your employer is monitoring and avoid conducting any sensitive business that way. Do workers know what employers can access? Enid Zhou of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit, says courts haven't yet ruled on that. Selective monitoring of employees based on race, gender, or certain other demographics could violate civil rights laws.Īnd it's not clear to what extent employers can monitor what workers do on computers or smartphones they own but are using for work. The National Conference of State Legislatures says Connecticut and Delaware state laws require employers to disclose that they're monitoring employee email, and at least 26 states forbid employers from demanding employees' social media passwords. Employers may not legally read messages related to genetic information or union organizing, and union contracts may prohibit monitoring altogether. Generally, employers may not videotape employees in bathrooms or break rooms, although it's not clear how that would apply in an era of virtual meetings. Are there any exceptions to worker monitoring? "Right now, employers have carte blanche in terms of what they can do regarding surveillance and worker monitoring," says Ajunwa, who is also associate faculty at Cornell Law School and Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. That's part of why Professor Ifeoma Ajunwa of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations school, who is also an attorney, co-wrote a law review article called " Limitless Worker Surveillance." And for social media, even if you make a post on your own time and computer to a password-protected social media site, your employer may still legally penalize you if someone else forwards it. What privacy rights exist for email are for personal email-but not if you're using it on the employer's equipment or network. According to federal law and court cases, employers have the right to monitor your use of employer-provided equipment and computer networks, including what you type, your files, what web pages you visit, and your work email. Learn what they are.Įmployees have very few electronic privacy rights when working from home because there are generally very few employee rights to privacy at work. Regardless of your company's privacy policy, employers have very broad rights to watch what their workers do.Įven when you work from home, employee privacy is limited, but there are things you can do to address your remote work privacy concerns and stay employed. If you're working remotely and using equipment owned by your employer, it's worth thinking twice before switching between work tasks and personal tasks.
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