Updates in the Complicated World of Employee Privacy

Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers need to be aware and prepare for significant changes to options and rights afforded to employees with respect to their private data and information coming with the California Privacy Rights Act’s (CPRA) January 1, 2023, operative date. Employers will have significant obligations when the grace periods for HR and business to business (B2B) data expire on that
Continue Reading CPRA Brings Big Changes to Perceived Big Brother Employers

Seyfarth Synopsis: With the availability of new vehicle GPS devices and smart phone tracking applications, employers need to be mindful of employee privacy rights when using location technologies in the workplace.

It Doesn’t Take A Magellan To Map Routes Anymore

Employers now have available the technology that concerned parents of wayward teenagers have often wished for. Thanks to technological advances,
Continue Reading There’s An App For That: Considerations in Employee GPS Monitoring

Seyfarth Synopsis: Within the last few years, the California Legislature has amended laws related to an employee’s right to inspect personnel records, intending to ensure employees have access to those records. Since then, employers have seen more such requests, claims made before the Labor Commissioner, and even lawsuits over production of personnel files. We offer here some tips on
Continue Reading The Peculiar “Personnel-ity” of California Personnel File Inspection Laws

Seyfarth Synopsis: Social media information—pictures, status updates, location markers, “likes,” groups, and associated friends, all from the owner’s perspective and documented in real time—can be a  goldmine of information to defend employment lawsuits. Read on for thoughts on how to extract and refine this information, and what limits to observe in using it.

Social media and discovery is an
Continue Reading What’s Not to Like? Using Social Media In Employment Litigation

Seyfarth Synopsis: Hernandez v. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., a case stemming from a phishing scam, emphasizes the need for California employers to implement comprehensive data protection and data breach notification policies and practices for personal employee information under the CDPA.

A story of a company suffering a data breach tops newspaper headlines almost daily. So how can you stay

Continue Reading Phishing: Data Breach Is “Chalkdust Torture”

iStock_000006895318_LargeWe all know that social media and privacy issues in the workplace can be a bone-chilling proposition.  Before you go snooping into your employees’ social media accounts to see whether it’s filled with tricks or tweets, please be sure to review our frightfully informative 2015-2016 Edition of the Social Media Privacy Legislation Desktop Reference.  Without it, one never knows what
Continue Reading Social Media Nightmares? New Desktop Reference Scares Them Away!

Picture this scenario:  you run a private residential facility for abused children.  Late one night, one of your computers is used to access pornographic web-sites and other inappropriate material in violation of several well-publicized workplace policies.  After further investigation, you learn that the inappropriate computer usage occurred on several occasions, but was limited to that one computer, which is located
Continue Reading To Film at Work, or Not to Film at Work — Is that the Question?

Drug use in California can cause headaches for employers.  Balancing employee privacy interests against safety concerns forces employers to make tough choices with little guidance.  Legal drug testing of existing employees is so limited that most drug use won’t be detected until after an accident.  With increasing support for legal medical marijuana, many employers have struggled to determine how to

Continue Reading Just Say No! Protection for Workplace Medical Marijuana Use Up in Smoke