Employee Monitoring Lawyer

Employee Monitoring Law News

• Canadian Employee Monitoring Compliance: Canadian employers must navigate a complex web of provincial privacy laws and collective agreements when implementing workplace surveillance. Recent legal shifts emphasize that any monitoring must be reasonable, transparent, and balanced against employee privacy expectations. OUR TAKEAWAY: Organizations operating in Canada should implement comprehensive written monitoring policies and conduct privacy impact assessments to mitigate the risk of costly regulatory grievances or litigation. Read More →
• Maine Restrictions on Workplace Monitoring: Maine’s new law requires employers to provide written notice before using electronic surveillance and limits monitoring in private areas. These regulations aim to protect worker privacy while ensuring transparency in data collection practices. OUR TAKEAWAY: Employers must immediately audit their surveillance protocols and update employee handbooks to ensure compliance with Maine’s stringent new privacy standards. Read More →
• Employee Monitoring in the US and Canada: What Employers Need to Know: Employers across the US and Canada can monitor workers, but must balance operational needs with employees’ privacy rights and a complex patchwork of legal requirements. In Canada, federal and provincial laws require monitoring to be reasonable, proportionate, tied to a legitimate business purpose, and accompanied by clear notice (and sometimes consent), with stricter expectations in provinces like Québec under Law 25. In the US, there is no single workplace privacy law; instead, employers must navigate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act, anti-discrimination rules, the NLRA, and state privacy and monitoring notice statutes (for example, California notice obligations). Across both countries, best practice is to minimize data collection, avoid monitoring highly sensitive personal content where possible, be transparent in policies, and document monitoring programs to show necessity, proportionality, and compliance if regulators or employees challenge them. Read More →
• A View From DC: Don’t Mess Up Your Employee Privacy Notice
  Employee privacy notices are increasingly scrutinized under U.S. privacy laws, especially following regulatory actions in California. Businesses must ensure their notices clearly outline the categories of employee data collected, the purposes for processing, data sharing practices, and employees’ rights under applicable laws. Notices should be regularly reviewed and updated for accuracy and compliance, particularly in light of evolving statutes like the CCPA. Incomplete or misleading disclosures risk enforcement and penalties, making robust and transparent employee privacy communications essential for minimizing legal exposure.
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• Third Circuit Narrows CFAA: Policy Violations Aren’t Hacking
  On August 26, 2025, the Third Circuit ruled that employees who have legitimate access to a company’s computer systems do not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) simply by breaching workplace computer-use policies, unless actual hacking occurs. Applying the Supreme Court’s Van Buren “gates-up-or-down” standard, the court found that policy infractions such as password sharing or improper data use are not federal crimes under the CFAA. The decision shields employees from civil and criminal liability for internal policy violations and directs employers to seek other legal remedies instead.
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• California Moves to Spotlight Workplace Surveillance Tools: A new California bill requires all employers to annually report their use of workplace surveillance tools to the state’s Department of Industrial Relations. The notice must include details about the creators and operators of the surveillance technology, descriptions of each tool’s capabilities, information on data collection and access, whether workers or consumers can opt out, and disclosures of usage to affected parties. The department is required to publish these reports online within 30 days, increasing transparency into employee monitoring practices across public and private sectors. Access the Bill here →