States Continue to Enact Privacy Laws Protecting Employees from Employers

It is certainly worth noting the trend of password protection laws sweeping the nation. Several statutes have been signed into law recently prohibiting employers from seeking to gain access to employer and/or employee social media sites. Ever since Maryland got the ball rolling, several other states have passed similar legislation. These states include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Overall, similar legislation has been introduced in at least 36 states. A more detailed listing of the states, the status of such legislation and a description of the legislation can be found here.

Kristin Bergman, an intern at Harvard’s Digital Media Law Project and a third year law student at William and Mary, has written an interesting piece questioning the need for such statutes. Recall that New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, raised similar questions regarding the Garden States’ version of such legislation, which has still not been made law. In Bergman’s article, she notes that according to recent surveys few employers actually seem to request social media login information, thus raising the question of whether the laws provide a solution for a nonexistent problem. In addition, Bergman provides a relatively simple, but nevertheless worthwhile, overview of certain common law claims that might be used to curb the practice (e.g. intrusion upon seclusion privacy tort, tortuous interference with contract) and other statutory considerations (discrimination laws, state data privacy laws and unfair labor practice laws)
Bergman’s article can be found here.