Five Employment-Related Privacy Issues We Are Tracking In 2014

As use of social media and other technologies continue to raise serious employment-related privacy issues in the workplace, expect to see a flurry of activity in 2014 from federal and state legislatures, administrative bodies and courthouses throughout the country addressing those issues.  Here are five developments that we are monitoring (pun intended) as we enter the New Year.

1.  The Law Starts to Catch up With the Technology

It is axiomatic that the law will always lag behind technology.  This is no less true in the workplace.  Over the last few years, employers have begun infiltrating employee Facebook and other social media (and personal e-mail) accounts to monitor applicant or employee activity.  Typically, the employer will demand that an applicant or employee supply his or her username and password to the account on the basis that it needs to better vet an applicant or to ensure that the current employee has not engaged in any wrongdoing that may hurt the