Adam S. Forman, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Detroit and Chicago offices, was quoted in the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, in “Keeping Electronic Eye on Workers Gets Dicey During Work at Home,” by Chris Opfer and Daniel R. Stroller.
Following is an excerpt:
The novel coronavirus is creating a potential legal minefield for bosses who want to use technology to keep tabs on teleworking employees, especially those who use personal devices to accomplish job tasks.
While employees have little expectation of privacy on company-owned computers and devices, whether in the office or at home, companies run the risk of lawsuits and reputational damage if they collect sensitive information such as geolocation data from visits to personal banking or communication services without a valid purpose.
“When I’m notifying people about how we will be conducting business to take seriously this global crisis, I’m also reminding them that they’re still subject to the company’s policies,” said Adam Forman, a business attorney with Epstein Becker Green. “That includes that they are subject to monitoring.”
But he added, “If your employer is remoting into your machine and you’re taking a break and looking at your bank account or Gmail, the company is potentially going to have a problem. They can know you navigated to Google; I don’t think they can know what you read on Gmail’s server.”