Privacy

Protecting employee data in the age of AI and remote work

08/04/2025

The most common cause of data breaches isn’t hackers—it’s employees. For HR professionals, the risks are heightened. Personnel records often contain some of the most sensitive data a company holds.

EEOC warns: ‘Wearables’ may cause workplace discrimination

01/03/2025

Wearables in the workplace are mostly perceived as benign management tools, although some complain they represent a dystopian step toward Big Brother surveillance. Now the EEOC has weighed in with a fact sheet warning that wearables could enable or perpetuate workplace discrimination and suggesting how employers can mitigate liability.

Embrace HR’s role in preventing insider security threats

12/18/2024

Cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting your organization from external hackers or phishing scams; it’s also about safeguarding it from internal threats. HR professionals hold the key to tackling cybersecurity challenges head-on. Here’s how.

Beware pre-hire exams that could reveal genetic information

11/01/2024

You know you can’t exclude otherwise qualified candidates because they’re older, disabled and in need of accommodations, pregnant or planning to have children. But what about screening candidates for potential medical problems down the line? No, you can’t do that, either.

Guidance addresses 3rd-party AI worker surveillance

11/01/2024

The guidance warns that employers that use third-party consumer reports—including background dossiers and surveillance-based AI or algorithmic scores about their workers—must follow Fair Credit Reporting Act rules.

How to write a data-collection policy

09/23/2024

We already know we participate in a surveillance economy. It may be worse than you think. Payroll collects a lot of data from employees and is being asked to do a lot more with it. Maybe it’s time for a data-collection policy.

Court: Your policy can require employees to keep ‘spy cams’ turned on

05/28/2024

A federal court has upheld an employer’s handbook rule requiring full-time camera monitoring of employees. The ruling is a victory for employers who want to track the behavior of employees they can’t directly observe.

Think twice before demanding workers’ social-media passwords

04/10/2024

To get around social-media roadblocks, some employers require employees to either open their accounts or turn over their social-media usernames and passwords. This obviously raises privacy concerns and has caught the attention of state legislators in several jurisdictions.

Beware data-collecting email from your ‘boss’

04/08/2024

If you get an email in the next few days that seems to be from your CEO requesting a list of employees and their Social Security numbers, watch out! It may be part of an elaborate phishing scheme in which con artists harvest employees’ personal data, use it to file fraudulent tax returns and then pocket income tax refunds.

Know your obligations for safeguarding employee data, preventing cyberattacks

03/22/2024

Data breaches may seem inevitable, but that’s no consolation for employees who have been victims of identity theft. Many a lawsuit alleging negligence has been filed against employers that were lax about data security. To prevail in those kinds of cases, you must be prepared to show you made reasonable efforts to prevent data leaks.