Electric Monitoring Law in New York

According to nysenate.gov SB S2628, which took effect May 7, 2022,  every private-sector employer must provide notice of its electronic monitoring practices to all workers upon hiring.  Notice must be posted in a “conspicuous place.” According to a Holland & Knight article “the notice, in written or electronic form, must advise employees that any and all telephone conversations, email communications and internet access or usage may be subject to monitoring “at any and all times and by any lawful means.”

The new legislation, which amends the state’s civil rights law, is intended to protect the privacy interests of employees and a workforce that has largely shifted to electronically based remote work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It only covers processes that target the activity or communications of a particular employee, not processes that monitor a company’s total volume of incoming or outgoing email, telephone voice mail, or internet usage, or monitoring that is performed solely for the purpose of system maintenance or security.  Employers must also require new hires to acknowledge the notice in writing or electronically.