Plain Language
Even where monitoring is otherwise conducted for a legitimate purpose, employers face a set of absolute prohibitions. They may not use electronic monitoring to: violate any state law; threaten employee health, safety, welfare, or legal rights; monitor off-duty or non-work activities; obtain protected-class information (health, race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, genetic information, religion, veteran status, etc.); identify or punish protected labor activity; surveil private areas (bathrooms, locker rooms, breakrooms, prayer areas, lactation areas); monitor employees' homes, personal vehicles, or personal property; or deploy facial recognition, gait analysis, voice analysis, or emotion recognition technology. The facial recognition and biometric technology prohibitions are categorical — no legitimate purpose exception applies.
Statutory Text
(e) Notwithstanding the allowable purposes for electronic monitoring described in subsection (a) of this section, an employer shall not: (1) Use an electronic monitoring tool in such a manner that results in a violation of labor, employment, civil rights law or any other law of the state; (2) Use an electronic monitoring tool or data collected via an electronic monitoring tool in such a manner as to threaten the health, welfare, safety, or legal rights of employees or the general public; (3) Use an electronic monitoring tool to monitor employees who are off-duty or not performing work-related tasks; (4) Use an electronic monitoring tool in order to obtain information about an employee's health, including health status and health conditions, the race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, pregnancy or a condition related to said pregnancy including, but not limited to, lactation or the need to express breast milk for a nursing child, ancestry or status as a veteran or membership in any group protected from employment discrimination under title 28 or any other applicable law; (5) Use an electronic monitoring tool in order to identify, punish, or obtain information about employees engaging in activity protected under labor or employment law; (6) Conduct audio or visual monitoring of bathrooms or other similarly private areas, including locker rooms, changing areas, breakrooms, smoking areas, employee cafeterias, lounges, and areas designated to express breast milk, or areas designated for prayer or other religious activity, including data collection on the frequency of use of those private areas; (7) Conduct audio or visual monitoring of a workplace in an employee's residence, an employee's personal vehicle, or property owned or leased by an employee; (8) Use an electronic monitoring tool that incorporates facial recognition; (9) Use an electronic monitoring tool that incorporates gait, voice analysis, or emotion recognition technology;