Electronic Monitoring and Internet Policies

This question is about Pennsylvania

I have a customer who believes that there is inpropriety and wants to spy on his employees via a piece of software on their machines that records their actions, I asked him if his electronic policy states that employees should have no expectation of privacy and that the PC and everything on it is the sole property of the company etc. He said that they do not have an electronic policy. He is also video recording his premesis.

They have legetimate security concerns, but I am almost positive that you have to post signs when you use video survalence, and he needs an electronic policy before he spies on his employees.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Yes, he must have a public policy (employee handbook usually) that all business equipment is subject to surveillance and inspection as company property.

Video taping is fine provided that NO SOUND is recorded. It is a federal crime to record sound, especially of customers. There should be signs that video is being recorded and it should be in an employee handbook.

He will likely soon get tired of his game though. You don't say how many employees there are, but it will be extremely tedious to watch all that video and check all those computer logs. He won't be getting much done. For his purposes, the video is of limited value without sound.

In general, there is no expectation of privacy in the workplace. Video surveillance presents a potential three-fold problem: First, you can run into issues performing surveillance of areas where employees have an expectation of privacy - locker rooms, restrooms, possibly employee lounges, etc. Second, if you are engaging in both video and audio surveillance, the audio surveillance may violate eavesdropping laws, a felony in Pennsylvania under 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 5703. Third, whatever notice you have given to your employees about audio surveillance, you run the risk of violating that law in relation to people who are visiting the workplace.

I don't see that Pennsylvania has passed a law granting employees any privacy rights in the use of their employer's computers, and there's a frequently cited case that suggests that the content of intercepted emails can be used against the employee. Still, Pennsylvania does recognize a common law right of privacy, the Internet has changed a lot since that case was passed, and it's a federal decision interpreting state law. On the whole, there's plenty of cause to play it safe and have a written policy, signed and dated by the employee, stipulating that they have no privacy rights in relation to what they store or do on the employer's computer system.

Your friend would best protect himself by having his business lawyer customize a privacy rights notification form that can be signed and dated by employees, then held by the employer, indicating the limits of their workplace privacy and their consent to the employer's policies. His lawyer can also advise him about what would constitute legally adequate notice to visitors to the workplace in relation to workplace surveillance cameras and, if there's any ambiguity, what areas of the workplace would be off-limits to video recording.