Data privacy

Subscribe to Data privacy via RSS

On January 1, 2024, businesses must post updated Privacy Policies under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which requires annual updates of disclosures and fully applies in the job applicant and employment context since January 1, 2023.

With respect to job applicants and employees, businesses subject to the CCPA are required to:

  1. Issue detailed privacy notices with prescribed disclosures, terminology, and organization;
  2. Respond to data subject requests from employees and job candidates for copies of information about them, correction, and deletion;
  3. Offer opt-out rights regarding disclosures of information to service providers, vendors, or others, except to the extent they implement qualified agreements that contain particularly prescribed clauses; and
  4. Offer opt-out rights regarding the use of sensitive information except to the extent they have determined they use sensitive personal information only within the scope of statutory exceptions.

If employers sell, share for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use or disclose sensitive personal information outside of limited purposes, numerous additional compliance obligations apply. For more: see also our related previous post: Employers Must Prepare Now for New California Employee Privacy Rights.

Key recommendations to heed now

Continue Reading Looking ahead to 2024: California privacy law action items for employers

On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued a 63-page Executive Order to define the trajectory of artificial intelligence adoption, governance and usage within the United States government. The Executive Order outlines eight guiding principles and priorities for US federal agencies to adhere to as they adopt, govern and use AI. While safety and security are predictably high on the list, so too is a desire to make America a leader in the AI industry including AI development by the federal government. While executive orders are not a statute or regulation and do not require confirmation by Congress, they are binding and can have the force of law, usually based on existing statutory powers.

Instruction to Federal Agencies and Impact on Non-Governmental Entities

The Order directs a majority of federal agencies to address AI’s specific implications for their sectors, setting varied timelines ranging from 30 to 365 days for each applicable agency to implement specific requirements set forth in the Order.

The actions required of the federal agencies will impact non-government entities in a number of ways, because agencies will seek to impose contractual obligations to implement provisions of the Order or invoke statutory powers under the Defense Production Act for the national defense and the protection of critical infrastructure, including: (i) introducing reporting and other obligations for technology providers (both foundational model providers and IaaS providers); (ii) adding requirements for entities that work with the federal government in a contracting capacity; and (iii) influencing overall AI policy development.Continue Reading Biden’s Wide-Ranging Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence Sets Stage For Regulation, Investment, Oversight and Accountability

Many thanks to our data privacy colleague, Helena Engfeldt, for co-authoring this article.

Many organizations are proactively advancing diversity and inclusion goals globally to include a focus on recruitment and employee-directed initiatives. These efforts are consistent with organizational values and business goals, even in cases where diversity data collection may have the…

Many thanks to our data privacy colleagues for co-authoring this post: Lothar Determann, Helena Engfeldt and Jonathan Tam.

2022 is looking to be an unprecedented year for California companies’ privacy law obligations. The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) takes effect on January 1, 2023, with a twelve-month look-back that also applies to the personal data of employees and business contacts. The new California Privacy Protection Agency is preparing regulations that will sit on top of existing rules from the California Attorney General. Meanwhile, the California Legislature is enacting privacy laws even though it has not repealed or streamlined any of the myriad California privacy laws that continue to apply in addition to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

On March 1, we held a webinar focused on the employment law implications stemming from these significant changes and covering a handful of critical hot topics (e.g., how to process vaccination information, the treatment of employees of PEOs, and EORs). If you missed it, here are the major highlights you should know!

Employment Takeaways

Preparing for CCPA / CPRA Compliance
  • CPRA amendments to CCPA take effect January 1, 2023; this ends the transitional exemptions for “HR” and “B2B contact information” and includes a 12-month look-back to January 1, 2022.
  • “At collection notices” have been required since January 1, 2020, with increased disclosure requirements since December 16, 2020. For more detail, click here.
  • Businesses must declare on January 1, 2023, in privacy policies whether they have been selling or sharing personal information of employees and B2B contacts in the preceding 12 months and, if yes, offer opt-out mechanisms and alternatives without discrimination.
  • Businesses must update service provider agreements, including with recruiters and IT, cloud, payroll, benefits, and other providers.
  • Businesses must offer broad access, deletion, rectification, portability and other rights to California employees and B2B contacts, and prepare for what may be the end of confidentiality in the employment area; employers should conduct training, and implement robust data governance policies (incl. deletion and discovery).
Data Access / Deletion Requests from Employees
  • Under existing employment law, California employees (not contractors) have the right to inspect and receive a copy of the personnel files and records that relate to their performance or any grievance concerning them within 30 days of their written request. The existing right to inspect does not extend to records relating to the investigation of a possible crime, letters of reference, or various ratings or reports.
  • By contrast, the new “right to know” under the CPRA/CCPA goes further. It encompasses two distinct rights: (i) the right to a disclosure explaining how the employer collects and handles the individual’s personal information; and (ii) the right to copies of “specific pieces of personal information.” The “right to know” applies to California consumers, which goes beyond employees (i.e., including contractors). In theory, it could extend the scope of the “right to know” from simply the personnel file to include, for example, informal communications about the employee, investigations, etc. Employers must generally comply with such requests within 45 days.
  • The “right to know,” however, is not absolute, and employers can refuse if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive (e.g., if the purpose is to harass) and does not cover privileged information (e.g., communications with in-house and external counsel).
  • The CPRA/CCPA also introduce a new right to “data deletion.” This right is not absolute either. An exception should apply for most categories of personal information reasonably necessary to managing or administering current or past employment or contract work relationship.
  • Finally, the CPRA/CCPA gives California residents other rights including the right to limit the processing of sensitive information. There are exceptions to the right to limit the processing of sensitive information, but none of the statutory exceptions apply squarely to HR data.

Continue Reading A Quick Primer On New Privacy Law Obligations For California Employers

Illinois employers have been waiting for answers on two important questions regarding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA):

  1. Whether the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act (the Compensation Act) preempts BIPA statutory damages, and
  2. Whether BIPA claims accrue each time a person’s biometric information is scanned or transmitted without informed consent–or just the first time.

The…

Special thanks to Guest Contributor Harry Valetk.

In early May, private sector employers in New York will face new disclosure requirements for electronic monitoring of employees.  Beginning May 7, 2022, New York will join Connecticut and Delaware among the states that now require employers to provide written notice to new hires who are subject to electronic monitoring.  These new disclosure requirements come after Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law amendments to Civil Rights Chapter 6, Article 5, Section 52-C*2.

Here’s what New York employers need to know now about the new law:

Who is covered under the law? All private employers with a place of business in New York regardless of size. “Employer” is defined as any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, or association with a place of business in the state (not including the state or any political subdivision of the state).

What does the law require?  In practice, the law requires employers to (1) provide employees with a notice of electronic monitoring, (2) obtain proof of acknowledgement, and (3) prominently post the notice for all to see.Continue Reading New York’s New Electronic Monitoring Disclosure Law Requires Action Before May

Many thanks to Lothar Determann and Jonathan Tam for this post.

Some of your job applicants and employees in California may be alarmed if you tell them you sell their personal information. But you will have to say you sell their personal information if you disclose their personal information to third parties after January 1, 2022 without including certain data processing clauses in your contracts, as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). So we recommend reviewing these contracts to ensure they include the prescribed clauses if you wish to avoid being a “seller” of personal information.

You should also get ready to field data access, deletion, correction, portability and other requests from your employees and other personnel in California starting January 1, 2023. This will require implementing new protocols and training up your human resources and compliance teams. We also recommend tightening up your data retention and deletion protocols to limit the amount of information you have to review when handling data subject requests.

Do you use employee monitoring software or algorithms to help you evaluate job applicants? You should ensure that your use of these and similar tools address upcoming requirements regarding automated decision-making, risk assessments and the use of sensitive personal information. Note that the CCPA also currently requires employers to issue privacy notices to their California employees pursuant to a California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) amendment that took effect on December 16, 2020.

There is an HR exception under the CCPA but it is not comprehensive and expires January 1, 2023. When the CCPA originally passed in 2018, it included a limited, temporary carve-out for personal information of job applicants, employees, independent contractors and other personnel, who only needed to receive a brief “notice at collection.” The CPRA extended the limited carve-out until January 1, 2023 and immediately expanded the list of disclosures that employers have to provide to employees and candidates at or before the time of collecting their personal information.[1] Such “notices at collection” must include details about the types of personal information collected, the purposes for which the information is collected, and how long the personal information is retained or the criteria for determining the same. The California Attorney General’s CCPA Regulations also require notices at collection to indicate whether the business sells California residents’ personal information and a notice of the their right to opt-out of sales if so, and a link to the business’s privacy policy.[2] You should begin to address these requirements immediately if you have not done so already.Continue Reading Employers Must Prepare Now For New California Employee Privacy Rights

We identified and mapped out our most relevant blog posts, articles and video chats to serve as a quick and handy roadmap to recovery and renewal for your company.

Our 2022 Employment & Compensation Resource Navigator provides US multinational companies organized links to Baker McKenzie’s most helpful, relevant thought leadership in one brief document. Arranged…