Employment Law Alert: FL Legislator Introduces Bill to Restrict Employer Access to Employee Social Media Accounts

By Robert Sniffen posted 11-01-2013 09:49

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Florida Legislator Introduces Bill to Restrict Employer Access to Employee Social Media Accounts

Florida State Senator Jeff Clemens (D-Lake Worth) has introduced a bill to restrict employer access to the social media accounts of employees or prospective employees. SB 198 defines a social media account as “an interactive account or profile that an individual establishes and uses through an electronic application, service, or platform used to generate or store content, including, but not limited to, videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, instant messages, audio recordings, or e-mail that is not available to the general public.” The bill would restrict employers from requesting or requiring an employee or prospective employee disclose a username, password, or other means of access to a social media account or to otherwise provide access to the account’s contents not available to the general public. The law would also prohibit retaliation and allow an employee or prospective employee to bring a civil action against the employer within two years after the violation, obtain injunctive relief and, if successful, be awarded attorneys’ fees and costs.

Laws such as that proposed by Senator Clemens have been proposed and enacted all over the country. Overall, twelve states have enacted similar legislation, while bills have been pending in another twenty states over the past two legislative sessions.

More information regarding the proposed legislation is available at the following link: SB 198

Other recent employment law updates include:

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Employment Law Updates available on SniffenLaw.com

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