An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 10 - Privacy Rights Of Students And Employees

The Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the employer holding that the employee did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy because he consented to the employer’s monitoring of his computer activities by signing the employer’s computer use policy. 1774

Labor Code section 980 which prohibits an employer from requiring or requesting that an employee or applicant do any of the following: (1) disclose his or her social media username or password; (2) access his or her personal social media in the presence of the employer; or (3) divulge any personal social media. In short, an employer must not request or require employee personal media usernames or passwords, or seek access to an employee’s personal social media, as part of the application process or during employment. Labor Code section 980 does not affect an employer’s “existing rights and obligations” to request an employee to divulge personal social media when “reasonably believed” to be relevant to an investigation into employee misconduct. An employer is also not precluded from asking an employee for a username or password to access employer-issued electronic equipment. LCW Practice Advisor Similar provisions, Education Code sections 99120 et

seq ., prohibit public and private postsecondary institutions from requiring or requesting students, prospective students, or student groups to disclose their user name or password for purposes of accessing their personal social media.

F. G UIDELINES F OR E LECTRONIC C OMMUNICATIONS A T S CHOOLS Schools have legitimate reasons for ensuring that their electronic communications systems are not abused by employees and students. In California, courts would likely find that employees and students do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they have given written consent to monitoring by the school. 1775 For this reason, schools should have a written Electronic Communications Resources Policy that puts employees and students on notice of the following:

 Electronic communications such as voicemail, e-mail and/or systems to the Internet are the school’s property and should only be used for legitimate business purposes during working hours. This prohibition is not meant to interfere with an employee’s right to organize or discuss the terms and conditions of his/her employment with others during nonworking hours through the use of employer email systems.  The school reserves the right to monitor any of its electronic communications systems (including voicemail, e-mail, and the Internet) to assure that its property is being used for business or educational purposes only during working hours and to prevent any unlawful or improper use.  Employees and students do not have a personal privacy right in any matter created, received, stored in or sent to an electronic system, maintained by the school.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 399