Top 7 Employer's Privacy Obligations

An employer is responsible for safeguarding the health, welfare, and safety of their workers and any other individuals whom their job activities may impact. Employers are required to take all reasonable steps to do this. Similarly, an employer also has privacy obligations to ensure that their employees' personal and sensitive data is kept private.

Workplace environments vary from industry to industry. Privacy issues common across workplace environments include physical searches, video surveillance, background checks, social media monitoring, medical information verification, and many more.

Tapping into an employee's personal matters is an example of how an employer intrudes on their privacy. The employer may be held responsible for the invasion of privacy, for example, if the employer reads the employee's personal emails on the employee's phone.