Plaintiff's lawyers, the attorneys who represent employees, predict that privacy will surpass wrongful termination as the hot workplace issue of the 21st century. Yet the concept of privacy is so broad and so elusive, it’s difficult even to define. Privacy rights come up in situations involving drug testing, blogs, searches of electronic mail and files, hair and dress codes, arrest records, credit reports and other off-duty conduct.

Read below for a general overview of this issue, or click here to see FAQs.

Originally, privacy was defined at the "right to be left alone." This meant you could not intrude upon my seclusion or publicize private facts about me.

Today, the definition has expanded. Privacy includes ideas like human dignity or self-respect, and autonomy or self-governance. Privacy also has been called secrecy, anonymity, solitude, psychological integrity and personality. Texas is one of the leading privacy states. One court there said, “The heart of this privacy interest is the individual’s exclusive prerogative to determine when, under what conditions, and to what extent he will consent to divulge his private affairs to others.”

The idea that one person could sue another for invasion of privacy is only 100 years old. Originally, only the government could be sued for invasion of privacy, under the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. The first amendment (freedom of speech), the fourth amendment (prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures) and the fifth amendment (no one can be compelled to be a witness against himself in a criminal action) each provided protection respectively of our associations, of our personal spaces and of our minds. These amendments, by their terms, only limit the power of the government. For the most part they have been applied to put limits on the police. But they also have been interpreted to protect employees who work for the government.

What of the rights of employees who work for non-government employers? Historically, they didn’t have any privacy. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Ford Motor Company checked the cleanliness of employees’ homes, the neatness of their gardens, and even their attendance at church. Employees who didn’t meet the company standards legally could be fired.

Today, the right to privacy is recognized to some extent in every state. This right protects us from invasion of privacy by the public, the press and employers. But courts always must weigh an employee’s expectation of privacy, if any, against an employer’s legitimate business needs to run its operations. Hence, privacy cases are very fact specific and outcomes often vary state by state and court by court.

This web site highlights some of the most frequent topics that come under the broad umbrella of “privacy law.” Because these laws differ from state to state you are always encouraged to check with your local counsel to see how these principles apply in your state and with your specific fact pattern.

Click here for Privacy FAQs.