Several jurisdictions now require affirmative notice before monitoring employee communications and activity.
Statutory notice. Some states require written notice at hire, and posting, disclosing that electronic communications and internet access may be monitored, the types of monitoring, and the means. Penalties attach to monitoring without it.
Content of notice. Systems covered, the types of activity monitored, whether monitoring is continuous or triggered, who has access to the data, retention, and the purposes.
Consent. Acknowledgement at hire and on material change, retained.
Wiretap statutes. Interception of communications in transit requires consent — one party in many states, all parties in others — and a policy acknowledged by the employee generally supplies the employee’s consent but not that of external parties in all-party states.
Location tracking of vehicles and devices, with specific statutes in several states restricting off-duty tracking and requiring notice.
Productivity monitoring software capturing keystrokes, screenshots and application use, which attracts particular scrutiny for remote workers and is restricted in several jurisdictions.
Proportionality. Even where lawful, monitoring should be proportionate to a stated purpose, with data minimised and retained for a defined period, because that is the standard applied outside the country and increasingly within it.