Karla Grossenbacher

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This blog post was cross-posted from Seyfarth’s Employment Law Lookout blog.

In the case of Okonowsky v. Garland, 23-55404.pdf (law360news.com), the Ninth Circuit considered a claim that social media posts made by a co-worker on a personal account constitute actionable workplace harassment under Title VII.  The appeals court firmly “reject[ed] the notion that only conduct that occurs inside the physical workplace can be actionable, especially in light of the ubiquity of social media and the ready use of it to harass and bully both inside and outside of the physical workplace.” Continue Reading Personal Does Not Mean Private: Ninth Circuit Holds Personal Social Media Posts Can Constitute Workplace Harassment

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Seyfarth Synopsis: Since ChatGPT became available to the public at large in November 2022, employers have been wondering, and asking their employment lawyers, “What kind of policies should we be putting in place around the use of ChatGPT in the workplace?”  Although at this stage it is difficult to imagine all of the different ways ChatGPT, and its subsequent iterations, could be used by employees in the workplace, it is important to consider some of the more obvious usage cases and how employers might choose to address them in workplace policies.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) — an AI language model that is trained to interact in a conversational way.  At its most basic level, AI is a computer system able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.  In order to achieve this, AI needs to be trained.  First, massive data sets are fed into a computer algorithm.  Then the trained model is evaluated in order to determine how well it performs in making predictions when confronted with previously unseen data.  For ChatGPT, it is predicting the next word in a given context to provide that conversational tone for which it has become known.  Lastly, the AI goes through a testing phase to find out if the model performs well on large amounts of new data it has not seen before.  This is the phase in which ChatGPT finds itself. Continue Reading ChatGPT – What Employers Should Be Worried About Now

Seyfarth Synopsis: Both Portland and New York City have followed the example set by Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), a statute that has spawned thousands of cookie-cutter class action suits regarding the alleged collection of biometric information. Like BIPA, these new ordinances create a private right of action for individuals that could subject local businesses to potentially millions of dollars in liability. Businesses in these cities should carefully review these new ordinances as well as any technology they be using that has the potential to collect biometric information.
Continue Reading Portland, OR and New York City Follow Illinois’ Lead on Private Rights of Action in Biometric Privacy Legislation

Cross-posted from Employment Law Lookout.

Seyfarth Synopsis:  A string of recent class action lawsuits regarding businesses’ use of employees’ biometric data should put employers on heightened alert regarding compliance with various state biometric privacy laws.

As biometric technology has become more advanced and affordable, more employers have begun implementing procedures and systems that rely on employees’ biometric data. “Biometrics” are measurements of individual biological patterns or characteristics such as fingerprints, voiceprints, and eye scans that can be used to quickly and easily identify employees.  However, unlike social security numbers or other personal identifiers, biometrics are biologically unique and, generally speaking, immutable.  Thus, unlike a bank account or a social security number, which can be changed if it is stolen, biometric data, when compromised, cannot be changed or replaced, leaving an affected individual without recourse and at a heightened risk for identity theft.  Given the serious repercussions of compromised biometric data, a number of states have proposed or passed laws regulating the collection and storage of biometric data.  And plaintiffs’ attorneys are taking notice, as the number of class action lawsuits in this area has surged in recent months.

Currently, there are three states that have statutes regulating the collection and storage of biometric data: Illinois, Texas, and Washington.  In 2008, Illinois passed the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”).  Texas followed suit in 2009, and Washington passed its biometric privacy law in 2017.
Continue Reading Hazards Ahead: Uptick in Biometric Privacy Laws Can Put Employers in Hot Seat

CaptureOn Wednesday, November 2, at 1:00 p.m. Central, Seyfarth attorneys Karla Grossenbacher, Ari Hersher, Stacey Blecher, Meredith-Anne Berger, Elizabeth Levy and Selyn Hon will present “Navigating Employee Privacy Issues in the Workplace.”

The rise of technology in the workplace has resulted in a myriad of complex privacy issues. Employee privacy concerns are impacting employer decision-making…

shutterstock_384992695Wearable device data may be the next big thing in the world of evidence for employment cases since social media. Given that it has already been used in personal injury and criminal cases, it is only a matter of time before wearable device data is proffered as evidence in an employment case.

From Fitbit to the Nike FuelBand to a slew of others, the worldwide wearable market has exploded in recent years. In a world increasingly obsessed with health and fitness, wearable devices offer instantaneous and up-to-the-minute data on a number of metrics that allow the user to assess his or her own health and fitness. Wearable devices can track information like heart rate, calories, general level of physical activity, steps taken, diet, blood glucose levels and even sleep patterns. Given the nature of the information captured, it is easy to see how wearable device data may be relevant to claims of disability discrimination, workers’ compensation and even harassment.
Continue Reading Wearable Device Data: The Next Big Thing for Employment Litigation Cases

Cross Posted from Employment Law Lookout

PokemonYour employees may be on a quest to catch ‘em all. Over 15 million people have downloaded the Pokémon GO game since its release two weeks ago. In this augmented reality game, players use their mobile devices to catch Pokémon characters in real-life locations captured by the camera in a user’s cellular phone. Though the game is very popular with Pokémon GO players, employers may not like the game quite so much.

Data And Security Concerns

There are data security concerns that arise from use of the Pokémon GO app.

First, users that want to play Pokémon Go must sign in to the app. There are two ways to do so—through an existing Google account, or through an existing Pokémon Trainer Club Account. Up until very recently, the Pokémon website did not allow users to sign up for Pokémon Trainer Club Accounts due to overwhelming demand. Thus, for most people, the only way to play Pokémon GO was by signing in to the app with their Google accounts. Even though the option to create a Trainer Club Account is now available, doing so requires more time and effort than signing in through an existing Google account.
Continue Reading Pokémon NO: New App Creates Risks For Employers

Cross Posted from Employment Law Lookout

Over the last decade, communication via email and text has become a vital part of how many of us communicate in the workplace. In fact, most employees could not fathom the idea of performing their jobs without the use of email. For convenience, employees often use one device for both personal and work-related communications, whether that device is employee-owned or employer-provided. Some employees even combine their personal and work email accounts into one inbox (which sometimes results in work emails being accidentally sent from a personal account). This blurring of the lines between personal and work-related communications creates novel legal issues when it comes to determining whether an employer has the right to access and review all work-related communications made by its employees.
Continue Reading Monitoring Employee Communications: A Brave New World

Over the past several years, technology has dramatically increased employee accountability in the workplace. For example, in an office environment, employees are expected to respond to emails immediately because they are either sitting in front of their computers or carrying a mobile device on which they can access their email. As for employees who work outside the office, the availability of employer-issued phones and, alternatively, the proliferation of “bring your own device” policies, has resulted in off-site employees being generally just a phone call away. In specific industries in which employees drive motor vehicles while conducting business for the employer, yet another method of accountability exists: GPS.
Continue Reading Employee GPS Tracking – Is it Legal?