Can an employer distribute an employee’s personal information among the staff without consideration of privacy or security?
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Can an employer distribute an employee’s personal information among the staff without consideration of privacy or security?
My employer published a hard copy list of employees and distributed it among the staff (including part-time employees). The list had my name, position with the company, home address, home telephone, personal cell phone, birthdate, and spouse’s name. I asked them to remove me from the list, and they will do it once, but by the next list it’s back. I’m nervous about this information being in paper form with 75 (or so) employees in a 24/7 busines, especiallys with clients coming in the building all hours of the day. Can they legally distribute this much information about you?
Asked on January 17, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Except arguably for birthdate--which probably should not be included; especially since it's also information that is sometimes used to validate security, retrieve passwords, etc.--the information you describe is not "personal" and is not private. Instead, it's your contact information and your position with. It is neither improper nor uncommon for companies to require employees to share their contact information with the company (and the spouse is a contact; e.g. an emergency contact) and with coworkers, to facilitate collaboration and getting in contact with each other in the event of work or medical emergency. A company can require this. So while including the birthdate is unusual, and the company would be better off not doing so, what your employer is doing does not appear to be improper or prohibited.
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