New York Civil Rights Law § 52-c requires private employers that monitor employees' phone calls, email or internet use to give written notice at hiring, collect an acknowledgment and post the notice where employees can see it. The attorney general enforces the law. Civil penalties run up to $500 for a first violation, $1,000 for a second and $3,000 for each one after that. The law has applied since May 7, 2022.
Key takeaways
- The law is about notice. It does not ban monitoring.
- Three duties: written notice at hiring, an acknowledgment, and a posted notice.
- It covers phone, email and internet access or usage.
- Enforcement is by the attorney general, with penalties that rise with each violation.
The law at a glance
- In force since
- May 7, 2022
- Applies to
- Private employers with a place of business in New York
- Covers
- Telephone, email and internet access or usage
- Notice
- Written, given at hiring
- Acknowledgment
- In writing or electronically
- Posting
- A conspicuous place employees can readily view
- Enforced by
- The attorney general
Who must comply?
Any individual, corporation, partnership, firm or association with a place of business in the state. The state itself and its political subdivisions are excluded. There is no minimum number of employees.
What monitoring is covered?
The statute applies to an employer that monitors or otherwise intercepts:
- telephone conversations or transmissions
- electronic mail or transmissions
- internet access or usage
by any electronic device or system. Time tracking and monitoring software that records the websites an employee visits falls within internet access or usage.
Screenshots and application tracking are not named in the text. Most employers cover every kind of monitoring in the same notice anyway. It costs nothing, and it removes the argument about what was and was not disclosed.
What are the three duties?
Give written notice at hiring
Tell every employee who is subject to monitoring, in writing or in electronic form, before it applies to them.
Collect an acknowledgment
The employee acknowledges the notice in writing or electronically. Keep it with their records.
Post the notice
Put it in a conspicuous place that is readily available for viewing by the employees it affects. For remote teams, that usually means the intranet or handbook as well.
The notice must say that telephone conversations or transmissions, email and internet access or usage may be monitored at any and all times and by any lawful means.
What about people who were already employed?
The text ties the written notice to hiring. The posting duty reaches everyone who is monitored. Many employers also give the notice to current staff and collect the same acknowledgment, which is the cautious approach. Ask counsel how to handle your existing workforce.
What is not covered?
The section does not apply to processes that manage the type or volume of incoming or outgoing email, voicemail or internet usage, as long as they are not targeted at a particular individual and are performed solely for computer system maintenance or protection. Spam filters and firewall rules are the usual examples.
What are the penalties?
- First violation$500
- Second violation$1,000
- Third and each later violation$3,000
Source: Civil Rights Law § 52-c. The attorney general may enforce the section.
The amounts are modest. The bigger cost of getting this wrong is usually the dispute it invites when monitoring data is later used against an employee who was never told.
Does the law limit what you can monitor?
No. Section 52-c is a notice law. Other federal and state rules still apply to what you collect and how you use it, such as wiretapping law for call recording and biometric law for fingerprints or face scans. See is employee monitoring legal?
What should the notice say?
Keep it short and literal. Add your own details where the brackets are, and have a lawyer review it.
NOTICE OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING [Company name] monitors the use of its systems. Any and all telephone conversations or transmissions, electronic mail or transmissions, and internet access or usage by an employee, by any electronic device or system, including but not limited to the use of a computer, telephone, wire, radio, or electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photo-optical systems, may be subject to monitoring at any and all times and by any lawful means. [Company name] also uses time tracking software on company computers during working hours. It records [applications in use, website domains, idle time and screenshots at intervals]. The current settings are shown to each employee in the software. Questions about this notice go to [name, role, contact]. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I have received and read this notice. Employee name: ____________________ Signature: ____________________ Effective date: ____________________
A fuller policy with clauses on purpose, access and retention is in the employee monitoring policy template. For the acknowledgment on its own, see the consent and acknowledgment form.
How does BirdsEye help with notice?
Software cannot give the legal notice for you. It can make the notice true and easy to check. In BirdsEye, the desktop agent shows each employee the tracking hours, screenshot interval, blur level, idle threshold and whether website tracking is on. An audit log on the Business plan records settings changes with who made them and when. See security and privacy.
Frequently asked questions
Does New York require consent for employee monitoring?
The statute requires notice and an acknowledgment that the employee received it. It does not ask the employee to agree to the monitoring itself.
Does the law apply to remote employees outside New York?
The law defines an employer by its place of business in the state. It does not spell out how that applies to staff who work elsewhere, so take advice. Many employers simply give the notice to everyone.
Is there a minimum company size?
No. The section applies to private employers of any size with a place of business in New York.
What happens if we never gave notice?
Give it now, collect acknowledgments, post it and keep a record of the date. Then ask counsel whether anything else is needed for the period before.