What are my rights if my boss has installed video surveillance and has also been audio recording without consent?

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What are my rights if my boss has installed video surveillance and has also been audio recording without consent?

When I confronted him he said he posted stickers on the door (which he just did yesterday) and the cameras have been here for about 2 weeks. Is that consent?

Asked on October 27, 2015 under Employment Labor Law, Florida

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 8 years ago | Contributor

Video surveillance is allowed even without notice IF the cameras are sufficiently large and/or obvious that someone would reasonably know they are being recorded. (And videotaping is treated must less seriously by the law than audiotaping, so even if there is was a lack of notice or consent, so long as the employees are not recorded in appropriate places, such as restrooms, changing rooms, or locker rooms, there is little harm and little legal liability).
However, the audio recording is problematic since your state is an "all party consent" state. That means that *everyone* who can be heard in the conversation must consent to it. If you did not have notice previously, then since audio recording is less obvous than video, it was almost certainly without your consent and so illegal; and if any other person can be heard talking to you (e.g. a person on speakerphone) and their voice is captured on the tape, then that is illegal wiretapping: they were recorded without consent. And violations of wiretapping and audiorecording laws can be serious.
(Note: notice to an employee is consent, as long as the employee doesn't quit: by continuing to work there, you consent to the rules and conditions of work, which evidently include being recorded. So once an employee has notice, if he/she keeps working there, he/she has consented, since to not consent, he/she would have to quit.)
Therefore, based on what you write, it is likely that the videotaping is legal, but there's a good chance the audiotaping is not.


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