New Jersey can now count itself as yet another state to enact a social media privacy law. The law aims to protect employees and applicants from prying employers wishing to root through social media pages in order to discover unfavorable information on an employee or candidate.

The new law went into effect on December 1, 2013, getting its start on August 29, 2013, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed the bill. The aim of the bill is to prevent employers from requiring job applicants and employees to turn over their log-in information for their private social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.

Exceptions

The law is not intended to apply to social media sites used for business purposes. Therefore, a site such a LinkedIn, depending on how and why it is being used, may fall under the “business purpose” exception.

Another exception to the social media privacy protection law is that an employer may view and gain access to an employee’s or applicant’s social media pages if such pages are available to the public generally. This would apply if no log-in information is required in order to view the pages.

The ability of a third party to view an employee’s or applicant’s page may, therefore, turn on whether that employee or applicant has made a conscious decision, or perhaps an inadvertent mistake depending on the social media account’s default settings, to allow public viewing of his/her social media accounts.

Anti-Retaliation

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As with many other employee-protection laws, an employee or applicant may not legally waive the protections afforded by this law. Further, if an employer or potential employer forces an employee or applicant to allow access to his/her social media account by agreement or intimidation, and if by refusing the employer or potential employer’s request, the employee or applicant is prejudiced in the terms and conditions of his/her employment or potential employment, the law permits the employee or applicant a private right of action under an anti-retaliation provision.

There are also other exceptions in the law available to the current or potential employer. However, as it has now become a priority to the citizens of the State of New Jersey to protect their employees and applicants against illegal meddling into employees’ and applicants’ private social media accounts, employers, managers, human resource professionals and supervisors need to be educated and trained on the new laws in order to avoid liability.