Privacy Issues in the Workplace

 Tends to indicate a conflict of interest with respect to the performance of his or her official duties; or  Is necessary for the employing agency to ascertain the desirability of assigning the public safety officer to a specialized unit in which there is a strong possibility that bribes or other improper inducements may be offered.

These conditions are not conjunctive; therefore, any one of them allows the employer to require the disclosure.

Similarly, under Government Code section 3258, a firefighter cannot be required or requested for purposes of job assignment or other personnel action to disclose any item of his or her property, income, assets, source of income, debts, or personal or domestic expenditures, including those of any member of his or her family or household, unless that information is otherwise required to be furnished under state law or obtained pursuant to court order. C. U SE OF I MAGE OR L IKENESS The common law tort of misappropriation of image and/or likeness prohibits an entity or employer from using someone’s name or likeness for commercial purposes without his or her consent. Thus, if an agency publishes the likenesses of a student or employee on the agency’s website without consent, the agency risks receiving a claim for misappropriation of image and/or likeness under the common law. In addition, under California law, the agency may be liable for misappropriation of image and/or likeness under a statutory provision, Civil Code section 3344. Civil Code section 3344 protects an individual’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, from being used for commercial or advertising purposes without consent. Civil Code section 3344 also authorizes the recovery of damages for violation of its provisions. Potential damages for a violation of Civil Code section 3344 are the greater of seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) or the actual damages suffered; punitive damages; and attorney’s fees and costs. To avoid potential exposure under the common law and/or Civil Code section 3334, we recommend that agencies do not use the photographs, images, or likeness of employees on the agencies’ web site, billboards or other publicity tool without first obtaining consent to do so

Privacy Issues in the Workplace ©2021 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 185