Employer Privacy Laws and What You Need to Know in 2023

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting from the studios of Business RadioX, it’s time for Advisory Insights. Brought to you by Oberman Law Firm, serving clients nationwide with tailored service and exceptional results. Now, here’s your host.

Stuart Oberman: [00:00:20] Hello everyone, and welcome to Advisory Insights Podcast. Stuart Oberman here, your host. Well, I want to talk about as we go quickly in 2023, we’ve got two states that are really on the forefront of a lot of issues. And I want to talk about our topic for today, employer privacy laws, what you need to know in 2023.

Stuart Oberman: [00:00:45] So, there’s been a big, big push on two ends of the world, New York and California. And we’re seeing a lot of activity between those two states. But I want to cover just a couple of things as employers and as employees.

Stuart Oberman: [00:00:59] So, as an employer, you have to know what’s going on in those two states, because, I always say, what starts west goes east, what starts up north goes south. So, I want to take a look at, really, what things are going on in those two states. So, we’ve seen a lot of activity of new legislation being enacted, which extends to employers with applicants or workers who reside in New York City or California. So, those are wide ranging areas.

Stuart Oberman: [00:01:36] So, example, the new laws in New York and California regulate the use of artificial intelligence. It has gotten to that yet. For once I think the law has sort of caught up to technology. And, also, they restrict the personal data that goes into effect January 1, 2023.

Stuart Oberman: [00:02:00] So, what does that mean? Artificial intelligence, that means you’ve got to be extremely careful – in plain English – what data you synthesize into your usage, and that includes personal data too. So, example, I want to go a little bit deeper into New York. So, in New York, Local Law 144 – again, I don’t want to get too deep, but I just want to mention this – regulates how companies can use automated employment decision tools.

Stuart Oberman: [00:02:35] Welcome to software, welcome to artificial intelligence, which, essentially, regulates bias audits on the basis of the data that is accumulated by the employer. Folks, that’s deep stuff. That is deep stuff. So then, you got to figure out, one, what data do you receive. Two, what’s personal data, how do you get it. Three, what do you consider artificial intelligence.

Stuart Oberman: [00:03:06] Again, I think the law stepped a little bit ahead of technology without really defining what that is. Because artificial intelligence from the employment standpoint is extremely, extremely new, if you will.

Stuart Oberman: [00:03:20] So, I want to jump into the California legislation. Again, you know, California has some complex laws that are very, very restrictive to California. But what we see is, if you take a look at California and New York, a lot of the laws that are implemented have a piece of that pie from New York or California.

Stuart Oberman: [00:03:44] So, I want to take a look at California’s Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as it was and has been amended by the California Property Privacy Rights Act, which expands the data privacy laws to cover employees and applicants, also independent contractors and operations between businesses. Folks, let me repeat that. It expands into data privacy laws that cover employees, job applicants, independent contractors, and operations between businesses.

Stuart Oberman: [00:04:32] Now, there are a million things to look at, but, again, I want to keep it very, very simple. So, what we have is we have companies that are using this particular industry knowledge. But each employer has to figure out best practices, especially if you are a national company and you have workers in California, you have workers in New York.

Stuart Oberman: [00:05:01] How do you use the company information where you have data maps to figure out information? Or how do you use it to figure out what’s used, what’s shared? How do you figure out how to handle requests from someone in-house or third party regarding your data that you’ve accumulated? What are your fulfillment obligations and requests as far as human resources go, as far as legal departments go? What are your policies and procedures on that? Do you understand how much data you accumulate? What do you do with it? How do you distribute it? Again, and a question I have, does anyone really know what a bias audit is? How do you define what a bias audit is, which is the basis for these regulatory matters?

Stuart Oberman: [00:05:56] So, here’s what I would do. If you have this technology and you’re utilizing this technology – now, I’m not talking about going on to Google and loading information. This is very specific information – I would strongly recommend, strongly recommend, that companies hire a law firm with explicit, explicit experience in this area. Work together, what tools you’re using, what tools are identified, what data you’re accumulating, what data you’re giving out, what laws are taking effect, how they affect data users to privacy, and what’s the trend, you’ve got to be ahead of the trend.

Stuart Oberman: [00:06:39] So, if something starts in California and New York, you’ve got to be ahead of that. You’ve got to look at what’s coming, because, again, what starts west goes east, what starts north goes south. So, again, look at what you’re collecting. Make decisions on your automated employment practices. Folks, this is an ongoing area. Again, I think the law is a little bit ahead of the data on how to utilize this. So, that’ll just give us one more topic to talk about as we move into 2023 and beyond, I will assure you.

Stuart Oberman: [00:07:16] Folks, thanks for joining us. Advisory Insights, Stuart Oberman here. If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call, 770-886-2400, or email, stuart, S-T-U-A-R-T, @obermanlaw.com. Folks, have a fantastic day and thanks for joining us.

Outro: [00:07:37] Thank you for joining us on Advisory Insights. This show is brought to you by Oberman Law Firm, a business-centric law firm representing local, regional, and national clients in a wide range of practice areas, including healthcare, mergers and acquisitions, corporate transactions and regulatory compliance.