Using GPS tracking devices without violating employee privacy

Global Positioning System (GPS) devices make it easy for employers to keep track of the location of company vehicles. A GPS device can record and display a vehicle’s location and route to establish a history that an employer may access at any time. Using GPS to track trucks or company cars can help improve safety and deter thefts or carjackings.

For all the pluses of GPS, there are minuses. Because GPS devices also can pinpoint where employees who use company vehicles are and where they have been, the technology has raised new worker privacy concerns that HR professionals need to know about.

Into unchartered territory

Currently, there are no federal or state statutes expressly prohibiting the use of GPS devices in an employment situation. However, employees who resent being tracked or see it as unduly intrusive could use state privacy statutes and common law tort principles to sue for an end to tracking.

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