Effective August 1, 2014, Louisiana joined at least sixteen other states who have enacted laws prohibiting or restricting employers from accessing employees’ personal online accounts – including social media, email accounts, or any other online accounts which the employee uses for anything other than a purely business-related reasons. The “Personal Online Account Privacy Protection Act,” states that no employer may “request or require” any employee or job applicant to disclose the username, password, or any other authentication information related to a “personal online account.” Extreme caution should still be exercised whenever dealing with an employee’s non-business related social media or similar account.

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