Dive Brief:

• An employee of a San Francisco-based federal agency is outraged by the agency’s new smartphone policy, according to a report at SFGate.com.
• His department recently provided him with a smartphone that has a GPS feature that cannot be disabled. He’s concerned this feature infringes on his privacy rights.
• The employee (who has protected his identity) says he posed these questions to his supervisor, who responded saying the GPS feature “functions as a safeguard in the event the phone is lost.”

Dive Insight:

Rori Blake, a veteran HR professional in San Mateo, Calif., told SFGate that workplace privacy is an issue that a number of employers and employees are fighting out in court. She recalled a case in which a California-based employee, Myrna Arias, sued her employer, Intermex Wire Transfer, alleging the company fired her after she removed a job management app from her phone that tracked her GPS location while she was off duty.

Blake cautions employers to review their privacy policies regarding employee privacy and seek answers to such questions before implementing GPS surveillance of on- and off-duty conduct.