Florida Senate - 2014 CS for SB 198 By the Committee on Commerce and Tourism; and Senators Clemens and Latvala 577-01845A-14 2014198c1 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to social media privacy; creating s. 3 448.077, F.S.; providing definitions; prohibiting an 4 employer from requesting or requiring access to a 5 social media account of an employee or prospective 6 employee; prohibiting an employer from taking 7 retaliatory personnel action for an employee’s failure 8 to provide access to his or her social media account; 9 prohibiting an employer from failing or refusing to 10 hire a prospective employee who does not provide 11 access to his or her social media account; authorizing 12 civil actions for violations; providing for recovery 13 of attorney fees and court costs; specifying that an 14 employer is not prohibited from seeking access to 15 certain social media accounts; providing an effective 16 date. 17 18 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 19 20 Section 1. Section 448.077, Florida Statutes, is created to 21 read: 22 448.077 Employer access to employee social media accounts 23 prohibited.— 24 (1) As used in this section, the term: 25 (a) “Electronic communications device” means a device that 26 uses electronic signals to create, transmit, or receive 27 information, including computers, telephones, personal digital 28 assistants, and other similar devices. 29 (b) “Retaliatory personnel action” has the same meaning as 30 in s. 448.101. 31 (c) “Social media account” means an interactive personal 32 account or profile that an individual establishes and uses 33 through an electronic application, service, or platform used to 34 generate or store content, including, but not limited to, 35 videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, instant messages, 36 audio recordings, or e-mail that is not available to the general 37 public. 38 (2) An employer may not do any of the following: 39 (a) Request or require an employee or prospective employee 40 to disclose a username, password, or other means of accessing a 41 social media account through an electronic communications 42 device. 43 (b) Request or require an employee or prospective employee 44 to take an action that allows the employer to gain access to the 45 employee’s or prospective employee’s social media account if the 46 account’s contents are not available to the general public. 47 (c) Take retaliatory personnel action against an employee 48 for refusing to give the employer access to the employee’s 49 social media account. 50 (d) Fail or refuse to hire a prospective employee as a 51 result of the prospective employee’s refusal to allow the 52 employer access to the prospective employee’s social media 53 account. 54 (3) An employee or prospective employee may bring a civil 55 action against an employer who violates this section in a court 56 located in the county in which the employee or prospective 57 employee resides or where the alleged violation occurred. Such 58 action must be brought within 2 years after the violation 59 occurred. The employee or prospective employee may seek 60 injunctive relief to restrain the employer from continuing to 61 act in violation of this section and may recover damages in an 62 amount equal to the actual damages arising from the violation or 63 $500 per violation, whichever is greater. An employee or 64 prospective employee who prevails is entitled to recover court 65 costs and reasonable attorney fees. 66 (4) This section does not prevent an employer from 67 requesting or requiring an employee to disclose a username, 68 password, or other means of accessing a social media account 69 used for business purposes. 70 Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2014.