Public Act 0875 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB3782 Enrolled LRB097 12051 AEK 55813 b

Public Act 097-0875

AN ACT concerning employment.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act is amended by changing Section 10 as follows:

(820 ILCS 55/10) (from Ch. 48, par. 2860)

Sec. 10. Prohibited inquiries.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any employer to inquire, in a written application or in any other manner, of any prospective employee or of the prospective employee's previous employers, whether that prospective employee has ever filed a claim for benefits under the Workers' Compensation Act or Workers' Occupational Diseases Act or received benefits under these Acts.

(b)(1) It shall be unlawful for any employer to request or require any employee or prospective employee to provide any password or other related account information in order to gain access to the employee's or prospective employee's account or profile on a social networking website or to demand access in any manner to an employee's or prospective employee's account or profile on a social networking website.

(2) Nothing in this subsection shall limit an employer's right to:

(A) promulgate and maintain lawful workplace policies governing the use of the employer's electronic equipment, including policies regarding Internet use, social networking site use, and electronic mail use; and

(B) monitor usage of the employer's electronic equipment and the employer's electronic mail without requesting or requiring any employee or prospective employee to provide any password or other related account information in order to gain access to the employee's or prospective employee's account or profile on a social networking website.

(3) Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit an employer from obtaining about a prospective employee or an employee information that is in the public domain or that is otherwise obtained in compliance with this amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly.

(4) For the purposes of this subsection, "social networking website" means an Internet-based service that allows individuals to:

(A) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, created by the service;

(B) create a list of other users with whom they share a connection within the system; and

(C) view and navigate their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

"Social networking website" shall not include electronic mail.

(Source: P.A. 87-807.)