A public hearing Tuesday from the Legislature’s Committee on Personal Privacy took up a bill that would require employers to annually notify their workers of email monitoring. An instructor of computer networking at Madison Area Technical College spoke in favor of the plan. Brett Selling says such a policy would help protect network administrators who may be tasked with investigating activity on their network. He says administrators can be held liable under current law.
Representative Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) was concerned whether small businesses could afford the mandate. Seling says this law would only apply toward business owners who already track their employee’s emails. For those who don’t monitor activity it would not apply.
The bill's author and panel chairman Representative Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids) says it would up to the companies to decide whether to do paperless notifications or hand out hard copies.