Employer Access to Employee Personal Social Media Accounts in Louisiana
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At a glance
| Governing law and covered accounts | La. R.S. 51:1952(4), 1953 cover online accounts used exclusively for personal communications unrelated to the employer's business. |
|---|---|
| Covered employers, employees, and applicants | Employees and applicants are covered; employer includes private enterprises, state/local government units, and their agents (§§ 51:1952(3), 1953(A)). |
| Credential and observed-access demands | Employer may not request or require username, password, or other authentication information for a personal online account; § 51:1953(A)(1) addresses authentication disclosure. |
| Contact and privacy-setting demands | § 51:1953(A)(1) addresses username, password, and other authentication information for the defined account; its stated prohibition does not name contacts or settings. |
| Refusal, retaliation, and hiring | No discharge, discipline, hiring refusal, other penalty, or threat for declining the prohibited disclosure (§ 51:1953(A)(2)). |
| Investigation and specific-content route | Specific information about account activity or unauthorized data transfer permits the stated investigation; reported content may be requested to determine facts without obtaining username and password (§ 51:1953(B)(3)–(4)). |
| Employer accounts, public content, and regulated work | Employer-supplied devices and business accounts, public information, lawful screening/communications duties, network restrictions, and voluntary disclosure are preserved (§ 51:1953(B)(1), (5), (D)–(G)). |
| Inadvertently received credentials and use | Monitoring-related accidental receipt does not create liability for possession, but the employer may not use the information to enter the account (§ 51:1953(C)). |
| Enforcement and remedies | § 51:1953 states the employer prohibitions; § 51:1955 says the chapter creates no duty to monitor an account and no liability for declining to seek access information. |
Requirements one by one
Protected account and access demand
La. R.S. 51:1952(4) limits a personal online account to one used exclusively for personal communications unrelated to the employer's business. Under § 51:1953(A)(1), an employer may not request or require an employee or applicant to disclose a username, password, or other authentication information for that account. Section 1952(3) includes state and local government units in the employer definition.
Refusal and investigations
Section 51:1953(A)(2) protects refusal from discipline, threatened penalties, and refusal to hire. Section 1953(B)(3) preserves investigations when the employer has specific information about covered activity or unauthorized transfer of its data. Subsection (B)(4) permits asking for the reported content to make a factual determination without taking the account username and password.
Employer systems and accidentally received information
Section 51:1953(B)(1) preserves authentication demands for employer-supplied devices and work-related accounts. Subsections (D) and (E) preserve legal screening or retention duties and use of publicly available information. Under subsection (C), accidentally obtained credentials may be possessed without liability, but may not be used to enter the personal account.
What trips people up
- The account definition excludes business use. Section 51:1952(4) excludes a profile used for business-related communications.
- An investigation is tied to specific information. Section 51:1953(B)(3) states the triggering facts; subsection (B)(4) distinguishes reported content from login information.
Common questions
Can an employer ask for a work-account password? Section 51:1953(B)(1) preserves access demands for specified employer devices and work accounts.
Can a worker volunteer credentials? Section 51:1953(G) preserves voluntary disclosure.
Must an employer monitor personal accounts? Section 51:1955(A) says this chapter creates no such duty.
Statutes and sources
- La. R.S. 51:1952: account and employer definitions; accessed 2026-10-17.
- La. R.S. 51:1953: employer prohibitions and exceptions; accessed 2026-10-17.
- La. R.S. 51:1955: monitoring duty and liability limitation; accessed 2026-10-17.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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