50-State Surveys / Employer Access to Employee Personal Social Media Accounts / New Hampshire

Employer Access to Employee Personal Social Media Accounts in New Hampshire

Short answer New Hampshire bars employers from asking employees or applicants for login information to a personal social-network account, compelling contact additions, or requiring reduced privacy settings. A qualifying workplace investigation may require the employee to share only content already received by the employer to make a factual determination.
State
New Hampshire
Statute checked
October 17, 2026
Sources
5 statutes
Survey
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At a glance

Governing law and covered accountsRSA 275:73–75 covers social-network accounts primarily used for personal communications; business-purpose or business-communication accounts are excluded. RSA 275:74(II) also names electronic-mail accounts for contacts and privacy settings.
Covered employers, employees, and applicantsEmployer restrictions address employees and prospective employees/applicants; the subdivision states no special public-employer or size threshold (RSA 275:73–74).
Credential and observed-access demandsEmployer may not request or require login information for a personal account/service through an electronic communication device; observed login is not separately enumerated (RSA 275:74(I)).
Contact and privacy-setting demandsEmployer may not compel adding anyone to contacts or require reduced settings that affect third-party viewing of an email or personal account (RSA 275:74(II)).
Refusal, retaliation, and hiringNo disciplinary action or threat against an employee for refusing an unlawful demand; RSA 275:74(III) does not separately state an applicant refusal-to-hire clause.
Investigation and specific-content routeOn the information specified in RSA 275:74(VI), employer may investigate and require employee cooperation to share only content it already received, for a factual determination (RSA 275:74(VII)).
Employer accounts, public content, and regulated workLawful policies and monitoring of employer equipment/email, employer-provided accounts/devices, public information, and statutory or self-regulatory duties remain (RSA 275:74(IV), (VI)(a), (VIII)).
Inadvertently received credentials and useInadvertent password receipt through employer network/device monitoring excuses possession but not use to enter the employee's personal account (RSA 275:74(V)).
Enforcement and remediesViolating RSA 275:74 exposes employer to a civil penalty imposed by the labor commissioner under RSA 273:11-a; employer may appeal under RSA 273:11-c (RSA 275:75).

Requirements one by one

Account access and contacts

N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:73 defines a personal account by its primarily personal use and excludes accounts used for the employer's business or business-related communication. N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:74(I) bars requesting or requiring its login information; subsection (II) separately covers compelled contacts and reduced privacy settings on both personal and electronic-mail accounts.

Investigation cooperation

N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:74(VI) preserves specified investigations based on information about account activity or an unauthorized transfer of employer information. Section 275:74(VII) permits requiring employee cooperation to share only content the employer already received, to make a factual determination.

What trips people up

  • The content limit is unusually narrow. Section 275:74(VII) says “only the content that has been received by the employer”; it does not describe a general search through the worker's account.
  • Accidental password capture is not access permission. Section 275:74(V) excuses possession resulting from specified network or device monitoring but forbids using the information to enter the account.

Common questions

May an employer review public posts? Yes. Section 275:74(VI)(a) preserves obtaining information in the public domain.

Can an employer ask for a password to its own supplied account? RSA 275:74(IV)(c) preserves the listed work-account and employer-paid or supplied device/account access requests.

Who imposes a penalty? N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:75 assigns a civil penalty to the labor commissioner and provides an employer appeal route.

Statutes and sources

  • RSA 275:73: personal-account definition; accessed 2026-10-17.
  • RSA 275:74: access, contacts, exceptions, investigations, and inadvertent receipt; accessed 2026-10-17.
  • RSA 275:75: civil penalty and appeal; accessed 2026-10-17.

Source links

Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.

N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:73 · accessed 2026-10-17
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:74(I)–(III) · accessed 2026-10-17
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:74(IV)–(V) · accessed 2026-10-17
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:74(VI)–(VIII) · accessed 2026-10-17
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:75 · accessed 2026-10-17
This page summarizes state-law limits on employer access to personal social media accounts. Other employment, privacy, federal, and workplace rules may apply to a particular account or investigation; this is general information, not legal advice.

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