What is the current state of the law on visual privacy in the workplace?

Doe by Doe v. B.P.S. Guard Services, Inc. (8th Cir.1991) 945 F.2d 1422 illustrates the existence of limited, but reasonable, visual privacy in the workplace. A fashion show was being held at a convention center. The organizers had set up a curtained dressing area for the models, unaware that the area was visible on one of the convention center's security cameras. Guards in the security control room used the surveillance camera to watch and videotape the models changing clothes. (Id. at p. 1424.) Nothing in the opinion suggests the curtained changing area, used by all the models and presumably accessible to the show's director and assistants, was a place of complete seclusion for any of the models. Nonetheless, the appellate court, in an action for common law invasion of privacy, had no difficulty discerning a reasonable expectation of privacy on the models' part, violated in this circumstance by a visual "invasion by strangers." (Id. at p. 1427; see also Ali v. Douglas Cable Communications (D.Kan.1996) 929 F.Supp. 1362, 1382 [customer service representatives for cable companies cannot claim intrusion in employer's monitoring and recording business telephone calls, but could claim a reasonable expectation of privacy as to unannounced recording of personal telephone calls].) ³

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