Rule 1: You can’t collect, use or disclose an employee’s protected information without consent
Rule 2: One of the many exceptions to Rule 1 is that you don’t need consent if the collection, use and disclosure is essential to carry out a legitimate employment purpose and you limit the amount of information to the minimum reasonably necessary to meet that purpose.
OK, let’s look at how all this applies to your question. The first thing you need to figure out is whether the “personal cell information” you reference is protected. Since I don’t know what this information is, I can’t answer this. However, in general, information is deemed protected if it identifies the individual, either directly, ie, name, or indirectly such that somebody could use the info to figure out who the person is.
Next, what are you using the info for? Are these uses legitimate employment functions? If so, do you really need the cell phone info to perform them? And if so, are you using just the info you need to perform the function.
Hopefully, this gives you a framework you can use to figure out if you need consent. Feel free to contact me directly at glennd@bongarde.com if you want to follow up. Glenn
