In a victory for privacy rights, the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, unanimously ruled today that New York State acted unlawfully when it planted a GPS tracking device on a government employee’s personal car and tracked his movements outside of working hours.

The decision was issued in Cunningham v. New York State Department of Labor, a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union challenging the Department of Labor’s planting of a GPS tracking device on an employee's personal car as part of an investigation into workplace misconduct. Using the device, the Labor Department tracked the whereabouts of 30-year Department employee Michael Cunningham and his family for at least a month, including during evenings, weekends and while the family went on vacation out of state.

“With this ruling, the state's 200,000 employees can feel secure in the fact that their bosses cannot secretly track them and their families for 24 hours a day,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Corey Stoughton, lead counsel on the case. “The Court of Appeals sent a clear message that the government cannot intrude into the private lives of employees simply to investigate workplace issues.”

Writing for the Court, Judge Robert Smith wrote: “Where an employer conducts a GPS search without making a reasonable effort to avoid tracking an employee outside of business hours, the search as a whole must be considered unreasonable.”

Judge Smith stated that the Labor Department’s use of the GPS devise was “excessively intrusive” because “it examined much activity with which the State had no legitimate concern,” such as Cunningham’s activities on evenings, weekends and while on vacation.

“This ruling confirms that the state is not free to engage in unchecked surveillance of New Yorkers,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “In an era of rapidly advancing surveillance technology when the federal government is collecting our phone records, it's important for the courts to place common sense checks like this on the state’s ability to engage in surveillance activities.”

On June 3, 2008, at the Department of Labor's request, investigators for the office of the State Inspector General placed a GPS tracking device on Cunningham's family car. It was planted for the purpose of investigating whether Cunningham accurately filled out his time sheets. In all, his family car was tracked 24 hours a day in June and July of 2008, including during a weeklong family vacation in Massachusetts.

Based on evidence gathered by the GPS device, the DOL sought to fire Cunningham, whose job title was director of the staff and organization development. At proceedings to determine the validity of the dismissal, a hearing officer considered the GPS evidence over Cunningham's objections. The officer relied on that evidence to uphold Cunningham's dismissal, referencing the GPS data more than 20 times in his findings. Cunningham was issued a notice of termination on Aug. 24, 2010. The NYCLU’s lawsuit was filed later that year.