CIPP-US · Question #64
All of the following common law torts are relevant to employee privacy under US law EXCEPT?
The correct answer is D. Conversion. Conversion is a property-based tort that addresses wrongful control over tangible personal property and does not protect employee privacy interests.
Question
All of the following common law torts are relevant to employee privacy under US law EXCEPT?
Options
- AInfliction of emotional distress.
- BIntrusion upon seclusion.
- CDefamation
- DConversion.
How the community answered
(25 responses)- A16% (4)
- B8% (2)
- C4% (1)
- D72% (18)
Why each option
Conversion is a property-based tort that addresses wrongful control over tangible personal property and does not protect employee privacy interests.
Intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress is a recognized privacy-adjacent tort applicable when an employer's conduct regarding private employee information causes severe psychological harm.
Intrusion upon seclusion directly protects employee privacy by prohibiting deliberate intrusion into a person's private affairs in a manner a reasonable person would find highly offensive.
Defamation is relevant to employee privacy because it covers the false or unauthorized disclosure of damaging private information about an employee to third parties.
Conversion involves the intentional and wrongful exercise of dominion over another person's tangible personal property, making it a property tort rather than a privacy tort. Because employee privacy law is concerned with protecting dignity, autonomy, and personal information rather than ownership of physical objects, conversion has no recognized application in that context. The three other torts - intrusion upon seclusion, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress - each directly address harms arising from privacy violations in the workplace.
Concept tested: Common law privacy torts applicable in employment context
Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/privacy_torts
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