Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Tennessee
This question is about PRIVACY.
I am a teacher with Memphis City Schools. The local newspaper has published the salaries of all teachers online. The paper received the salary information from the school system. Now anyone who wants to look up how much I make annually can do so by my name (first & last). Prior to publishing, I was NOT NOTIFIED by neither my employer nor the paper. Nor did I have the opportunity to opt out. I feel that this is a tremendous invasion of my privacy, which has left me exposed to anyone with an agenda for this information. I have been told that the paper is justified because teachers are paid through public funds. What can I, a private citizen, do? I would like to have my name removed from the database and/or am interested in seeking civil action against my employer and the newspaper.
WHAT I HAVE ALREADY TIRED SO FAR!!!
PrePaid Legal represent MCS so they are finding me another lawyer (this does not sound promising...)
My cousin works at a law firm and asked the lawyers there. Their response was that the paper has the right to publish the information, but what about MY rights to privacy as a private citizen. What if someone were to use this information to steal my identity, harass me, deny me credit, etc...
1 Answer from Attorneys
I'm not a Tennessee lawyer, but since no one else has answered your question yet I will give it a shot.
In many states the salaries of public employees are public information. It sounds like that was true of your salary. If it was, then you had no reasonable expectation that it would be kept private. You ask about your right to privacy, but by definition no one has a right to keep public information private. Further, the newspaper would have published only information that was already public. It probably put the information in front of a lot more people than would have seen it otherwise, but that would not be enough to build a case on.
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