Often yes for a vehicle the company owns, and much less clearly for an employee’s personal car or phone. The statutes read for this article turn on two questions: who owns the vehicle, and whether the person with the right to object agreed. Some states add a notice rule on top. None of the four texts quoted below says “an employer may track employees by GPS,” and none says an employer may not. They answer narrower questions, and the gaps are worth knowing before you assume anything.
Start with ownership of the thing being tracked
Tracking laws are usually written around devices and vehicles, not around employment. That has a practical effect. A company that owns its delivery van stands in a different position from one that wants to follow an employee’s own car, and a company-issued phone is not the same as a personal phone with a work app on it. Employment law adds its own limits that vary by state, which is why the sections below are examples and not a map of the country.
Texas: installation on another person’s vehicle
Texas Penal Code section 16.06 says a person commits an offense “if the person knowingly installs an electronic or mechanical tracking device on a motor vehicle owned or leased by another person.” One defense is that the person “obtained the effective consent of the owner or lessee of the motor vehicle before the electronic or mechanical tracking device was installed.” The offense is a Class A misdemeanor. Read plainly, the text is about vehicles owned or leased by someone else. An employer installing a device on its own fleet vehicle is not installing it on a vehicle owned by another person, though the statute does not discuss employers, so a lawyer should confirm how it applies to leased fleets and to employee-owned vehicles.
California: use of a device to follow a person
California Penal Code section 637.7 is broader. It states: “No person or entity in this state shall use an electronic tracking device to determine the location or movement of a person.” It does not apply “when the registered owner, lessor, or lessee of a vehicle has consented to the use of the electronic tracking device with respect to that vehicle.” A violation is a misdemeanor. Because the exception is tied to the registered owner or lessee of a vehicle, an employer that owns or leases the vehicle can fit it. An employer that wants to follow an employee-owned car cannot rely on its own consent, and the section says nothing about phones one way or the other.
New York and Delaware: notice to employees
Two states have notice statutes for electronic monitoring of employees. New York’s Civil Rights Law section 52-c requires employers to give “prior written notice upon hiring to all employees who are subject to electronic monitoring,” with an acknowledgment from the employee, and to post the notice “in a conspicuous place.” The penalties run from $500 for a first offense to $1,000 and then $3,000 for later ones. The definition in that law covers telephone, email and internet usage, and the text I read does not name GPS.
Delaware’s Title 19, section 705 bars monitoring or intercepting “any telephone conversation or transmission, electronic mail or transmission, or Internet access or usage” without notice to the employee. It is not GPS-specific either. Both statutes show how notice requirements work, but whether they reach location data is a question for a lawyer, not something these texts decide.
| State | What the text covers | Key condition | Mentions employers or GPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas, Penal Code 16.06 | Installing a tracker on a vehicle owned or leased by another person | Defense if the owner or lessee consented | Neither |
| California, Penal Code 637.7 | Using an electronic tracking device to follow a person | Not applicable if the registered owner, lessor or lessee consented to use on that vehicle | Neither |
| New York, Civil Rights Law 52-c | Electronic monitoring of employees’ telephone, email and internet use | Written notice at hire, acknowledgment, posted notice | Employers yes, GPS not named |
| Delaware, Title 19 section 705 | Monitoring telephone, email and internet use | Notice to the employee | Employers yes, GPS not named |
What this means for employers and for employees
If you are an employer, the pattern is to track equipment you own, tell people in writing before you start, and keep the scope to work vehicles and work hours. A written policy that an employee signs also helps in the states that ask for notice, though a policy is not a substitute for reading your own state’s statute. Federal law deserves a check as well, and I did not find a federal primary source on employer GPS tracking to quote here, so this article does not state what the federal rule is.
If you are an employee, start with your handbook and anything you signed at hire. Ask what is collected, when it is collected and whether it continues off the clock. If a company app on your personal phone reports location outside work hours, that is the question to put to the employer in writing, and an employment attorney or your state labor agency can tell you what your state allows. Our overview of GPS tracking laws by state gives the wider picture, and the piece on tracking a company vehicle without consent covers the question from the owner’s side.
Our take
Company-owned vehicles are the easiest case, and personal cars and phones are the hard one. Where a state has a notice law, written notice before tracking begins is the step employers skip and employees should look for. These statutes do not settle phones, so get the employer’s policy in writing and check your own state.
Common questions about employer GPS tracking
Can my employer track a company vehicle?
The Texas and California texts tie their rules to who owns or leases the vehicle and whether the owner consented. An employer that owns the vehicle is the owner in both. Neither statute discusses employers directly.
Does my employer need to tell me about tracking?
In New York, employers must give written notice at hire for electronic monitoring covered by the law and post it. Delaware requires notice for the monitoring it lists. Neither text names GPS, and other states may have no notice rule at all.
Can an employer track my personal phone?
The statutes read for this article do not address that directly. If a work app collects location on your personal phone, ask for the policy in writing and talk to an employment attorney or your state labor agency.
What is the penalty for tracking someone without consent?
Under the Texas statute the offense is a Class A misdemeanor, and under California’s it is a misdemeanor. New York’s notice law carries penalties of $500, $1,000 and $3,000.
Behind this review
TrueSpyTech does not operate a test lab, and no article here rests on a unit we plugged in ourselves. Research pulls the spec sheets and the relevant law, the pattern in owner reports fills in what a spec sheet will not admit, and an editor signs off before anything goes live. Ratings are locked before affiliate links go in, never after. The full protocol is on our How we review page.
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