Legal Intelligencer: In Fight Over Nanny Cam Footage, Pa. Justices to Wrestle With Privacy Under Wiretap Law

Legal Intelligencer: In Fight Over Nanny Cam Footage, Pa. Justices to Wrestle With Privacy Under Wiretap Law by Zack Needles:

In a case that raises complex questions about where the expectation of privacy begins and ends, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether the audio portion of a recording of a nanny’s alleged child abuse captured by a hidden surveillance camera in the home where she worked is admissible under the state’s wiretap statute.

Commonwealth v. Mason, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 5083 (Sept. 10, 2019):

… the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED, LIMITED TO the issues set forth below. Allocatur is DENIED as to the remaining issue. The issues, as stated by petitioner, are:
(1) Whether a babysitter has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bedroom of a child she is caring for?
(2) Whether the sounds resulting from a child being forcibly thrown into a crib and being beaten by [Mason] constitute “oral communications” or “evidence derived therefrom” under the Pennsylvania wiretap statute?