The Governor considered that the bill placed an unreasonable burden on employers.
"The notice requirements in this bill are too broad and do not define what constitutes proper notice, which I cannot support when an employer that fails to issue a notice or that issues a deficient notice faces the possibility of a misdemeanor conviction and civil lawsuits," explained the Governor in a statement.
This was met with criticism. "It's not that complicated," responded State Senator Debra Bowen, who introduced the bill. "The bill simply required companies that want to monitor their employees' e-mail or internet use to give them a one-time notice saying 'Your computer use may be monitored at any time.' That's it. How complicated is that?"
Known as SB 1841, the bill was intended to update California's existing privacy laws by extending current protections for workers using a telephone at their place of work.
According to Bowen, the bill would have required employers to give employees a one-time written notice if they planned to read e-mail, track internet use, or use other electronic devices to monitor employees on or off the job.
The bill would have also required employers to explain what would be monitored – for example employee e-mail content or location based on a GPS-chipped cell phone or car – but would not have required employers to tell employees each time they were about to read an e-mail or check an employee's whereabouts.
The measure was backed by consumer and privacy advocates, and had passed the Senate and the Assembly on 22-10 and 44-34 votes respectively, in August.
The veto is in apparent contrast to another controversial decision by the Governor, who on Tuesday passed a bill that makes it illegal to install spyware onto another person's computer without first giving notice of the installation and what it will do.
Spyware is the term for software that is used to collect information about an individual or organisation without their knowledge. It can be deposited as an e-mail attachment or as a download.
Federal bills to deal with the undoubted problem of spyware are working their way through Congress and the Senate, but the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act, or SB 1436, sponsored by State Senator Kevin Murray and now approved by Schwarzenegger, has been heavily criticised as being too weak to be effective.