Secretly Recorded During a Massage? What Virginia Law Says You Can Do

You’ve gone to the same massage business for years. Maybe it’s a weekly appointment. Maybe it’s monthly. Maybe you stop in on your way home from work, because it’s the one hour of the week that belongs to you. Maybe you go because you’re recovering from an injury and your doctor recommended it.

You trust the place. You trust the people.

Then you learn that your massage therapist had been secretly recording clients in the treatment room on a personal phone or device.

It’s a sickening thing to find out. You may feel violated, embarrassed, angry, or unsure whether you were one of the people recorded. And very quickly, one question rises to the top: what can you actually do about it?

Virginia law gives people who were recorded without their knowledge real options. Here’s how we think about these cases at the Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC, and what you should know about your rights.

The Questions We Ask First

When someone comes to us after being secretly recorded, the person who made the recording is only part of the picture. We also look hard at the business that puts that person in a private room with you. The first questions we ask are:

Did the business check who it was hiring? Did it run a background check, verify licensing, and contact prior employers? Were there warning signs it ignored?
Did it have rules about personal phones and devices in treatment rooms, and were they enforced? A written policy that sits in a binder and is never followed protects no one.
Was there consent? You agree to be treated, and you may agree to undress to a degree you’re comfortable with. That is not consent to be filmed.
Were the recordings shared, posted, or sold, or were they kept on a private device? Distribution can increase the harm and can bring additional laws into play.
Who owned the recording device? Was it the therapist’s own phone, or a device the business provided as part of the job? That can affect what the business knew, what it controlled, and what it can be held responsible for.

The answers shape who may be responsible and what claims may be available.

What Virginia Law Says About Secret Recording

Recording someone in a state of undress is a crime

Virginia makes it a crime to knowingly and intentionally create a video or still image of a nonconsenting person who is nude, in undergarments, or partially undressed, when that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy (Va. Code § 18.2-386.1).

The statute lists places like dressing rooms, locker rooms, and bedrooms, and also covers any “other location” where the circumstances give you a reasonable expectation of privacy. A closed massage treatment room is a strong example.

It is a separate crime to share or sell those images (Va. Code § 18.2-386.2).

You can sue, even if no one is charged

This is the part many people don’t know. Virginia gives victims a civil right to sue anyone who engaged in conduct prohibited by those two statutes (Va. Code § 8.01-40.4). A few key points:

You don’t need a criminal conviction. The civil claim is available whether or not the person was ever charged or convicted.
The law allows compensatory damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs.
There is a deadline. Generally, you have two years from the date of the last unlawful act or the date you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, what happened. Different timing applies when the person recorded was a minor.

The Virginia Computer Crimes Act

If a massage therapist secretly recorded you on a personal phone, the unlawful filming laws above are the starting point.

But if the therapist did more than record, the Virginia Computer Crimes Act may also apply. The Act gives people harmed by a violation the right to sue for their damages. It could come into play if the therapist:

Used the recordings against a client. Say the therapist texted a client a clip from the treatment room, or messaged a client threatening to post the video unless the client paid or kept quiet. That could be harassment by computer (Va. Code § 18.2-152.7:1).
Went digging in the business’s client records. Many massage businesses keep intake forms, contact details, and payment information in a booking system. If the therapist logged in and looked up a client’s personal or financial information beyond what the job required, for example to find out who a client was or where they lived, that could be computer invasion of privacy (Va. Code § 18.2-152.5).
Got into a client’s phone or accounts, or the business’s systems. For example, a client leaves a phone in the treatment room and the therapist goes into it, or the therapist uses the front-desk computer to copy files or install something without permission. That could be computer trespass (Va. Code § 18.2-152.4).

The Act has its own filing deadline. A claim must be brought within two years after you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, what happened, and no later than five years after the last act (Va. Code § 8.01-40.1). Once you learn what happened, the clock is already running.

Can the Massage Business Be Held Responsible?

Often, yes, depending on the facts. A business that puts employees alone with clients in private rooms takes on a responsibility to the people who walk through its doors. Claims against a business may include:

Negligent hiring: the business hired someone it knew, or should have known, posed a risk to clients.
Negligent retention: the business learned of a problem, such as a complaint or a phone seen in a treatment room, and kept the employee on anyway.
Liability tied to business policies and equipment: especially where the business supplied the device, or had phone rules it failed to enforce.

This is why the questions above matter so much. The paper trail inside the business, including hiring files, written policies, prior complaints, and device records, can make the difference in your case.

What You Can Do If You Think You Were Recorded

Report it to police. If you haven’t already, contact the police where the business is located. A criminal investigation can help preserve evidence.
Don’t confront the therapist or the business yourself. It can lead to deleted files and lost evidence.
Write down what you remember. Appointment dates, the room, the therapist’s name, anything unusual you noticed. Save receipts, booking confirmations, and bank or card statements that show your visits.
Talk to a lawyer. An attorney can explain your options and, once hired, handle all communication with the business on your behalf. Until then, avoid discussing what happened with the business, its owners or managers, its insurance company, or anyone else asking questions, other than law enforcement.

Contact Us For A Free Consultation

Finding out you were recorded in a private moment is deeply personal. Many people hesitate to come forward because they’re embarrassed. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. The wrongdoing belongs to the person who made the recording, and possibly to the business that let it happen.

The Law Offices of Richard J. Serpe, PC has spent decades helping those who were harmed by someone else’s negligence or misconduct. We handle these matters with discretion, and we are actively investigating cases involving people who were recorded without their permission in Hampton Roads, including Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Suffolk.

The consultation is free and there are no legal fees unless we win your case. Call or text us at (757) 233-0009 or email us today.