Is it legal that my previous employer ask me to report my job search activity to them?

Is your employer agreeing to pay you severance or agreed to pay you severance? Do you still have time for some expert with employment contracts or severance agreements to review the one they will probably want you to sign? Or have you already signed a severance pay agreement more than 7 days ago; often meaning that you waived your right to potential, additional compensation? Were you a faithless servant? The Faithless Servant Doctrine is a common law doctrine. It applies in New York. It means that you have a duty to devote the time you are being paid for to the employer who is paying you. That applies to computers and other equipment or supplies provided to you by your employer. Did you use your employer's company time or their equipment to "job search." If so, how would your getting a new job have benefited your former employer? Why would this employer not have had the right to ask any of their employees about activities which the employer thought an employee had performed during company time or using company resources? Would it be wrongful for an employee to be untruthful or to refuse to cooperate, if those were the facts? "Wrongfully terminated" how? Labor and employment laws are not a civility code. Employers do not have to be nice to anyone. They can ask employees about activities performed during work hours or on the job. Were they asking you about job search activities you performed on your own time or on your own equipment? Your facts included nothing related to discrimination which might be wrongful. Were you a member of a protected class? Did the employer target you because of such membership? When and how? Your facts included nothing about employment contracts. Did you have one which was breached by this employer? For example, were you covered by employment contracts? They include collective bargaining agreements. Others are private employment contracts which might assure your employment from X date to Y date for this employer at an agreed compensation. Was this employer guilty of breaching such employment agreements? Doing so could be wrongful.  If you belonged to no union, did not work for the government, were not covered by any written employment contracts, nor are able to confirm facts to support discrimination how would you prove wrongful termination? Assuming you have not already waived your rights review all of the above documents, factual evidence and anything else and proceed timely if necessary. There are very specific time deadlines to pursue discrimination claims. Those deadlines are usually determined by a union agreement or contract or by federal or state laws. The laws usually require action by you within 300 days, 1 year, or in some limited cases 3 years, but don't count on the latter.