PCPD - Privacy Commissioner urges job seekers to be careful when providing personal data

Date: 15 June 2009

Privacy Commissioner urges job seekers to be careful when providing personal data

1.   The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Mr. Roderick B. Woo, urges members of the public, in particular fresh graduates and young people who are eagerly looking for summer jobs, to be prudent even in the poor employment environment affected by the economic downturn in handling their personal data in the course of job hunting to avoid unnecessary losses.

2. Mr. Woo said, “During the summer holiday, many young people may easily fall for scams by providing personal data when desperately looking for jobs. Some similar cases were reported in the newspapers, e.g. job seekers received numerous marketing calls after emailing their resumes to anonymous companies; applicants for the post of a clerk advertised by an unknown person were persuaded in the interview to take a self-financed course for investment consultant. In this regard, I would like to remind young people to be mindful of blind recruitment advertisements, and not to blindly accede to requests for personal data when seeking jobs, especially when asked to provide copies of identity cards and financial information.”

3.    Job seekers should be mindful of blind recruitment advertisements, which provide no means of identifying either the employer or the employment agency acting on its behalf. Under the Code of Practice on Human Resources Management (“the Code”) issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (“the PCPD”), an employer or the employment agency acting on its behalf is not permitted to post a blind advertisement to solicit resumes from job applicants directly.

4.    It is very unwise to rashly give your personal data to an unidentified organization and job applicants are strongly advised not to respond to any bind advertisements.

5. Moreover, the PCPD has taken the initiative to conduct an investigation about collection of excessive personal data from applicants by a hotel. During interviews, applicants were asked to fill in personal details on the application form, including their height, weight, family status as well as information about their parents and siblings. Under the Code, an employer should not collect personal data from job applicants unless the data are adequate but not excessive in relation to the purpose of recruitment. Applicants should provide their data according to the job nature and actual needs, but not indiscriminately provide “all” the data to an employer.

6. Apart from being mindful of blind recruitment advertisements and provision of excessive personal data, the Privacy Commissioner also reminds job seekers to see if employers have provided them with a Personal Information Collection Statement on recruitment in compliance with the Code to protect job seekers’ personal data when they fill in physical or electronic application forms.

7. For details of the Code, please visit the website of the PCPD (www.pcpd.org.hk/english/ordinance/code_hrm.html). For any queries, please call the hotline of the PCPD on 2827 2827.

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