Information from social media should be irrelevant to employment
EU data protection regulations are being tightened to protect people from discrimination due to the use of social media. Employers often check the profiles and posting behavior of their applicants before hiring them.
European law should prevent this in the future.
From now on, superiors need a legal basis to use applicants' data on the social web for assessment purposes. The data collected by platforms like Facebook must be relevant to work performance.
These are guidelines published by the EU data protection authority. However, in order to become law, the individual states still have to make national adjustments.
more transparency
Over 60 percent of companies use social media to screen potential candidates before making a decision in the hiring process. The EU data protection authority does not create any laws itself. But because it monitors the implementation of the laws, it plays a highly influential role in the process.
“The opinion of the control authority is not binding, but it is important for the legislation. They will influence the perception of the rules by national data protection authorities,”
says Phil Lee, data protection specialist at law firm Fieldfisher .
According to Lee, hiring companies should not be allowed to use applicants' public content for their own benefit.
Applicants must therefore be informed early on whether the company will include the social media profile in their decision.
However, you are not obliged to accept the potential employer's request.
No monitoring
The so-called EU General Data Protection Regulation is scheduled to come into force on May 25, 2018 . This law requires many large companies to appoint a data protection officer to ensure compliance with the rules. The alternative is a fine of four percent of global sales, which is on average around 20 million euros.
The law also covers other areas of employment relationships. For example, companies cannot require employees to use wearable health screening devices. This would be illegal even with the employee's consent.
The regulatory authority also speaks out against digital monitoring, including monitoring web activities or data from movement trackers.
Any software packages that enable screen recording, decryption or webcam recording are “unlikely to find a legal basis,” says the data protection authority.
The new rules also prohibit employers from sharing too much of their employees' information with customers - for example, delivery services that send the customer the supplier's name, location and a small photo.
The guidelines apply to all situations in which a working relationship exists.
This means that employees without a formal employment contract should also be protected.
Source preview image: Alexey Boldin / Shutterstock.com
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )