Protecting personal identification data in recruitment

With the number of data breaches that have happened in the last few years, Andrew Black, managing director of ConnectID, said individuals are very conscious about the amount of data that is out there about them and that they are sharing.

“And businesses are also looking at ‘Well, how do we reduce our risk profile? How do I reduce the amount of information I need to capture?’,” he told HRD Australia. “By capturing and retaining a passport or driving license for example, there's the unnecessary amount of data that comes with that.”

During the recruitment process, employers may need to verify the identity of a job candidate – including conducting reference checks. So how can employees and references ensure that employers are properly handling their personal identification information?

Identity verification

ConnectID uses existing trusted sources to verify someone’s identity. Black added that it gives individuals a digital identity they can reuse.

This month, ConnectID integrated with online reference checking platform Referoo to provide bank-grade identity authentication.

“What we allow individuals to do is to use somewhere that they've already proven their identity…to be able to then verify that somewhere else,” Black said. “So a great example is in the employee onboarding space or workforce onboarding or verification. Instead of having to upload a passport or driving license – the typical processes today of document checking – you could use a trusted organisation, such as a bank, to verify that you are Andrew, for example.

“And it saves you having to share that documentation as additional data points. And that unnecessary amount of data that comes with it.”

The importance of secure ID verification

Black highlighted why the security element is very important.

“That's where our consistent research really over the last couple of years has always boiled down to –  trust,” he said. “Who do individuals trust to look after their data?

“It’s a fundamental reality today. It's a little bit of a non-negotiable making sure security is one of those core principles and pillars.”

For HR teams, Black believes having a reusable digital identity provides the ability to do due diligence both quickly and rigorously.

“[There] doesn't have to be a trade-off anymore between the ease of onboarding somebody and reduced security,” he said.

He added that it can help with reaching prospective employees and verifying that the referrer in the reference check is the right person.

Further, Black said that as we’re heading into more of a remote and mobile workforce, it’s going to become more important to have a digital identity that can be reused.

“That level of trust is really only ever going to increase,” he said. “And really, we see this as a cornerstone or future step into the truly digitised ways of identifying people who you may never meet. They may always be remote.”