Re: A question for the list in general

[Daniel Friedman <daniel -dot- friedman42 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

These are my thoughts:
1. Couldn't date of birth open these companies up to age discrimination
suits (i.e. applicants born before/after *year* mysteriously rejected)?
2.  Last 4 digits of social is probably not enough to determine if the
candidate is legally-eligible to work in the US, which is probably the only
legitimate reason to ask for a social.


On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 11:23 AM, Keith Hood <bus -dot- write -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Has anyone else seen this?
>
> Lately, I've been seeing something in the behavior of staffing firms that
> bugs me. Whenever I respond to a message about a possible job opening, they
> ask for a lot of information like current location, availability, etc. And
> recently, a lot of them ask for the last 4 digits of my Social Security
> number, and my date of birth - month and year. The SSN, of course, is
> critical in identifying people in official government records, and under
> HIPAA rules, the 4-digit DOB is used for confirming ID in medical records.
>
> As far as I can tell, this just started recently, in the last year. It used
> to be that every great once in a while, a recruiter would ask for the last
> 4 on the SSN, but it was because I was applying at a company where I had
> worked before, and the client company wanted it so they could confirm my
> identity in their records. I can't remember a recruiter ever asking for my
> DOB before last year.
>
> So why are all recruiting agencies now asking me for this data right at the
> start as a normal matter of course? What legitimate reason could recruiters
> have for asking me to disclose to them the data that is most sought after
> by scammers and identity thieves?
>
> I've had some tell me that they need it for distinguishing me in their
> records, which I say is a load. If all they want is a key for information
> about me in their database, they could just make up a number on their own -
> a fact which I have pointed out to more than one recruiter. The fact their
> have a field on their record keeping interface is NOT sufficient reason for
> me giving up critical secure information. A couple have told me that the
> client company they recruit for requires that data. In those cases I've
> asked for an explanation from the client company as to why they think they
> need that particular data, and I've never received any responses to those
> questions.
>
> Any thoughts on this?
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*Daniel Friedman*
*friedmantechpublications.com* <http://friedmantechpublications.com>
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