China: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Cyberspace Administration of China: Enhance Data Security in Online Recruitment and Strengthen Supervision of Employment Discrimination
Author: Carol Zhu and Lynsey Liu
On 23 August 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of the Human Resource Market (the “Notice”). The Notice aims to enhance the supervision over online recruitment services and practices of employment discrimination.
The Notice mandates the reinforcement of personal information protection. It instructs major online recruitment service providers to refine their information protection measures. It requires that before publicly releasing or utilizing confidential or sensitive information, declassification and desensitization processes must be carried out to effectively prevent the disclosure or leakage of job seekers’ personal information.
Additionally, the Notice calls for stricter regulation of employment discrimination. Local human resources and social security departments are required to enhance their management systems for recruitment information by promoting a standardized format for job listings. This is to prevent employers and human resource service agencies from posting job advertisements that contain discriminatory content based on gender, age, educational background, and other factors. The Notice also emphasizes the need to strengthen inspection and monitoring. Regular and spot checks on the job listings published by employers and human resource service agencies are to be conducted. Furthermore, the use of the internet, big data, and other technologies is advocated for conducting online monitoring of keywords associated with employment discrimination.
Key Action Points
As the protection of personal information gains increasing importance, it is crucial to prevent the disclosure of job seekers’ personal information during the online recruitment process. Although the Notice primarily regulates online recruitment service providers, employers shall pay attention to comply with the legal obligations of notification and obtaining consent when processing job seekers’ personal information. On the other hand, employers should refrain from posting job advertisements that contain discriminatory content and should select qualified human resource service agencies.
