The personal selection by the human resources department. The fulfillment of the data protection regulations.

The personal selection by the company’s human resources department entails the collection of different kinds of dates: identifying dates, academic and professional dates… so the automatic technologies of data processing may disclose the personal, psychological or socioeconomic applicant’s profile. Thus, in the human resources scope, there are important databases with a huge quantity of applicant’s information, which are included in the juridical concept of data processing: any operation or technical process, automatic or non-automatic, which makes possibly its collection, recording, conservation, modification, consult, utilization, cancellation, block or suppression, and the data’s communication. The processing requires the fulfilment of the data protection’s principles. Therefore it is essential, and especially when the applicant’s dates are collected, the fulfilment of the information and consent principles, because the processing requires the unequivocal data subject’s consent, except in special cases. In this regard, when the applicant gives his application in person the consent may be assumed. Nevertheless, it does not avoid the information principle’s fulfilment of the data’s processing. We remember that if the data are going to be used to another aim, it is necessary obtain the data subject’s unequivocal consent to its processing; for instance, if the dates are going to be communicated (even if the dates are communicated to another company of the firm). In the case of psychological tests, these dates are contemplated as health dates. So the data processing requires the applicant’s express consent in writing. This consent may be revoked. When the dates are collected or transferred, the data subject must be also informed about the processing’s purpose and the recipient activity. If the data subject is not informed properly, his consent becomes null and void. In case of non-fulfilment of the former requirements, it may be fined who has communicated the personal dates and the recipient. Therefore, we advise the obtaining of the data subject’s previous consent before its communication.  In the case of the employer contracts a third to select the applicants, this situation constitutes a rendering services contract on the employer’s behalf, and therefore the requirements of the article 12 of the Spanish Data Protection Law (1720/99) must be fulfilled. The company’s web forms must also fulfil the requirements of the paper forms. Thus, the information of the article 5 of the Spanish Data Protection Law must be clearly visible, and the data processing information must be presented in a way that its reading would be unavoidable and the applicant accepts to enter into the selection process. As a conclusion, the fulfilment of the principles of the data protection regulation is essential to an adequate applicant’s selection.

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