UK Regulator Urges Stronger Data Protection in AI Recruitment Tools

The UK’s data protection regulator has warned AI recruitment tool providers to better protect job seekers’ data rights, mitigating discrimination and other privacy concerns.

AI is increasingly being used by recruitment companies to make their processes more efficient, such as helping to source potential candidates, summarize CVs and score applicants.

However, an audit by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that some AI tools designed for the recruitment sector may negatively impact jobseekers who could be unfairly excluded from roles or have their privacy compromised. This includes:

• Allowing recruiters to filter out candidates with certain protected characteristics
• Inferring characteristics, such as gender and ethnicity, from a candidate’s name instead of asking for this information
• Collecting far more information than necessary and retraining it indefinitely to build large databases of potential candidates without their knowledge

As a result, the ICO has made almost 300 recommendations to the audited AI providers to improve data privacy protections within their tools.

This includes steps around ensuring personal information is processed fairly and kept to a minimum; collecting accurate information directly from candidates about their characteristics; clearly explaining to candidates how their information will be used by the AI tool; and implementing regular checks to monitor and mitigate potential discrimination.

The audited companies have accepted or partially accepted all the recommendations.

In addition, the ICO set out data protection questions recruitment firms should answer before procuring AI tools. These are:

• Have you completed a data protection impact assessment?
• What is your lawful basis for processing personal information?
• Have you documented responsibilities and set clear processing instructions?
• Have you checked the provider has mitigated bias? 
• Is the AI tool being used transparently?
• How will you limit unnecessary processing?

ICO Director of Assurance, Ian Hulme, commented: “AI can bring real benefits to the hiring process, but it also introduces new risks that may cause harm to jobseekers if it is not used lawfully and fairly. Our intervention has led to positive changes by the providers of these AI tools to ensure they are respecting people’s information rights.”

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