Submitting DOB and SSN simply to apply

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Momotaro

I can understand the SSN being legal. Was not aware DoB was, since if you are not hired, the company could be open to age discrimination lawsuits?

Date of birth may be used for other purposes besides age discrimination, and even without that date, previous employment dates, college degree dates and seeing the applicant at the interview will give it away anyway.

Any employer who discriminates on the basis of age, unless really stupid, will use the standard "we went with someone better qualified" rather than admit to discrimination, and it's hard if not impossible to prove an accusation. Without a written letter or e-mail saying someone was
not hired due to being too old, there is no evidence to support such
a claim.

[pvande55]

An agency requested SSN and I replied it was confidential. They still kept me in the database.

[peet111]

They should be interested in you first, then ask for more after an interview. They have probably signed an agreement with a 3rd party that may be reselling your information to mailers and spammers really doesn't matter what they say why would they do it otherwise, they are "paying" for the service with your data. Here in GA, some women found a bunch of docs in a public recycle bin complete with soc-sec from a staffing agency. Finally, I dummied an app and still got an interview a few months ago.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by EricB4

Hello, recently I started to build my online profile to apply to a job to a grocery store chain and they require you to submit your date of birth and Social Security number simply to apply for a job. Is it legal to ask for one's DOB to apply? You cannot skip submitting this information as the web page will not advance until submitted. I did not provide this info and emailed their customer service and complained, but they state that the info goes to a background company, not the hiring official. Needless, to say, I find this practice increasingly common ,unethical and should be illegal. In addition, it puts applicants as risk for identity theft if their servers get hacked. Has anyone else run into the same situation?

When asked for a birthday, I always put in the month and day but make the year the current year (i.e. 2012) if the program takes it, if not, I just pick a random year (usually considerably younger than my real age ;p).

For an social security number, I use my ex-husbands. That way if anything bad happens, it won't happen to me. LOL

20yrsinBranson

[STT Resident]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Sounds like they might do the credit report right away, to me that seems a waste of money, better to do it only after interviews and pay for fewer of them.

Originally Posted by peet111

They should be interested in you first, then ask for more after an interview.

I agree with both. There was a big to-do here a few years ago when one of the local government agencies cleaned house and dumped a whole bunch of unshredded paperwork in the local landfill which included all sorts of personnel data including SS numbers. All of this sensitive information blowing around the landfill from broken boxes ...

I'm not overly sensitive about my birthdate because I'm pretty way up there now but NOBODY gets my SS# unless it's absolutely necessary and I certainly wouldn't put it on any online employment application.