Legalities of being asked to supply a photo when applying for a job

Probably a breach of GDPR data minimisation requirements, if you wanted to report them to the DOC, after flagging it up to them.

Can you provide the relevant legislation to back that up please?

I wouldn't be too happy with it. Why is a selfie not sufficient? At least that can be deleted straight away if you're not successful. I wouldn't mind if I was actually starting a job.

There was a good hint there where I mentioned the data minimisation requirement of GDPR, but if you’re not good with search engines, here you go. Article 5 (1) (c) is what you’re looking for; “limited to what is necessary”.

How is a photo necessary with a job application.

Maybe they only want to hire attractive people? Open to correction but I don't think that is illegal discrimination. Being ugly is not a protected group.

Yeah but if we let them away with this, then that is where we are headed! 📵

As long as the person who comes for the interview is the same person who takes the job, who cares who applied?

Wouldn’t they do refeeence checks, accreditation checks and most importantly be paying the person whose name was on the application??

Well seeing as we don’t know the purpose of the photo request, we simply don’t know whether it is adequate or necessary or not. It could be for an ID badge for access to the building? My wife worked for one of the largest tech firms in the world with a Dublin office and you are required to have your photo taken and on an ID badge when you are in the building as a guest? It could also be for nefarious purposes? So no need to try be so smug when you simply don’t know what the purpose of the request was.. but based on your post history you can’t seem to help yourself.

You don't ask for a photo for an ID badge at application stage. That is absolutely and completely unnecessary - to be taking and storing biometric data from tens or hundreds of people, when you actually only need one photo from one person.

You don't ask for a 'visitor pass' photo at application stage, for the same reason.

There are a couple of ways to approach this. Firstly the reason of collection of personal data needs to be disclosed. That’s the first port of call when consider if there is mal fires for its collection.

Then we look at any evidence in the workplace where no person of a particular ethnicity, race or indeed age is brought to interview or proceeded to employment. if it’s the case that persons were profiled out for no other reason but one of the nine grounds then the collection is a breach, but if there isn’t then it’s not.

There is also the case of taking a photo when entering the building or indeed the Polaroid to remind the interview panel who each person was. Is it implied that the employers are so racist that they didn’t want a group to show up it’s all in the detail really rather than the original act.

It could be a requirement for access to the building. It’s not that hard to grasp? Again you have no idea why they want the photo but I’ll let you keep ranting away as per … have a nice weekend! Out

Probably best not to concentrate on the looks thing. It was a glib throwaway comment

Can you come up with any good reason why a photo is necessary to apply for an office job?

As explained above, they look for a photo when you come for interview, not when you apply, except in a few high security situations, like Gardai.

It would be a legitimate reason for the collection of the photo in order to prepare a temporary pass or to ensure that it was the person required for access. However it would be less legitimate if only a percentage of the applicants were called for a face to face meeting. If it was a requirement for access a photo could be requested at that stage rather than the initial applicant dump.

Yeah, I mentioned fashion industry earlier, so there could possibly be a legitimate need there. The employer would need to be prepared to write that down, and explain the rationale for requesting the data, and their retention policy also. I'm not too sure that most employers will be happy to have a written policy about staff being of a certain aesthetic.

Things are generally fairly imbalanced for job applicants. In practical terms, there's a good chance that, if you make a fuss, you'll be reducing your chances of getting through.

If they're asking for a photo, they should be able to explain to you why they need this, and how long they're going to keep it for.

They're not meeting anyone at application form stage. Asking for a photo from a load of people, the majority of whom you're never going to meet in person is very unlikely to pass a GDPR 'limited to what is necessary' test.

What kind of employers do you deal with? Are most employers not focused on ability to do the job?

Well if the employer isn't going to provide a reason for why they are asking for a photo then obviously it's going to be very difficult for the employer to say why it is necessary.

Many years ago phone interviews were fairly common. You couldn't see those people.

Frankly the standard of some people going for interview is appalling. You'd swear they were doing you a favor by turning up

As for the op, if you don't like it, move on. Plenty of people will supply a photo without hesitation. Many do it automatically - especially if they are from continental Europe