Applicant information privacy is a major ethical issue faced by employers.
We mentioned the issue of keeping applicant information secure—something that is more easily said than done due to the risks inherent in both human error and the ingenuity of cyber-criminals.
In 2014, McDonald’s Canada’s job website was hacked, which put the personal data of as many as 95,000 job applicants at risk of being stolen; the data included their home addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers.
As another example, a laptop theft at Coca-Cola involved the private data of more than 74,000 employees, contractors, and suppliers. These cases are likely to happen more and more frequently as employers seek to use mobile-optimized application portals. Often, the cause of such data breaches is simple human error—errors that result from behaviors that many of us engage in on a regular basis.
How does an employer protect applicant data? It is recommended that HR work closely with IT staff. Employees should be asked to share their ideas for protecting data security. Employers should conduct a risk assessment of where things might go wrong. And employers should train employees in the basics of keeping data secure.

Questions 

1. What practices should you follow to keep personal data secure?
Consider yourself and others such as job applicants at your workplace or university.
2. Look up the McDonald’s or Coca-Cola data breach and read the details of what happened, how, and why. What could have been done differently? How did the employer respond once the breach happened?