[thelist] Online Employment App Ethics

[Norman Bunn]

At 03:55 PM 7/24/2003, Dan Boen wrote:
>Good Afternoon,
>
>My question today concerns a client who wants to have an online employment 
>application - so prospective employees may apply to the company 
>directly.  This is strictly an HTML site using formmail to send the info 
>to an HR representative.    The form contains some sensitive information 
>in my opinion:
>
>- employment history
>- education history
>- address, city, state, zip, phone, email
>- salary requirements
>- references
>
>But no Social Security number.  Because of that, they see no need for an 
>SSL certificate.  This does not smell right to me, but I don't have enough 
>experience in this particular area to articulate a good argument in favor 
>of saving their butts with an SSL cert.   Is there anything I can point 
>them towards?  Or am I being prudish?  I don't believe so.
>
>Thanks, all advice is appreciated.
>
>Dan

Dan,

Offer the ability for the sender to print out the form and mail it, with a 
note indicating that the email will be sent as plain text and no 
encryption, and if they have reservations, they should avail themselves of 
snail mail.

IMHO, I don't see this whole thing as much different than loading your 
resume onto one of the many job websites and letting any and all employers 
look at it.

Norman
www.CraftedSolutions.com
803-405-1008