JapanProfessional services2019Recruit Career (Recruit Holdings)
Rikunabi DMP Follow: offer-decline scores for job seekers
Japan's privacy regulator acted against Recruit after Rikunabi sold offer-decline scores on 7,893 students without their consent
Problem
Companies hiring new graduates find it difficult to predict which applicants will turn down an offer. Recruit Career, which runs the Rikunabi job site for students, offered clients a service to estimate that risk.
Approach
Recruit Career scored students on a five-point scale for their likelihood of declining an offer, based on their behavior on the Rikunabi site. From March to the end of July 2019 it passed the predictions to 38 client companies. The privacy policy had been revised to allow this, but the change was not fully applied, so consent was missing for 7,893 students. The commission issued a recommendation on 26 August 2019 and a formal admonishment and directive on 4 December 2019. Recruit said the service had ended on 4 August 2019.
Results
Takeaway
The regulator found that consent and legal review were inadequate when Recruit turned job-site behavior data into hiring scores for employers. Recruit set up a data advisory committee and a central legal review of products.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Professional services
- Business function
- Human resourcesMarketing and sales
- Innovation type
- Product and service innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Regulator, audit or court
Sources
Source summaries
ITmedia NEWS reports the Personal Information Protection Commission's recommendation of 26 August 2019 to Recruit Career. Scores for 7,893 students without consent went to 38 companies. The commission required an organizational review, company-wide awareness reform, and a report by 30 September.
Recruit Holdings states that the commission issued administrative admonishments to Recruit and Recruit Career and an administrative directive to Recruit on 4 December 2019. It says Rikunabi DMP Follow ended on 4 August 2019 and describes the fixes: a multi-check process for products, a central data and legal team, more staff training, and an outside advisory committee.
Full details are in the original sources.
