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Employers collect personal data on job applicants and workers for a number of purposes:
- to comply with law;
- to assist in selection for employment, training and promotion;
- to ensure personal safety, personal security and the protection of property.
New ways of collecting and processing personal data, made possible by advances in information technology, entail some new risks for workers. As enterprise operations become more global, data transfers across borders make the protection of personal data more complex.
In 1996, the ILO adopted a code of practice on the protection of workers' personal data. It covers general principles of protection of workers' personal data and specific provisions regarding the collection, security, storage, use and communication of such data.
While this code of practice does not replace national laws, regulations, international labour standards or other accepted norms, it can be used in the development of legislation, regulations, collective agreements, work rules, policies and practical measures at enterprise level.
Workers' privacy issues were discussed in detail in three volumes of the Conditions of Work Digest.
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