The following can only be a brief introduction of the legal subject concerned. Before you take any action which may have legal consequence, you should first seek advice from your own lawyer or make an appointment at any District Office to see a volunteer lawyer of the Free Legal Advice Scheme.




(823) IDENTITY CARD NUMBER AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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In accordance with the Code of Practice on the Identity Card Number and other Personal Identifiers, an employer, in the process of recruitment, should not collect job applicant's identity card copy. In case the employer has employed a very large number of staff, he or she may record the ID card numbers of the job applicants for the purpose of checking whether the applicants have applied for vacancy in the company before or whether they were the former staff of the company.

An employer can only collect ID card copy of an applicant after the applicant has accepted the offer of employment. However, an employer must marked the word "COPY" across the entire image of the identity card in order to reduce the instance of misuse of such ID card copy.

In addition, a job applicant may have filled in his or her ID card number on the job application form. Before use, an employer should check that number against the number of the ID card produced by the applicant in person. This will ensure the accuracy of the ID card number collected.

As for staff card, regardless of the fact that the card is to be worn or publicly shown by the employees, an employer should also not issue any staff card to his employees with their ID card number printed on it. This is prohibited even if the card bears an altered form of the ID card number from which the ID card number of the employees may be deduced.

Furthermore, under the Code of Practice on Human Resource Management, when an employer finds it necessary to publicly announce that a former employee has left employment, and no longer represents the company, the employer should not disclose, in the public announcement, the ID card number of the employee. Generally speaking, the individual's full name, former job title and name of the organisation would be sufficient for the purpose.

For further enquiries, please call the PCPD Hotline on 2827 2827.

Date of amendment: 1st April 2013