Tools that sort job applications: what the data protection regulator found in 2024

What the ICO found

On 6 November 2024 the Information Commissioner's Office published the outcome of its audits of providers and developers of AI recruitment tools. It made almost 300 recommendations, which the companies accepted in full or in part, and it found that some tools inferred characteristics such as gender and ethnicity from a candidate's name, some collected far more personal information than necessary, and some kept data indefinitely. It recommended giving candidates clear privacy information, including a retention period.

• Inferring traits from names.
• Collecting more than needed.
• Keeping data indefinitely.

How the EU AI Act treats recruitment

Annex III of the EU AI Act lists, as high-risk uses, AI systems intended for recruitment or selection of people, in particular to analyse and filter job applications and to evaluate candidates. It also lists systems that make decisions affecting terms of work, allocate tasks from behaviour or traits, or monitor and evaluate worker performance and behaviour. That puts filtering applications and evaluating candidates squarely among the listed uses; the text is an unofficial consolidated version, so check the official text and the dates that apply to you.

A fenced alternative

A narrower job is designed to avoid those uses, though whether it falls outside Annex III is for your adviser to say: lay the facts out and leave the choosing to people. A sheet can show, for each criterion in your own advert, a quote from the application or the words not stated, with names, contact details and photos removed before anything is sent, no scores and no order, and another can place each interviewer's own written notes under the same questions. A person reads every application and makes every decision.

• Quote or not stated.
• No score, rank or filter.
• Names and contact details removed first.

Limits of this guide

This guide is not legal advice. It reports what two public sources say and does not assess whether any particular tool or use is lawful for you. The paid jobs in this area never score, rank, filter, shortlist or summarise fit.