New Privacy Law Affecting Utah Companies

Utah passed a law effective May 12, 2009 entitled “The Employment Selection Procedures Act.”  The law essentially “slipped through the cracks” and was not noticed by most employers or consumer reporting agencies until now.

The law prohibits Utah employers (with more than 15 employees) from collecting an applicant’s social security number, date of birth or driver’s license number before a job offer is tendered or a background check is requested. If the person is not hired, the employer must not retain the information for more than two years. Furthermore, the employer may not use the information for any other purpose and must maintain a “specific policy regarding the retention, disposition, access, and confidentiality of the information.” The applicant has the right to view this policy.

If you are a Utah company currently using a paper employment application, this new law will force you to make some changes. You will need to remove any questions involving those personal identifiers.

You may request the personal identifiers on a separate disclosure and authorization form but it should only be given to the applicant to complete after you have made a job offer or at such time as you intend to order a background check.

Personal identifiers are permitted if you are using an online application (such as the ESS ATS Online Application) that allows only the screening company to access the information for the purpose of conducting a background check.

For more information on the ESS ATS Online Application, please contact Chuck Perry at ChuckP@employscreen.com.

The intent of the law is (1) to keep applicants’ personal identifiers from being used unless necessary for employment decisions; and (2) to limit the amount of time the data is kept on file.  The law only applies to companies located in Utah.

For a full copy of the law visit http://le.utah.gov/~2009S1/bills/hbillenr/hb1002.htm

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