Ensuring Data Privacy in HR and Recruitment: Understanding Thailand’s PDPA
In 2022, Thailand introduced the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) to establish clear guidelines for safeguarding personal data. As technology advances, the threat of data breaches rises, making this data protection law in Thailand essential. The PDPA defines the duties of data controllers, like companies handling employee data, to ensure proper data management and protection.
Human Resources (HR) and recruiting departments, which frequently collect and manage personal data through job applications, employee records, and healthcare information, must comply with the PDPA law in Thailand. To meet these regulations, HR departments should follow several key guidelines for data protection.
Thailand implemented the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) in 2022 to provide guidelines for protecting and securing personal data. Technological developments increase the risk of data breaches, making these guidelines crucial. The PDPA outlines the responsibilities of data controllers who collect and handle personal data, such as companies receiving employee information.
Human Resources (HR) and Recruiting Departments are heavily involved in collecting, processing, and utilizing personal data, including job applications, employee databases, and healthcare information. All these activities fall under the scope of personal data protection. To comply with the PDPA, HR departments should adhere to several essential guidelines.
First, HR should obtain informed consent before collecting personal data. This involves telling the data subjects, such as employees and job applicants, about the purpose of data collection, how it will be used, the legal basis for processing the data, and their rights regarding their data. When collecting sensitive data, such as criminal records, considered sensitive data under the PDPA, explicit consent must be obtained from the data owner. Additionally, HR should practice data minimization by collecting only the data necessary for specific purposes and avoiding gathering excessive or irrelevant information.
Transparency is also crucial; HR should communicate data handling policies and practices to ensure that individuals know what data is being collected, why it’s being collected, and how it will be used. A security measure should be implemented to protect personal data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
These measures include technical safeguards like encryption and firewalls and organizational measures like access controls and regular audits or the minimum regulations provided by the Personal Data Protection Committee. Furthermore, HR should allow data subjects to access, correct, or delete their data upon request and inform them about their right to withdraw consent at any time.
Data retention policies should ensure that personal data is retained only as long as necessary to fulfill its collected purposes, with precise data deletion and destruction procedures. Regular training and awareness programs for HR staff on data protection principles and practices are essential for ongoing compliance with the PDPA. By following these guidelines, HR departments can effectively protect personal data, comply with the PDPA, reduce the risk of data breaches, and ensure the privacy and security of employee information.
For collecting criminal records, the Personal Data Protection Act has provided specific guidance that it can only be kept for six months since the last use of the particular purpose of the data. If required, consent must be obtained from the data owner. Otherwise, it is prohibited to keep personal data.
At Sanet Group, we value your privacy as our best concern. Sanet Legal, the Western-minded Law Firm in Bangkok, consults on data privacy matters in your case. Make a free consultation here!