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Why does a prospective employer need my address?
(lemmy.world)
This happens a lot: I apply for a job and they ask for my complete address. Why? I would understand if they just want to know what city/town I'm in: That has bearing on how easily I can get to the office.
But why do they need to know my street address?
The only thing I can think: Indeed/LinkedIn/take-your-pick is building a profile of me based on this info, using my street as a proxy for my income, credit score, or, ultimately, for my social class.
From now on, when they ask me, I'm just going to put a rich person's address. For this one I used a Brooklyn townhouse where Maggie Gyllenhaal and one of the Saarsgaards lives.
~~To mail you documents related/associated with your employment? Not really unheard of to receive 401k/insurance/other benefits mail. Also, taxes and tax documents like W2's~~
Potentially background checks? Maybe? Otherwise yeah it's a bit weird and more information than they really need.
Overreach in data collection is everywhere these days sadly... far too many things are not properly considered PII (personally identifiable information) even though multiple things in aggregate could completely doxx a person.
Companies aren't mailing taxes, tax documents, or 401k/insurance/benefits docs to someone just because they applied for a job, though.
Fair point! I misread this, I'll edit my comment.
I doubt it’s a background check. Those cost actual money, so why do one before you need to?
Everyone and their mother in entry level job postings I can remember (2016-2020 ish range, so may have changed) had a caveat of passing a background check. This being in a relatively wealthy suburb, too. I imagine there's some sizeable kickbacks from the companies doing them.
Sure, you should assume every employer will do a background before hiring you. They’re cheap.
But NOT after you apply. They do cost something.
I was trying to make that distinction
They can get your address after they hire you for that. They don't need the other 90 applicants addresses.
401k letters? Either that's a typo, or that's a lot of letters.
It's the name of the pension account
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)
Ah. I didn't know about that
It's really more of a US usage tbh. Most civilized countries have actual pensions and retirement plans (or at least I hope they do, not for lack of attempts to remove them)
Whether a joke or not, I loved this comment. Sorry about the downvotes! Lol