Chicago, IL asked in Employment Law and Employment Discrimination for Illinois

Q: Did Amazon violate EEOC law?

I applied to Amazon Web Services and my application was somehow linked to another person with my exact name (except the middle name). This person was able to review my job application and resume, and I was able to view theirs. They also reached out to me on LinkedIn. I'm under the impression that I was unable to obtain the job because of this confusion, also I feel that my privacy was compromised. Do you have any thoughts?

1 Lawyer Answer

A: It does not sound to me like you suffered unlawful employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, disability, or pregnancy.

While it is certainly a good practice to keep job applications confidential, there is no federal law that requires employers to keep a job application private and confidential. Generally, the information requested on a job application is typically of the type you make publicly available on a LinkedIn profile. There is a possibility that an employer may request certain specific information on a job application that is confidential and subject to privacy laws, but I'm going to give Amazon's lawyers and HR personnel the benefit of the doubt here and say they probably know not to do that.

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