calhire
Definition

Identity broker

A third party that holds a candidate’s identifying information and releases it to an employer only on the candidate’s explicit instruction.

Last reviewed

In practice

The structure exists because anonymity an employer can switch off is not anonymity. If identifying data sits in the employer’s system behind a permission, then someone holds that permission, someone else can be granted it, and an export contains it.

Escrow works the same way and for the same reason: neither party has to trust the other about the moment of exchange, because neither controls it.

A broker model only means something if the release is logged immutably and visible to both parties. Without that, "we hold it separately" is an assurance rather than a mechanism.

  • Staged reveal

    Releasing a candidate’s identity to an employer at a defined point in the process, with the candidate’s consent, scoped to that employer alone.

  • Anonymous screening

    Evaluating candidates on a record that contains no identifying attributes at all, because those attributes are withheld at the source rather than hidden from the reviewer.

  • Right to work

    A person’s legal entitlement to be employed in a particular country, which an employer is generally required to verify before employment begins.

How CalHire handles this: Identity broker and staged reveal