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.
Related
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 with no identifying attributes, 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.
Read further
Longer pieces on this and the arguments around it.
GDPR and candidate data: what recruiting teams get wrong
Consent is usually the wrong lawful basis for recruitment. What to rely on instead, how long to keep applications, and the rules on automated decisions.
Read