The processing of personal information of employees by employers runs through the entire process from pre employment to post employment, and with the acceleration of talent flow, background checks have become increasingly frequent in the recruitment process of enterprises. In this situation, employers and employees are also prone to labor disputes due to the scope of personal information provided by background checks. Recently, the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing heard a case in which Mr. Zhang, a worker, believed that his former employer's provision of background investigation information to an outside company violated his personal information rights. Therefore, he sued his former employer, a technology company, to the court, demanding that the technology company stop using his information and publicly apologize. After trial, the court ruled to reject Mr. Zhang's application. Why is this? [Case Review] Mr. Zhang is an employee of a technology company. In May 2020, he signed a labor contract with a technology company, which stipulated that he would serve as the senior legal manager of the company. In October 2020, both parties terminated their employment relationship. After leaving the company, Mr. Zhang joined two new companies one after another. Among them, Mr. Zhang worked at Blue Sky Company from August 2021 to April 2022, and at Baiyun Company from May 2022 to July 2022. Mr. Zhang believes that a certain technology company provided resignation certificates to Blue Sky Company and Baiyun Company without his authorization, which infringed on his personal information. Mr. Zhang sued a certain technology company to the court, demanding that the company stop using its information and publicly apologize. During the trial, facing Mr. Zhang's questioning, the technology company refuted that its actions were to cooperate with other companies to conduct legal and compliant background checks on Mr. Zhang, and only disclosed the job title and working hours within a limited scope. The company's provision of information was reasonable and legal. After trial, the court determined that firstly, the "Resignation Certificate" issued by a certain technology company to Mr. Zhang contained his entry, departure time, and job information, which was limited to the relevant information during his employment at the technology company. This information was necessary for the conclusion and performance of a contract to which he was a party, and did not involve Mr. Zhang's other personal privacy; Secondly, a certain technology company provided Mr. Zhang's resignation certificate to an outside company in order to cooperate with the background investigation of the outside company, and also reminded the other party to pay attention to the confidentiality of employee information. This behavior has a clear and reasonable purpose; Thirdly, the personal information of Mr. Zhang provided by a certain technology company to an outside company is his true employment information, and Mr. Zhang has not submitted evidence to prove that his personal rights have been damaged due to the actions of the technology company. The court ultimately made the above judgment. In the end, the court ruled to reject Mr. Zhang's application. After the verdict was announced, Mr. Zhang appealed and the second instance court upheld the original verdict. The verdict has now come into effect. According to the case, the personal information of employees is protected by law, and employers should protect the personal information of employees from being leaked while complying with laws and regulations. After the termination or rescission of the labor relationship, the employer shall delete, seal or take other measures against the employee's personal information based on the personnel management system or privacy agreement. If the employer needs to legally use the personal information of the departing employee, it cannot violate the principles of legitimate purpose, reasonableness, and minimum necessity. (New Society)