Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia
Personal information leaked by a recruiting company
I applied for a job listed on a recruiting company which has an office in Virginia. Later I found out that an employee of the recruiting company leaked my personal information to his friend who was my ex-coworker. I don't keep in touch with him and didn't want him to know where I live and what my new last name was. He spread it out to people and one of them let me know it.
I talked with his boss, but she was very rude. I requested her boss and her HR manager called me. Before she called me, I found out the same employee called his friend again and told him that I complained to the company (2nd leak). The HR manager promised that she would investigate this matter and report to me, but in fact she emailed me saying only ''we apologize for the actions our employees took.'' It didn't mention their fault clearly. I requested a real apology letter including what they have done to me, but she hang up.
Do I have to give in? I believe that it is illegal that a recruiting company leaks personal information to a third party. Is there any way to purnish them socially?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Personal information leaked by a recruiting company
The recruiting company is, I assume, a private company. So it does not fall under requirements regulating a government agency.
The recruiting company only knows your information because you volunteered to give the information to the company. You voluntarily gave them the information.
However, I am quite sure that the recruiting agency promised in a contract or policy NOT to mis-use your information in this way. Therefore, I would expect (based on assuming they made a contractual promise to protect your information) that you already have a valid lawsuit now. They are probably not going to write anything that will incriminate themselves.
Re: Personal information leaked by a recruiting company
If the leak was for the purposes of harrassing you there would be criminal liability. There would also be civil liability. I am not sure what you mean by punish socially, although a claim could nonetheless be brought based upon the leak of your personnel information.
Re: Personal information leaked by a recruiting company
You don't say what the information was or how it was "leaked" or what you even mean by this. This does not sound like much of a "case" (invasion of privacy, harassment, intentional inflication of emotional distress, violation of various employmnent and other laws, etc.) so far.
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