I hate this so much.
If you want to do a video interview, sure. But I’m not going to willingly give you a recording of myself without clear use terms.
How long are these files retained? Is this video subject to data privacy laws? Since they’re requesting it be uploaded elsewhere, how many 3rd parties am I involving myself with by the end of this interview process?
Not to mention, we live in the era of deepfakes for voice and video. Do I have any gaurentee that this won’t be used to train some AI model somewhere?
This level of hoop-jumping pre-employment should be made illegal on par with hazing laws. Not everyone can afford to be picky about potential employment.
It’s not just about what they can use the video for. This also lets them screen for a lot of protected classes without actually asking about them. Your name and resume don’t convey your skin color, your accent doesn’t come out in your work history, nobody can make guesses about your sexuality based on your work email address, but these all become much more easy to discriminate against with a video. All under the pretext of “We didn’t like their answer to the question.”
And you don’t even get the context of an interview to defend yourself.
I understand others, but your sexuality? If you’re not literally wearing a pride flag, how could they work that one out just from a video of you?
Bigots always have their ways. Even if it bunches metrosexuals in with actual homosexuals, and makes for all sorts of other stupid lack of nuance takes, a bigot doesn’t care, because they’re always right. If they thought their view could be wrong, they’d be less likely to be a bigot.
Your name and resume don’t convey your skin color
Your name is (usually) a pretty big giveaway for your ethnicity, and in most countries it’s the norm to have a picture of yourself on your resume
In the US, it certainly isn’t. It’s viewed as a red flag for a US company to ask for a photo unless the job is something where appearance is an important quality like actor or model. I think the US grapples with this kind of discrimination more than many of the countries where it’s the norm.
Not everyone can afford to be picky about potential employment.
I was talking to a friend about a company that treats its employees poorly and he said “Well, they chose to work there,” and I wanted to give him a lecture about how sometimes people have to choose between a shitty job and the streets.