My experience with recruitment agency
Signed an offer with a Singapore staffing firm for a contractor role in MNC after being unemployed for few months. During interviews, I interviewed directly with the MNC team, but later the permanent role was changed to contract- that’s story for another day.
After signing, I was informed that background verification and handling of sensitive personal documents (passport, NRIC,employment records, etc.) may be done through an India based third-party agency. All my education and work history are actually in Singapore.
Initially they agreed to use a Singapore-based verifier, but later started pushing me to sign consent for the overseas background verification vendor instead.
I’m not refusing background checks. My concern is mainly:
overseas processing of personal data,
PDPA/data protection,
who gets access to documents,
retention/deletion policies,
and why this was disclosed only after signing.
Am I overreacting here or is this a reasonable concern in Singapore contractor hiring? Curious how others would handle this situation.