How do data protection laws apply to faculty applications? Last year I applied for an assistant professor position in Sweden and unsuccessful. This year I attended a conference there. In the informal discussions afterward, a professor told me that he works on a related topic and I can give him a visit if I will be in town. After the conference, I visited his office and we had a long and interesting conversation. He told me that my idea is very interesting and we should collaborate. As a joke, I told him that proposed this idea in my last year's application but you didn't like it. He said I am sure there was no such idea in the applications and told me to let's check. He found my application on his computer and we talked about it.

I didn't mind as there was nothing secret in my application. But it made me wonder. I thought (until that moment) that all applications should be treated confidentially within the search committee and all materials should be destroyed (not only at the individual level but also at the institutional level).


Isn't it illegal for the institution and the committee to keep the application materials when the search is completed? (I believe most countries have similar data protection laws, my question is not about Sweden only)?
Isn't it a breach of obligatory confidentiality if a committee member discusses an application outside the search committee? For example, tell a colleague or in another search committee that this person had applied for the other job too. (it was not my case, but I am curious)


When we apply for a faculty position, does the application die after the search or it lives on and on through documents and committee members?
I'm not a lawyer, but in the US at a federal level there is no legal expectation that job applications will be destroyed at the end of a job search. In fact it's the opposite, there are some laws (such as the Americans With Disabilities Act) which require employers to retain hiring records, which includes application materials, for a period of time in order ensure such records are available if someone were to accuse them of discrimination. 

Employers are free to retain such records for longer periods of time if they so choose. For example, it's very common for large corporations to retain job applications indefinitely so they have a permanent record in case you were to apply multiple times to the same place.

In practice, there is a general expectation that academic job searches are kept private, but probably not to the point where job applications are destroyed. My department is required to keep hiring records (application materials and any written materials we make about our applicants) and turn them over to our university HR department at the conclusion of our search. From there I assume the university may keep them indefinitely if they chose to do so. I don't think there's any law that makes it illegal for the department to disclose their potential list of applicants (or even their application materials), but doing so would be violating the social custom.

Academic departments tend to be very close-knit, with faculty serving together and depending on each other for many years. Announcing one's intention to leave a department is a sensitive issue that is seen as that person's prerogative to disclose in their own way and time. More importantly, faculty should be free to look at other institutions and entertain the idea of leaving for a different department without committing to that action or disclosing to their current department that intention, which could have major impacts on the way their current department advances/promotes/treats them in the future. For this reason it's a major faux pas to discuss potential applicants outside of the department, but there's no law against it.