Following Mr Edmund Khoo Kim Hock's letter (Tafep seen as toothless if not given legal powers to act; April 6), I would like to highlight two areas the Government and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) need to address.

Almost all companies require job applicants to provide their identity card number, age or birthday, address and other such details.

This holds potential problems for job applicants.

First, by providing their age, job applicants, especially seniors, may be deprived of an interview opportunity.

This shows we need regulation to protect older workers.

Second, job applicants do not know how all this personal information is being handled by the companies or how secure it is in the firms' databases.

I hope the Government can issue a law prohibiting companies from asking job applicants for unnecessary personal information until an offer for a job is made.

Ng Sung Nang