Large businesses in South Korea demand too much information from job applicants that violate privacy and can be used for discriminatory purposes, such as their religions, marital status and the academic backgrounds of their parents, a survey showed Wednesday.

A team of four college students came up with the results after examining the job application forms of 95 large companies since February, the presidential committee on youth affairs said. The students are members of a policy recommendation team of the committee.

According to the results, more than 90 percent of the companies surveyed demanded that job applicants provide information on their academic backgrounds, foreign language proficiency and military service. A total of 87.6 percent of the firms also demanded to know which high schools applicants went to.

In addition, photos of applicants were required at nearly 75 percent of the companies. Information on the academic backgrounds and jobs of parents were demanded at 21.1 percent and 31.6 percent of the firms, respectively, according to the results.

Forty-four companies, or 46.3 percent of the total, asked for resident registration numbers of applicants, while 16.8 percent and 21.2 percent of the firms demanded to know the marital status and religion of applicants, according to the results.

The survey team called for companies to rid their job application forms of demands for irrelevant information, saying such demands violate privacy and that applicants can be discriminated against based on their academic backgrounds, religion and other information. (Yonhap)