The Australian Information Commission has changed the rules over disclosure of personal information for a successful applicant in Australian Public Service (APS) recruitment.

Information Commissioner John McMillan has ruled that only the name of the successful applicant and a statement of their selection for promotion should be known.

McMillan says the remaining vocational assessment information will now remain the personal information of the successful applicant.

The changes mean public servants can no longer read the job applications of rivals who beat them up the ladder.

One prominent case may have pushed the amendments forward, when it was revealed that a public servant who was put off by missing out on a promotion gained access through FOI to the successful applicant’s documents.

These included the applicant’s four-page selection summary; a comparison of applicants; the original job application, resume and claims against the selection criteria; her referee report; and nine pages of handwritten comments the selection panel had made about her.

Professor McMillan says the previous version of the law deemed that “a successful applicant's [job] claims should be opened to public scrutiny and their claim to privacy should be deemed as abandoned”.

With the advance of the internet bringing new levels of access to and storage of data, the changes have been made to reduce the amount of personal information made publically available.

“Material that is published on the web may remain publically available for an indefinite period,” Professor McMillan said.

“It may cause anxiety to a public servant that material about their suitability for a particular appointment can be publically available long after the appointment and to an indeterminate audience.

“There is also a growing and understandable concern that personal information that is made available on the web can be misused or used differently by others; for example, for identity profiling or theft or unwanted contact.”

The Whistleblowing in the Australian Public Sector study found about a third of federal bureaucrats have evidence of favouritism in hiring or promotion, but just 44 requests for review were made in the entire 2012-2013 year.