Why Job offering Consultancy need ID Proof of candidates when hiring Company will do same

[TheSloth]

I am looking for job now and so far have been getting calls only through consultancies. I have attended the interviews and cleared the rounds as well. Problem is, since I am going through these consultancies, I am being asked by consultancies to send them my ID proofs like Aadhaar/PAN and they will forward it to company for further process which involves offer letter. It is really frustrating since I am in desperate need of change and can't get into arguments with these people over sharing ID proofs, because they obviously will have more candidates so they can push me out and push another guy for job offer and tell the company "that person(I) backed out at later point".
Companies have my email and phone number and I have attended interviews over Microsoft Teams Meeting. But then I am not contacted directly by company's HR for these proofs but only by these consultancies company for my personal identity data.

I have decided to add watermarks over the images to avoid my data being used for some other purpose. If you know any Desktop software which will help me then please post your suggestions on Need a Image Editing software to Add watermarks on images

1. Is this normal in for job consultancies to ask for personal details even though the candidate have cleared all rounds and can be directly contacted by company?
2. So far I have received call several calls from consultancy but only once from company's HR. Why company's relies on consultancy to get candidate's personal details?
3. What excuse to give one steer away from sharing my personal details to consultancies? But without avoiding consultancies altogether. It seems like several IT companies rely on consultancies to get candidates.

 

[Nerevarine]

1. I Think yes, I am seeing the same trend. Your idea of watermarking sounds legit. I would have never thought of that. I shall do the same as well.
2. I guess lower staff in HR, recruiters in the companies.

 

[Desmond]

It makes sense since they use it to verify that the candidate is legitimate.

 

[TheSloth]

I was worried while sharing my details like that to strangers like that. I truly believe that every consultancy, every super market, shops in shopping mall are selling are phone, address, email, aadhaar/pan without us knowing. The owners/someone with full access of these places are selling the details for some money. Every time i give my number somewhere like this, I start to get Spam messages/emails from completely new number/website for their ads.

Then night before yesterday I came across this post where a person got scammed. You can read more about it on

Spoiler

https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/mng0rj

The scammer sent a legit aadhaar proof to gain the trust of the victim before scamming. There is a chance my aadhaar/pan also might get used like this in future and I might get into some legal trouble because of my negligence today. No authority will accept that I freely gave away my ID proofs to people I have never met in my life. They will just say "you should not have".

There HAS to be govt rule where any third party which is just mediator should not ask for any such proofs and people like us should have rights to deny such requests of sharing aadhaar/pan. If its for a job, the link have to be sent by company and person can upload documents on company's domain which MUST be https.

I don't know if we will ever get this/similar rule ever from govt. But now we can just add watermarks on the images before sharing. Avoid sharing PDFs may be?
Also suggest the programs, on the below mentioned thread, which will help to add the watermarks with ease, like a person with no/less knowledge of photo-editing should be able to to it.

*geek.digit.in/community/threads/need-a-image-editing-software-to-add-watermarks-on-images.209507/