I read an interesting post from the formidable @garyfranklin the other day entitled ‘Recruitment fraud – whatever next. Outlining the disturbing trend of how criminal gangs are using spoof corporate websites in order to farm personal details for identity fraud and or solicit money for visa applications that never materialise.
Truly shocking, but we should remember that the recruitment industry, with its appallingly low standards and barriers to entry has long been a gaping hole in terms of data protection and security. Gary’s blog highlights the risks associated with online destinations, which is another in the long line of scams that seem so easy to pull off in this industry.
However, whilst the online world presents a risk, I’m wondering when we are going to cotton on to the dangers associated with the offline world in recruitment – our good friend the ‘bricks and mortar’ recruitment consultant.
Have you ever considered the fact that, the moment you shake hands with a recruitment consultant and leave his or her office after your interview, he/she knows more about you than probably any other professional institution, including your bank? They know where you live, where you work, your family circumstances, you salary and income details, your contact details and, depending on how thorough the person is, your movements over the coming weeks.
Yet, none of this data is secure. If you don’t believe me you should try it for yourself. If you have recently registered with a recruitment firm, try giving them a call and tell them you want to check what information they have on their system for you. I’m pretty confident that at no stage will anyone on the other end challenge you to prove your identity first. And in less than two minutes they will have imparted all of your potentially sensitive data.
To me this is just another sign of how much the industry needs to change. Calling a recruitment agency or search firm should be a secure and ‘managed’ conversation – much like the experience you have with telephone banking. In the future, along with blending social elements into the job seeking experience, there appears to be an opportunity for someone to come along and deliver a ‘first direct’ inspired recruitment business model.
But that’s a whole other series of posts… 😉
What say you readers? How secure is your data? Do you even know?
Inside My Head... 
G
Always struck me as odd how very willing people were to hand over their information or worse post that information on a relative public job board database…
I think between yourself and Gary you have highlighted yet more glaring holes (or dare I say it) innovation and quality improvement for the recruitment industry
Rob
(and you didn’t mention Blue Ocean or GTG!!)
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Can ubderstand concerns raised – I am proud to say that this is NEVER the case with my company, confidentiality is paramount – but then having worked for a massive bank managing debt collectors DPA training has been drilled into me – I find it scary that there are people operating in business not follwing basic data protection – I wonder if they understand it’s the law and the heavy penalties if broken – maybe a good BLOG???
Alison
Styletech Recruitment
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