To be annoyed that recruiter CCed all candidates going to job interview

[Ygritte84]

Two emails were sent with the complete list of candidates in CC, with names and email addresses. Total breach of confidentiality, right?

I work in a small industry and people know each other. I will cross some of these people in my job.

Feeling very annoyed and also starting to doubt myself seeing the competition!

Just to say that you might be perfect for the job @Shesaysso even if others have more experience. I'm sure you have plenty of experience (more is not always better after a certain point) and it's also about cultural fit, attitude, creativity, focus etc etc. Good Luck ! (and yes, it's an absolute shocker of an email)

That sounds really frustrating, it is a breach but human beings aren’t perfect and accidents happen.

I’d worry that if you kick up a fuss now it could work against you. I would keep it under your hat until you’ve found out if you’ve been successful or not.

Reply and flag it now - not in a complaining way, just inform them. I’d be fuming but the mistake can’t be undone and raising a complaint may not help you at this stage.

No doubt an error but a serious GDPR breach nevertheless.

That is bad but where I work everyone knows everything and who went for which job is public knowledge thanks to loose lipped recruitment staff. Also we only have one room where interviews take place so you all have to sit awkwardly side by side whilst you wait, usually next to colleagues who swore they weren't going for the job

That would be a sackable offence where I work!

I’d just send a polite email asking them to keep your details private for confidentiality reasons, can’t see why it wouldn’t hurt your chances and it’s far more proportional than reporting them for what’s most likely a mistake. Obviously if they refuse that’s a different story. I’d be just as annoyed as you, it’s totally not on, I just think it can be dealt with quicker and easier.

If this happened on my watch I would be furious. Especially if it is for a relatively high level position.

The consequences of the privacy breach could be enormous for someone who is looking to move but has not told their current employer.

To be frank, I would be a bit reluctant to take employment with that employer. Their processes are flawed.

This is bad practice, the usual is to BCC everyone and use your own name as the recipient

I would hit REPLY ALL and wish everyone good luck! Major feck up

OP, I was recruiting for a role on my team whilst also applying for internal promotion. Instead of being sent all the CVs for the role on my team I was sent all the CVs for the people who had applied for the same promotion as me! I deleted email. They realised and sent apology. I know reading them would have messed with my anxiety. And I also know from interviewing people myself that whilst their CV might be great, well written cover letter, years of experience it doesn't always mean a good interview. I offered the role in my team to some with a few years experience she absolutely blew us away whereas the ones with experience felt like they didn't even need to answer the questions properly and thought pointing out they had 20 years experience was the answer to every question. I did end up getting my promotion too. Complain about the GDPR breach but don't dwell on who else has applied.

Wait until after your interview, but that it a definite breach of GDPR.

Others potentially have far more to lose from this breech than you do so I would not be surprised if they are now feeling more apprehensive. I would send a polite email pointing out the error and the need to report the GDPR breech.

Wait until after interview

@Sugarbellaella

That would be a sackable offence where I work!

Accidentally clicking cc instead of bcc is a sackable offence? Like straight to dismissal? Wow

Why wait until after the interview? I would have informed the company straightaway. Someone else might.

If I was the employer, I’d take it as a good sign you were on the ball and it certainly wouldn’t go against you.

Where I work, everyone knows everything about any interviews at all. I’m always suprised people in other sectors manage to keep things like that quiet! Would you have found out who the other candidates were at interview anyway?? Or would you never have found out at all?

Ps my sister once emailed her CV to her own boss 😂 she was typing an email out, applying to a job elsewhere and her boss relied to another to read and.. well she somehow messed up. Luckily her boss found it funny.

@NatMoz

Amused by some of the comments here.

You can't just complain to the regulator without speaking to the organisation first, the organisation needs to be given an opportunity to rectify the breach and if they aren't even aware then that's not going to happen is it!

If you remain dissatisfied with the steps they have taken to contain the breach, then you can escalate but you do need to provide evidence of your original conversations with the org.

It is an easy mistake to make but it won't have been intentional. Let them provide you with validation of their long term remedial measures to prevent it happening again.

How can they rectify it though? It’s already been sent and read. Maybe they could use one of those memory wipers from Men In Black?

Yes - my boss says the idea of someone doing it gives him sleepless nights. We all know that you triple check any correspondence going out to multiple clients/ candidates to make sure it’s in bcc. It was the same in another industry I worked in pre GDPR.

I would politely flag it. Although someone else probably has.

I'd expect a sincere apology.

We would never email all participants at once, everyone gets individual emails. I disagree that 'it's an easy mistake to make' it absolutely shouldn't be because better procedures should be in place and the person sending should always double check. It isn't a typo, it's a serious breach of privacy, GDPR and could have serious consequences for those involved.

I would consider this a warning scenario, and if it were my team I'd want to know ASAP so I could ensure it never happened again.

I’ve had this happen for community organisations they least had Grace email soon after and ask if you haven’t yet opened previous email to delete or delete with apologises. It should be confidential with your personal information yes accidents happen but needs some action to be taken. If anything it shows you are aware of the issue and how serious this is I would 100% email them and point it out.

@RaisinFlapjack

Reply and flag it now - not in a complaining way, just inform them. I’d be fuming but the mistake can’t be undone and raising a complaint may not help you at this stage.

No doubt an error but a serious GDPR breach nevertheless.

Yes I'd do this. Also good luck for the job role. Ignore the list, you could be just what they are looking for.

Carbon copy instead of blind copy - a stupid but serious mistake to make and a serious breach of Data Protection. Every company has a person assigned Data Protection Manager. They are responsible.

I would tell them. Discretely.

I did this once. I was emailing a large group of people, some very high profile including a royal person. Their email addresses should have gone in BCC but for some reason WHICH WAS VERY UNLIKE ME I put them in the To section.

As soon as I was made aware, I recalled the message then emailed everything who had read it, apologising profusely.

These things happen.

It's a silly mistake, I know, however:

• It happened TWICE on two different days.
• No apology email has been sent
• It is massively awkward because everyone on the list is connected in one way or another, for example a guy works for my same organisation

I am speaking tomorrow with the recruiter on the phone and I have decided to politely ask her if she is aware of what happened.