Confidentiality in applications....

Little My

Applied for a job by email, got a rejection email today.

However, I'm pretty pissed off that they sent a bulk email to all rejected applications, listing everyones name & email address in the "to" section. Clearly they should have bcc -ed but they haven't got the cop-on to do this.

Is there anything that states they have to keep this information confidential? Can they be reported to anyone?

ABajaninCork

It's very unprofessional, yes. But I'd try to forget it and move on. If you get too many 'dodgy' e-mails, then just change your address.

Clauric

Little My wrote: »

Is there anything that states they have to keep this information confidential? Can they be reported to anyone?

You can make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner. As an email is considered private data they have the power to investigate the matter. At worse, they will thank you for the information and make note of it. At best, they will contact the company, conduct an investigation, and institute procedure changes within the company.

RangeR

ABajaninCork wrote: »

It's very unprofessional, yes. But I'd try to forget it and move on. If you get too many 'dodgy' e-mails, then just change your address.

Ignore this

Clauric wrote: »

You can make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner. As an email is considered private data they have the power to investigate the matter. At worse, they will thank you for the information and make note of it. At best, they will contact the company, conduct an investigation, and institute procedure changes within the company.

This

Tom Dunne

Yes, I would agree with a complaint to the Data Commisioner.

I made a complaint to the lat year regarding a financial institution and they were extremely thorough and professional and the institution was suitably admonished.

Do it.

ABajaninCork

Yeah, you can make a complaint to the DPC. But - what then? What outcome are you hoping for OP?? It's more likely one of two things will happen.

Either they completely ignore the complaint OR

They have a 'quiet word' with the company. And STILL nothing's done.
Meanwhile, Ireland being the village it is (so I'm told!!) if the OP decides they would like to follow up and make the complaint formal, what's to say that info won't 'follow' them?

I totally agree that what this company did was bang out of order. And I wouldn't want to work for someone like that. But in the great scheme of things? I wouldn't lose too much sleep about it. All that happened is that the e-mail address was visible to others. I doubt anyone will take any notice.

statss

I made a complaint once to the data commissioners and low and behold 6 months later a cheque for fifty quid and an apology arrived from the company.

Nody

statss wrote: »

I made a complaint once to the data commissioners and low and behold 6 months later a cheque for fifty quid and an apology arrived from the company.

And quite likely no chance of ever working for said company again nor any HR personel/managers aware of you being the cause of the complaint; and that's the real reason I'd avoid it. You'd burn bridges (and not only in that company) by doing it; yes they acted stupidly but is it worth the risk?

RangeR

Nody wrote: »

And quite likely no chance of ever working for said company again nor any HR personel/managers aware of you being the cause of the complaint; and that's the real reason I'd avoid it. You'd burn bridges (and not only in that company) by doing it; yes they acted stupidly but is it worth the risk?

There are a good few companies [I used to work in one] out there who intentionally flout DPC laws, safe in the knowledge that no one will complain.

While I take your point on board, I do not agree with it.

statss

Nody wrote: »

And quite likely no chance of ever working for said company again nor any HR personel/managers aware of you being the cause of the complaint; and that's the real reason I'd avoid it. You'd burn bridges (and not only in that company) by doing it; yes they acted stupidly but is it worth the risk?

Sorry should have mentioned, the complaint was against a random company spamming me, not work related. My purpose for posting was to let people know that the data commissioners actually did act on my complaint.

Faolchu

statss wrote: »

Sorry should have mentioned, the complaint was against a random company spamming me, not work related. My purpose for posting was to let people know that the data commissioners actually did act on my complaint.

yep they do, there was a certain person from the Dail that emailed everyone that had contacted him about SOPA, he stupidly put everyones details in the TO field instead of maybe the BCC field. a large number of people complained to teh DPC and they contacted him and he offeren an apology to all involved.

is it worth it? maybe not hpow about simply writing to the company direclty and highlighting their mistake, maybe contact their head of IT and head of HR and highlight the breach. they may ignore you but at least you've taken some action.

tatli_lokma

ABajaninCork wrote: »

They have a 'quiet word' with the company. And STILL nothing's done.
Meanwhile, Ireland being the village it is (so I'm told!!) if the OP decides they would like to follow up and make the complaint formal, what's to say that info won't 'follow' them?

I too made a complaint about a car dealer who emailed the world and his mother with everyone's address in the to field - many of them work email addresses to. DPC investigated and was ready to fine them but they went bust anyway. However DPC did not divulge my name to the company. As far as Data protection goes, they are not likely to be flinging out names unless absolutely necessary so there is a level of anonimity (up to a point, depends on how far it goes).

But I would say it speaks volumes about the professionalism of this recruitment agency that they can't master the BCC option of an email. Doesn't give me a lot of faith that they will be able to take care of your needs when looking for work.

If you don't want to go to the DPC perhaps a very tactfully worded reply email giving them a heads up of their error. At least give them the opportunity to apologise.

I would also add that last year when job hunting I got a rejection email advising me I was not successful as they were looking for someone with more experience and because the job was so detail oriented they felt I was not suitable - this email had the word 'administration' spelt wrong! :rolleyes: detail orientated my bum. I cheekily replied to them saying thank you anyway, and btw the correct spelling of administrator is.... I actually got a reply from the manager apologising and complimenting me for picking up on the error and then invited me for interview based on this! I declined as I had already found a job, but sometimes it pays to be a bit cheeky!

Little My

Thanks for all the replies.

When I got the email yesterday I phoned them to highlight what they did and whoever was on the phone was a bit all over the place and said they would 'rectify' it.

This morning I got a sincere phone call from the manager apologising, saying they take confidentiality very seriously and was genuinely sorry. So based on that I'm not going to follow up with reporting them or anything.

Had I not have had the call back this morning I might have considered it, but I'm satisfied enough now. Its still annoying, but at least they will be more careful in future.

Wishbone Ash

Little My wrote: »

Clearly they should have bcc -ed

I'm open to correction but BCC can't be used to send bulk emails as it would involve entering each address individually and BCCing the rest. It wouldn't make sense from their perspective as it would be very time consuming and would be just easier to sent each email individually.

(I'm not condoning what happened BTW).

RangeR

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I'm open to correction but BCC can't be used to send bulk emails as it would involve entering each address individually and BCCing the rest. It wouldn't make sense from their perspective as it would be very time consuming and would be just easier to sent each email individually.

(I'm not condoning what happened BTW).

I want to send an email to 50 people. I put my address in the To field [optional depending on email client] and put everyone else in BCC.

It takes seconds. It requires user education / training. I don't blame the person that did it. I blame the person who told her/him to do it.

tatli_lokma

Wishbone Ash wrote:

I'm open to correction but BCC can't be used to send bulk emails as it would involve entering each address individually and BCCing the rest. It wouldn't make sense from their perspective as it would be very time consuming and would be just easier to sent each email individually.

its quite easy to send a bulk mail BCC actually and you wouldn't have to put in each address individually, so no excuse for it actually. In fact most newer versions of MS word will let you do a mail merge for bulk emails and you can specify the address is to go to the BCC field.

Mr. Loverman

The problem is the person who was asked to send the e-mail (probably a new employee) didn't quite understand how to use the BCC field. Or simply made a mistake. No doubt she has gotten into trouble now and won't do it again.

I feel bad for everyone involved. :pac:

Little My

This is the irony, the job I applied for was an administration assistant position and it was the current administrator who sent out the email.

I got rejected for interview, but even I know how to bcc a bulk email.

ABajaninCork

Sounds about right unfortunately...