Candidate CVs and AI data leakage: what a CV and candidate profile give away in ChatGPT or Claude.

A candidate profile is a CV with the agency’s own notes stapled to it, and it is the document recruiters most often paste into ChatGPT or Claude to reformat, summarise or turn into a client-ready submission. It carries a person’s address, birth date, salary, the reason they are leaving, who will vouch for them and sometimes more than they meant to say. This page marks every item in a routine profile that the Privacy Act touches, including the items that are sensitive information, and shows how the same profile is prepared on Ermos inside the agency.

The candidate CV and profile

Created when a candidate registers or is first screened, then updated through the search. The CV part is written by the candidate; the notes, ratings and consent record are the agency’s. It is reformatted and sent to clients, which is where it most often meets an AI tool.

An invented candidate profile. The phone numbers and email address are placeholders. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the agency

1. 1
   Name, address and contact details

   A named person at a home address with a mobile number and email. Personal information, and the start of impersonation and phishing. The OAIC says the employee records exemption will not apply to personal information collected about prospective employees, so an agency that is covered by the Act holds this under the APPs. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   Date of birth and work rights

   A birth date and citizenship status. Personal information, and the pair of facts used to verify identity. Age is also an attribute discrimination law treats with care once it reaches a hiring decision. Privacy Act guide.

3. 3
   Achievements at a named employer

   Figures and an ATO matter at the current employer, written by the candidate. The employer’s confidential business, and the candidate’s own bargaining position.

4. 4
   Salary, bonus and notice

   What the candidate earns, what she wants and when she can start. Personal information, and the figure a client would pay to know before it makes an offer. Privacy Act guide.

5. 5
   A career break and her father’s stroke

   A reason for a gap that discloses a third person’s illness. Health information is sensitive information, which the Privacy Act subjects to higher standards of collection, and family or carer’s responsibilities appear in the Fair Work Act list of protected attributes. Patient data guide.

6. 6
   A parish role

   A volunteer position in a church body, from which religious belief can be inferred. Religious beliefs are on the Privacy Act list of sensitive information, and religion is a protected attribute under the Fair Work Act. Privacy Act guide.

7. 7
   Referees and their numbers

   Two other people’s names, roles and a mobile number, and a note that the second will be called only after an offer. Their personal information, and a statement about how the job search is being kept from her employer. Privacy Act guide.

8. 8
   The consent record

   Evidence of what the candidate agreed to, and when. It covers submission to clients; whether it reaches an overseas AI provider is a separate question. Consent also bears on the agency’s own status: under section 6D(7) a small business operator that discloses personal information with the individual’s consent does not lose its small business status for that reason. Privacy Act guide.

9. 9
   The consultant’s private notes

   A candid opinion, a complaint about the current manager, a competing interview and an instruction about contact. Written to be read by colleagues. If the candidate asks for access, APP 12 requires access unless an exception applies, so notes are written as though she may see them. Privacy Act guide.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

• The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
• On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
• The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
• Once sent, the agency no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Part of AI data leakage in recruitment agencies.

Common questions