Job order forms and AI data leakage: what a client brief gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

The job order is where a client tells a recruiter what it really wants, and clients say a lot: why the last person left, a restructure that has not been announced, the real budget and the kind of person they would prefer. Consultants paste the form into ChatGPT or Claude to draft the advertisement and the candidate brief. This page marks every item in a routine job order that confidentiality, the Privacy Act or anti-discrimination law touches, and shows how the same advertisement and brief are drafted on Ermos inside the agency, without the client’s brief leaving the building.

The client job order form

Completed on the intake call with a hiring manager, before any search starts. It sits under the terms of business and drives the advertisement, the screening questions and the candidate brief.

An invented job order. The client, its people and the phone number are fictional. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the agency

1. 1
   The client and the hiring manager

   A named client and a named manager with a direct number. Commercial confidence between the agency and the client, and personal information about the manager. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   Role, salary band and package

   The client’s intended spend on a hire. Commercial information that shapes every negotiation, and which candidates would pay to see.

3. 3
   A predecessor who left after a performance process

   A named former employee, the circumstances of their exit and an instruction to conceal them. That person’s personal information, held by an agency that is not their employer; the OAIC says the employee records exemption is unlikely to apply to organisations that provide recruitment services under contract to an employer. Privacy Act guide.

4. 4
   An unannounced restructure

   A depot consolidation and the number of roles at risk. Highly confidential to the client, and information the agency was told in confidence under the terms of business.

5. 5
   Age and career-gap preferences

   A written preference for candidates under 45 and for no one with a career gap. The Fair Work Act stops a prospective employer taking adverse action against a prospective employee because of attributes that include age and family or carer’s responsibilities, and the NSW Act has provisions aimed at employment agencies. An instruction like this in writing is evidence for whoever later challenges a hiring decision. Privacy Act guide.

6. 6
   A do-not-approach list

   Which companies the agency has agreed not to recruit from. Commercial information that also names the client’s relationships with competitors.

7. 7
   The client’s real ceiling

   A budget above the advertised band, with an instruction to keep it from candidates. The single most valuable number for a negotiator on the other side.

8. 8
   The consultants

   Ties the form to named staff, so a leak is traceable to the team.

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