The importance of cleansing your data

I recently received a text message. One of many, but this one was different.

"Hi, my name is James and I am reaching out from (name redacted!) Recruitment as I am hiring within the Huntingdon area for a Sheet Metal/ Fabricator to work for a long standing client of ours. With decent pay and a great work environment in place. You wont want to miss out. Give me a call…"

There’s nothing really wrong with the message (besides the missed apostrophe, but let’s not go there 🤫) – it’s polite, it contains relevant information about the role, and gives both a telephone number and email address to respond to.

But (and it’s a pretty big ‘but’)

1.    I don’t live in Huntingdon. Or near Huntingdon. In fact, I’m 90 miles away which is an hour and a half drive.

2.    I’m not, nor ever have been, a sheet metal worker. I have my website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, and they all say who I am and what I do.

3.    I am not, and haven’t been for some time, looking for an employed position. I run my own business, manage my own taxes, and (I really can’t press this point home enough) it’s nothing to do with sheet metal work.

So why did I get the message?

I admit I found it amusing - so much wrong in such an innocuous message - but it does highlight a wider issue. I clearly haven’t spoken to the recruiter previously as they’ve introduced themselves to me, so where did they find my number?

❌ If they found my number on their own system, the details must be incorrect for them to be offering me employment in this field, or location, and they clearly haven’t spoken to me in recent years to ensure they hold correct information which raises GDPR concerns.

❌ If they’ve come across my actual CV it clearly details my experience and skills, none of which include sheet metal fabrication.

❌ If they have seen me comment or post on LinkedIn my details are in my bio, with a link to my business page and website…you get the picture.

I get that to pick up the phone takes time, but this text, like similar emails, smacks of a quick fix: fire off a heap of messages to everyone on a contact list and you may strike lucky. Or not. I received this, laughed at how wrong it was, and blocked the number. If you are going to cold-message at least try to narrow down the recipients to those who are likely to be relevant.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

Clean. Your. Data! Check the information you hold is correct, that it’s relevant, and that you archive or remove client information that is out of date or no longer required. Apart from anything else it's a GDPR requirement, and you don't pay your fee to the ICO to then ignore your responsibilities and risk a hefty fine.

For information, advice and a whole heap of resources, visit the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/