HACKER Q&A
📣 uVacCXNiiJCTnYB

I keep receiving recruiters emails on an outdated address, any advice?


There is a recruiter database somewhere that has an outdated email for me. The problem is I'm trans, and my old email outs my trans status and my deadname (because of the first-name.last-name email format).

I keep receiving many recruiter emails there lately, which means whichever contact database company they're using is outing me to dozens of company without my consent.

The problem is I can't find out which company it is. Every time I reply to one of those recruiters asking them where they got my email and/or if they can ask the database they got it from to update my info, they never reply. The best I got is someone telling me "they got it from a contact database". I have also tried mentioning GDPR to them (not sure if it has any legal value in this context?)

This is a big problem for me because being outed as trans and having such personal info revealed without my consent at the very first point of contact with a company makes me not even want to consider their job offers.

I have no idea how to fix this situation and don't know where to ask for help about it, but I figured maybe people on hackernews could have ideas as many of you have to deal with recruiters.


  👤 pestatije Accepted Answer ✓
Delete your old email account. They should start getting bounced emails. They can then assume anything: dead person, wrong email, bogus account, ...

👤 MattGaiser
Have you tried haveibeenpwned? Maybe some DB leaked. The problem is that a lot of these databases exist, many just scraped from various sites.

👤 bruce343434
Have you tried contacting the first couple of recruiters you had contact with via that email address?