Your Data Is Yours. Always.

Every recruiting firm has one asset that took longer to build than anything else. It isn’t the office or the website. It’s the database. Years of candidate conversations, client history, notes from calls nobody else was on, and the placements that came out of all of it.

So it’s fair to put a simple question to any software vendor you’re considering. Whose data is it?

Our answer at PCRM is short. Your data is yours. Always.

That line is easy to write, and I think you should be a little skeptical of anyone who writes it and moves straight on. A promise about data only means something when you can see how it holds up. So here’s how it works for us, in four parts: where your data lives, who checks it, how AI treats it, and what happens if you ever leave.

Where Your Data Lives

Every PCRM customer gets a private, single-tenant database. Your records sit in their own database, separate from every other firm’s, rather than pooled with other customers’ data in one shared system.

That database runs on infrastructure PCRM owns and operates directly, looked after by PCRM’s own technical team.

Why should that matter to you as a firm owner? Mostly because it makes the question “where is my data?” easy to answer. When a client asks how you store candidate information, you can give them a clear, specific reply instead of a guess.

Who Checks It

PCRM has undergone an independent SOC 2 examination, and our infrastructure is regularly audited by outside security testing professionals.

If SOC 2 is new to you, it’s a reporting framework from the AICPA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. An independent auditor examines how a service provider protects the systems and data it’s responsible for, measured against criteria the AICPA sets.

The practical value is that you don’t have to take a vendor’s word for it. Someone outside the company has looked. If one of your own clients ever sends you a security questionnaire, this is perhaps the first thing they’ll want to see.

How AI Treats Your Records

Plenty of recruiting software now includes AI features, and it’s reasonable to ask what those features learn from.

Here’s where PCRM stands. Your identifiable candidate and customer records are never used to train AI. Our agreement does allow training on anonymized data, and it sets a clear bar for what counts: the data cannot reasonably identify, or be linked back to, a customer or an individual. We also commit not to re-identify that data, except to test that the anonymization works.

Some AI features rely on third-party providers to process data so the feature can do its job. Our agreement lets them process data for that purpose only, and prohibits them from using your data to train their models.

We’d rather spell that distinction out than give you a one-word answer. “Do you train AI on my data?” deserves more than a yes or no, from us or from anyone else you’re talking to.

What Happens If You Ever Leave

Nobody signs up for new software planning to leave it. Still, it’s worth knowing what happens to your data if you do, before you sign rather than after.

At PCRM, the records you’ve built belong to your firm, not to us. Ownership doesn’t mean we store your data indefinitely after you cancel, though, so it’s worth knowing how you get it back.

When your contract ends, one standard export of your data in JSON format is included. You request it within 60 days of termination, we verify the request, and any undisputed balances on the account need to be paid first. Attachments and enhanced exports may cost extra.

We’d rather you knew that upfront. With any vendor, including us, it’s worth asking four things before you commit: what an export includes, what format it comes in, how long you have to request it, and what it costs. Ask us, and we’ll walk you through the details for PCRM.

Five Questions Worth Asking Any Vendor

If you’re comparing recruiting software right now, these are the questions I’d bring to every demo:

• Is my data held in its own database, or in a system shared with other customers?
• Who owns and operates the infrastructure it sits on?
• Has an independent auditor reviewed your security controls, and can I see evidence of it?
• Do you train AI on my records? If so, on what, and is it anonymized first?
• If I leave, what do I get back, in what format, how long do I have to ask for it, and at what cost?

A vendor that’s comfortable with its answers should be able to give you clear ones. If you get vague replies, perhaps that tells you something too.

Talk To Us About Your Data

PCRM has been serving recruiters since 1998, and the database you build with us is yours from day one.

If you’re reviewing recruiting software, or you’ve started wondering what your current contract says about your data, we’re happy to talk it through. Book a demo and bring the five questions above. We’ll show you how PCRM handles your data, and we’ll answer the export and AI questions in plain terms before you commit to anything.