What to ask any recruitment platform about where its data came from
A directory is only as good as the provenance of the rows in it. These are the questions we think a school should ask any provider, including us.
On origin
Where did this record come from — a government register, the firm's own website, a partner feed, or a purchased list? Each has a different reliability, and a provider that cannot answer per record is telling you the answer is 'we do not track that'.
If it came from a register, was that register's data licensed for commercial redistribution? Several national regulators explicitly restrict automated collection and commercial use of their registers. A platform showing you register data has either obtained permission or has not; it is a fair question.
If it came from a general web crawl or a places/mapping API, check what the provider's terms allow to be stored. Major mapping providers permit indefinite storage of an opaque place identifier only, and restrict retention of name, address, phone and website — which is difficult to reconcile with a permanently stored directory.
On freshness and status
When was this specific record last checked, and does the platform show that date? A licence status is a snapshot. A directory that does not surface a last-checked date is asking you to assume the check happened recently.
What happens when a licence is revoked or a firm closes? Ask whether records are removed, marked, or silently left in place.
On the difference between confirmed and claimed
Does 'verified' mean the platform confirmed a licence number against the issuing regulator, or that the firm told the platform it holds one? These are very different claims and are frequently displayed identically.
What proportion of the database is confirmed against a regulator? A provider that reports one blended 'verified' total across a database of mixed provenance is not necessarily being dishonest — but the number is not answering the question you asked.
On incentives
How is the platform paid, and does anything about how a firm is described change what the platform earns? Paid placement, sponsored listings and per-placement commission all create a reason to present a partner more favourably than the evidence supports.
Can a firm pay for position? If yes, that is not disqualifying, but it needs to be disclosed on the page where the ranking appears, not in a terms document.
Where this argument works against us
- Our answers to these questions are good on provenance and weak on coverage. 1,351 of our records are confirmed against a regulator's own publication; the rest are the firms' own claims or business-existence only, and we say so on every record.
- Four national registers we would like to publish are pending permission we have asked for and not received. Until they clear, our Canadian, Australian, UK and New Zealand coverage is limited or absent.