A recruiter who reached out to me on LinkedIn and with whom I've had an introductory meeting (so, very early stage) asked for my date of birth to register me in their system. I already provided my CV which includes dates for my education and work history, so I asked why my date of birth was necessary. Their response was just a copy-paste of their terms of service stating personal data is required, so basically sidestepping my question and subtly suggesting "it's our way or the highway".
In many Western countries it's illegal to ask a candidate's age, but I know it's relatively common in Japan to include your date of birth on a CV and there are no legal protections against age discrimination. That said, I've also heard attitudes are gradually changing, so for example it's now thankfully considered inappropriate to ask women about their marital or parental status. We're apparently not there yet with regard to age.
I probably have very little leverage to push back if I want to work with that recruiter and it isn't necessarily a hill I want to die on, but was wondering about people's experience with recruiters asking for personal info that feels unnecessary and could be used for discrimination. How do you usually respond? What are reasonable privacy expectations when dealing with recruiters in the very early stages?
by Tamori_Sensei