Customers of the in style web site Glassdoor, which lets anybody anonymously signal as much as overview firms they’ve labored for, say Glassdoor collected and added their names to their person profiles with out their consent.
One person, who goes by Monica, wrote in a put up on her private weblog that Glassdoor added her identify and town the place she lives to her Glassdoor profile following an e mail change with Glassdoor buyer assist, regardless of having by no means supplied her identify through the sign-up course of some years earlier. Monica, whose final identify we’re not publishing to guard her privateness, accused Glassdoor of getting her full identify from the e-mail she despatched to buyer assist, which she says they added to her Glassdoor profile.
“My e mail ‘from’ line accommodates my full identify — by no means thought that may be an issue!” Monica instructed information.killnetswitch in an e mail. “They then added my identify to my Glassdoor profile.”
Monica repeatedly protested Glassdoor, telling buyer assist that the corporate didn’t have her consent or permission to do that. However Glassdoor mentioned Monica was “required” to have her identify added to her profile, including that this is able to not compromise her anonymity of previous evaluations she gave. Monica mentioned that her anonymity won’t final if Glassdoor was to expertise a hack or a data breach and compromise customers’ information. It additionally means this info could be obtained by authorized course of, comparable to a lawsuit or police demanding entry to Glassdoor person information.
As Monica defined, Glassdoor will add a person’s actual identify (and probably different info) to the person’s account with out their permission if Glassdoor learns it.
And the one different choice is to delete your account, Monica mentioned.
Glassdoor customers expressed alarm at Monica’s story, which has been extensively shared on social media and news-sharing websites, for worry that their anonymity could possibly be compromised by having information collected about them and added to their profiles, as properly.
“It’s not clear to me how they obtained this info.” Josh Simmons, Glassdoor person
Glassdoor has lengthy allowed customers to enroll anonymously. In 2021, Glassdoor purchased Fishbowl, a semi-anonymous skilled social community web site that enables customers to “ask questions with out disclosing your identify.” Ars Technica, which first reported Monica’s story, defined that Fishbowl requires customers to confirm their identities earlier than utilizing the location. As a part of the acquisition deal, Glassdoor signed each person up for a Fishbowl account, which means Glassdoor must change its phrases of service so that each Glassdoor person may be verified.
“We hope that Glassdoor will proceed to defend its customers’ anonymity in court docket,” mentioned Mackey. “However the newest information relating to Glassdoor’s insurance policies raises issues about whether or not customers could also be recognized even when their info is rarely sought by an employer or legislation enforcement. These insurance policies additionally seem to battle with, or no less than be in rigidity with, Glassdoor’s aim of encouraging staff to candidly overview their employers.”
In some circumstances, the information added to the person’s profile didn’t fully line up.
Josh Simmons mentioned Glassdoor added details about him to his profile with out his consent, describing it as a “breach of belief.” Simmons instructed information.killnetswitch that he didn’t understand how Glassdoor obtained his private information.
“It’s not clear to me how they obtained this info,” Simmons instructed information.killnetswitch. “I didn’t have any social accounts related to Glassdoor, and I hadn’t used the service in a number of years,” suggesting that the information might have been scraped or come from a knowledge dealer.
Simmons mentioned his supplemented Glassdoor profile had an “incoherent mixture of particulars, however every element was right in isolation,” describing how Glassdoor obtained the identify of his consultancy right however jumbled his location in California together with his essential consumer based mostly in London.
“Taken collectively, it signaled to me that it was the results of an automatic course of,” Simmons mentioned.
By Glassdoor’s personal admission, the corporate says on its web site that it’s “unable to totally affirm our customers’ identities, the truthfulness of their contributions, or their employment standing.” It’s not clear what the aim of Glassdoor’s information assortment is that if the data just isn’t correct.
When reached for remark, Glassdoor spokesperson Amanda Livingood wouldn’t reply information.killnetswitch’s particular questions, together with how — if in any respect — Glassdoor verifies the accuracy of the data it receives, or how it may be used or obtained. Glassdoor doesn’t publish a transparency report detailing the variety of requests for person information it receives from legislation enforcement.
As an alternative, the corporate supplied a boilerplate assertion:
Glassdoor is dedicated to offering a platform for individuals to share their opinions and experiences about their jobs and corporations, anonymously – with out worry of intimidation or retaliation. Person evaluations on Glassdoor have at all times and can at all times be nameless. Within the Glassdoor neighborhood, customers at all times have the selection to put up with their identify or put up anonymously with their firm identify or job title. Glassdoor has by no means and can by no means reveal a person’s identify alongside their content material, except that’s what the person chooses.
Mackey mentioned that the chance of data breaches or authorized calls for are magnified as a result of Glassdoor is now gathering extra details about customers that would determine them. “However as a result of Glassdoor now collects that info, together with from e mail addresses and headers, Glassdoor now has information that straight identifies their customers,” Mackey mentioned.
That leaves customers like Monica with no alternative however to delete their account if they aren’t prepared to have their identify on their profile. And so Monica did.
In accordance with Monica, closing your account simply deactivates it. If you wish to absolutely delete your Glassdoor account, you possibly can head over to this particular Glassdoor privateness request web page and fill out the information request kind with the suitable choice, comparable to “Delete my private information.”
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