Consumer Privacy

Consumer Tips: Job Searcher’s Guide to Online Job Sites

This guide to online job sites is a list of the top job searching sites online. This list gives information about the privacy practices at each site. Because resumes contain such detailed personal and professional information, it is well worth caring about how job search sites handle privacy issues. This guide is updated monthly, and we add new information to the guide monthly.

Job Searcher’s Guide to Job Search Sites

Job Search Privacy — The World Privacy Forum’s popular and long-standing Job Searcher’s Guide has been completely updated. We have a site-by-site comparison of the privacy practices of online job search sites. This guide was originally posted in 2003, and has been updated regularly. This was a major update of this resource. The World Privacy Forum publishes extensive job search privacy resources in addition to the Guide, including a very popular guide to resume posting privacy.

World Privacy Forum Publishes A Patient’s Guide to HIPAA, First Comprehensive HIPAA Privacy Guide Written Expressly For Patients

“This guide is not just a retread of what HIPAA is and does,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. “Our guide gives patients practical details and strategies on how they can use the law to protect their privacy and navigate the medical system. Best of all, it is easy to use.”

Consumer Alert: Monster.com announces another big data breach

Monster.com | Consumer Alert | Job search privacy — According to the job site Monster.com, its users’ IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some “basic demographic data” were compromised in a data breach. Monster notified victims of the security breach through its web site on Friday, January 23, 2009. It is unclear how many people this notice impacts, as Monster.com did not give an estimate. In press reports, however, Monster has admitted that the breach is global, with Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe being spared. Job seekers’ information can be used like a road map for criminal ventures, including identity theft, phishing and spamming. User passwords, which Monster.com says were compromised in this breach, are especially valuable as they can potentially be used to access other sites or email accounts, especially if a person regularly uses the same passwords. The World Privacy Forum has published a consumer alert about this data breach with tips for victims. This data breach also impacts USAjobs.com, the government job search site affiliated wiith Monster.com.