FAQ: How can I see what my Facebook profile looks like to the “outside world”? I am about to start a job search, and I want to make sure I have things locked down. I don’t want potential employers digging around my Facebook timeline.
February 10, 2013 Online Job Seekers, Still Beware of Scams! Today the Augusta Chronicle published a story by Jenna Martin quoting World Privacy Forum's Pam Dixon about job seekers and how important it is for them to be wary of online job scams. "I am concerned that we are still ...
It is important to circulate a resume when looking for work, but these days criminals and identity thieves are all too interested in finding and using resumes for all the wrong reasons. In the information economy, your resume has a street value. It's sad to say, but unfortunately your name, home address, telephone number, even your detailed work history can have value to identity thieves and fraudsters. It is also important to protect your resume from people and businesses who want to use it primarily to make a profit instead of primarily to help you find employment.
Job seekers who have safety concerns such as law enforcement professionals, victims of domestic violence, and other victims of crimes such as stalking may be especially at risk
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.
Employment kiosks – small, mobile ATM-like booths – are increasingly being used for screening job applicants. All too frequently, the kiosks do not come equipped with the most important thing of all: a privacy policy.
In order to have a meaningful privacy discussion about kiosk issues, it is important to first address some general questions.
Unicru, a Beaverton, Oregon company dominates the kiosk space. Unicru says it processes approximately one job application per second during the average U.S. workday. All totalled, Unicru processes about 6 million job applicants per year, and has processed a total of more than 19.5 million candidate applications. In 2002, Unicru achieved record revenues of $21.1 million and was recognized as one of the fastest- growing companies in the U.S. It says that it is the leading provider of hiring management systems.
• Kiosks and the retailers that use them must prominently post OECD-compliant privacy policies. The privacy policy should cover the third party running the kiosk as well as the retailer handling the applicant data. • Employers must take responsibility for FCRA compliance.
Do not submit your SSN or date of birth to a kiosk or a Web site that does not have a privacy policy posted prominently prior to the time this information is requested of you. If you do, you truly lose control of this information. If you have any arrests or suspended convictions in your background, you may want to think twice about agreeing to an “instant” or “national” background check online. Some (but not all) of these national credit checks that are conducted through accessing proprietary databases online pick up and report information that should not be reported, such as suspended convictions.
Information about job scams.
Information and research about job scams.
Job search privacy -- The World Privacy Forum's popular resume posting guide, 12 Resume Posting Truths, has been updated. This update is part of an ongoing project on job search privacy. The World Privacy Forum has extensive materials on job search privacy and job scams.
Job scams are as old as jobs themselves. In past years, con artists would put a bad job ad up, fool a job seeker into giving up their money, and then physically move on to a new city. Now bad job ads have moved onto the Internet, with devastating consequences. The very things that make the Internet so effective for job seekers -- speed, convenience, and a nationwide job search from a computer screen -- are the same things that make it effective for fraudulent activity. Job seekers and job sites have unfortunately been targeted with sophisticated triangulation scams that move rapidly and seamlessly through a selection of job sites from coast to coast in a matter of days.
The World Privacy Forum's Workplace Privacy Project is a long term project to study and document privacy practices in the areas of job applicant privacy, workplace privacy, background checks, and related areas.
Consumer alert update -- Monster.com posted a warning on its site stating that all users of Monster.com may have been impacted by the data breach of its systems by hackers. All job seekers need to be aware of potential phishing attacks that are sophisticated and highly targeted, and job seekers with safety considerations need to be aware that their information has likely been compromised. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has announced that the Federal job site USAJobs (which is outsourced to Monster.com) has also been impacted by the breach. The World Privacy Forum has updated its job seeking tips, and its consumer alert.
World Privacy Forum information and materials on medical privacy topics.
Consumer Alert | Internet privacy | Job search safety and privacy -- The World Privacy Forum issued a consumer alert today warning about a data breach at Monster.com. Security firms that analyzed the breach have stated the breach impacts hundreds of thousands of job seekers. The immediate information that was stolen included job seekers' home address, phone numbers, email address, and resume IDs. Some victims may have received further phishing emails. Job seekers who have safety concerns such as law enforcement professionals, victims of domestic violence and other victims of crimes such as stalking -- who typically do not make their home addresses or personal phone numbers public -- have an immediate need to know if their personal information may be in the hands of criminals. The consumer alert contains tips for victims and links to resources and more information.
The World Privacy Forum and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse have become aware of a nationwide job scam currently in action. We are advising job seekers to avoid any response to job ads coming from Macrocommerce Intersales and to be aware of the high potential for financial fraud and /or identity theft if they have already responded to job ads from this company.
Resume and job searching privacy -- Before you post your resume online, read these twelve resume posting truths to help minimize resume privacy problems such as identity theft. Job Seekers Guide to Resume Databases: Twelve Resume Posting Truths .
Job Search Privacy Guide -- Originally created for the 2003 Job Search Privacy Study in PDF format, the Guide has been made into an easy to use Web page. Job seekers can now click through the guide as they look for job sites that are pro-privacy.
Job applicant rights and privacy -- This visual timeline chronicles a year of a job scam. The timeline documents the cities the fake jobs were targeting, dates the jobs posted, the various company names the scam operated under, and the contact names used in the scam. The job scam timeline is documented with screen shots of the job listings and how they looked as posted. The scam is still active.
Consumer tips -- These reality-based consumer tips are simple and are based on research from the key findings in the World Privacy Forum Job Scam Report. The Consumer Tips include "Red flags" to recognize scams and a step-by-step explanation and illustration using real examples of how one type of scam operates.
Consumer Alert -- The World Privacy Forum and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse have become aware of a nationwide job scam currently in action. We are advising job seekers to avoid any response to job ads coming from Unk Electronics, Macrocommerce Intersales, and Nanjing Panada Electronics, and to be aware of the high potential for financial fraud and or identity theft if they have already responded to job ads from these companies.
Job Searching in the Networked Environment: Consumer Benchmarks -- The World Privacy Forum officially launches with this inaugural report, a study a year in its research on the job search sector. This study, The 2003 Job Search Privacy Study: Job Searching in the Networked Environment: Consumer Benchmarks , documents job applicant privacy across the job search industry from resume writers to job search sites to resume blasters and other parts of the job search infrastructure.
