Glassdoor adding real names without consent

[brningpyre]

Summary

 Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent. The anonymous review site now consults public sources to identify users.

 

 Glassdoor, where employees go to leave anonymous reviews of employers, has recently begun adding real names to user profiles without users' consent, a Glassdoor user named Monica was shocked to discover last week.

 

Quotes

Quote

 In a privacy policy, Glassdoor says, "If we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time," but Monica said Glassdoor did not give her the option and stored her name and recommended that she delete her account if she wanted her name removed. This would delete her reviews as well, employees confirmed.

...

Monica told Ars that she never uploaded a resume or provided her name to Glassdoor. In her blog, she said that she would never share personally identifying information (PII) with the job review site because Glassdoor "storing my name along with that data puts me at risk."

 

My thoughts

 Glassdoor used to be an excellent source for real reviews from employees, and that was only possible because of the anonymity. Removing that seems to invalidate the whole reason for the site's existence. Very bizarre choice from Glassdoor, and the company's response (about halfway through the article) doesn't inspire any confidence.

 

Sources

 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/glassdoor-adding-users-real-names-job-info-to-profiles-without-consent/

Edited March 20 by brningpyre
Fixed wording of summary, added additional quote

[Fasterthannothing]

Umm that literally makes Glassdoor a pointless product. Wonder if some large company was getting bad reviews and wanted to pressure Glassdoor? Maybe everyone should drop a review for Glassdoor on their site.

[RejZoR]

Glassdoor

"So transparent you can see real names through the glass!"

[tkitch]

I don't think I've ever seen a company shoot themselves in the face so blatently as this. 

[Mark Kaine]

36 minutes ago, Fasterthannothing said:

Umm that literally makes Glassdoor a pointless product. Wonder if some large company was getting bad reviews and wanted to pressure Glassdoor? Maybe everyone should drop a review for Glassdoor on their site.

wasn't there a very similar news some time ago?

 

basically saying "glassdoor are snitches"?

 

im surprised anyone is still using it at this point... 

 

(but honest question,  it might have been another,  similar review site )

[Brooksie359]

22 minutes ago, tkitch said:

I don't think I've ever seen a company shoot themselves in the face so blatently as this. 

I mean I can think of the unity monetization change is probably up there. 

[starsmine]

Glassdoor has problems with fake reviews and the take down of real reviews from my understanding. Not saying I know of a solution to that. I feel like it could be argued this would combat that.... except it doesnt. 

It does if and only if glassdoor kept this information private. But releasing the names, sure a company can audit their reviews... but they WILL also retaliate against real/incentive fake positive. 

How anyone could exist at glassdoor failed to recognize the consequence is insane to me. 

[brningpyre]

43 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I mean I can think of the unity monetization change is probably up there. 

I suppose the consequences were relatively more drastic in that case (at least so far). But Unity changing their monetization at least makes sense in concept (even if how they did it was ridiculous). But anonymity is the entire point of Glassdoor, the website may as well not exist without it.

 

Also, (this is not legal advice) I believe European users that have been doxxed in this way should be able to file GDPR complaints. Admittedly, not too familiar with this process.

[Brooksie359]

13 minutes ago, brningpyre said:

I suppose the consequences were relatively more drastic in that case (at least so far). But Unity changing their monetization at least makes sense in concept (even if how they did it was ridiculous). But anonymity is the entire point of Glassdoor, the website may as well not exist without it.

 

Also, (this is not legal advice) I believe European users that have been doxxed in this way should be able to file GDPR complaints. Admittedly, not too familiar with this process.

I can't say I remembered a ton about glassdoor but I thought it had other uses right? I thought leaving reviews was just one of them. 

[TheGerbille]

14 hours ago, brningpyre said:

I suppose the consequences were relatively more drastic in that case (at least so far). But Unity changing their monetization at least makes sense in concept (even if how they did it was ridiculous). But anonymity is the entire point of Glassdoor, the website may as well not exist without it.

 

Also, (this is not legal advice) I believe European users that have been doxxed in this way should be able to file GDPR complaints. Admittedly, not too familiar with this process.

Yes you can file complaint for stuff like this in EU countries, depends on each countries but most of the time you need to contact the company with a request for data deletion, if they don't comply with a satisfying answer within a month you file a complaint to your national organisation regulating online privacy (generally a online form, pretty quick to fill out)  

[SansVarnic]

-= Moved to General Discussion =

Not tech news. Just news.