Resume Database Nightmare: Policy Recommendations

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Author Pam Dixon joins the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse , a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, in recommending that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) undertake a thorough investigation of the entire job search industry, online and off.

Issues include:

Deceptive data handling practices in regards to posted privacy policies.
Poor and in many cases absent notification to consumers of data handling practices.
Widespread industry practice of data mining and selling job seeker data, including names, email addresses, resumes, and in some cases Equal Employment data such as ethnicity and gender.

Data security issues, including:

Poor to non-existent resume database access verification procedures.
Poor to non-existent job validation procedures.
Poor follow-through and lack of notification to job seekers of privacy lapses and problems.
Widespread industry practice of using copyrighted information belonging to consumers (resumes) as an integral part of making a business profit while at the same time not fully disclosing this practice.

We wish to emphasize that job seekers who are notified of privacy lapses impacting their job searches receive that notification voluntarily by the most ethical sites in the industry. We believe that all sites should notify job seekers of privacy lapses, and in a timely fashion.

Roadmap: Resume Database Nightmare – Job Seeker Privacy at Risk: IV. Policy Recommendations

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Posted February 22, 2003 in Job Search Privacy, Online Privacy, Report: Resume Database Nightmare - Job Seeker Privacy at Risk, Uncategorized

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