14 ms·
This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an i
by potatofarmer45 8y ago
This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an interviewer can just search your listed contact number. Names are often not unique but phone numbers are.
This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not. Most phones are not dual sim, and you want to have a phone on you in case the recruiter or future employer calls. Hence the account id rate using a phone number should be much higher and makes it dramatically easier to find somebody.
The nasty part is even if you rename your account to your "first-name middle-name" or an alias, you could be found out via phone number search. So simply renaming your account no longer ensures random recruiters can't just find your profile. Your FB name could be "giant blue monkey" which prevents a regular name search but would still be identifiable via phone number search.
- StudentStuff 8y agoI think VOIP has great untapped potential for this, having helped many people get vanity numbers with their name embedded. Once the job hunt is over, you can literally reject all calls, and build a caller ID blacklist of spammy companies and recruiters. Plus, numbers are 1/4th to 1/10th the cost of domains these days.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoIt works the other way too. I keep blocking spammy numbers, and they keep creating new ones.
- sokoloff 8y agoAre they? I pay $1/mo for phone numbers, which is quite close to what I pay for most of my domains.
- disiplus 8y agophone numbers cost close to nothing to operators, but running a voip infrastructure hast its costs, and a lot of those costs come from protecting it from hacking attempts. They love open pbx boxes where they can generate a significant cost, or use to spam others. also compassion with domain is not exactly fair in this case, it would make more sense to compare it to ip address.
- StudentStuff 8y agoFail2ban, not using IP based auth, and mandatory TLS/SRTP will generally cover your bases (ofc, Fail2ban should be banning any IPs attempting TCP/UDP registration or calling without SRTP). Not really rocket science, but the VOIP industry is stuck in the 1990s when it comes to security practices related to their core offering. Its a terrible state of affairs!
- _rs 8y agoCould you share some places you use to buy numbers like that? Do you just set them up to forward, or do you have more control than that? I've always been interested in this, but apart from Google Voice, I haven't found a good way to get started.
- sokoloff 8y agoTwilio is the easiest by far, IMO.
- StudentStuff 8y agoTwilio is also one of the most expensive providers, and if you don't need E911 you can easily get numbers for less than half that price.
- _rs 8y agoThat's great to know, could you point me towards any other companies?
- willio58 8y agoSo get off public social networks. Problem solved.
- noxToken 8y agoThis is such an unhelpful answer that it almost always worthless. The utility of social networks for contact is unmatched. One profile, ideally locked down how you see fit, that follows you for as long as you allow it to follow you. The response to this is usually that there nothing wrong with phone numbers or email addresses. Except there are. Phone numbers change. This is less frequent now that we have mobile numbers, but they still change. Email addresses can also change as people move through different phases of life. Hell, email seems to be becoming unreliable as calling since unsubscribing from mailing lists you never joined doesn't seem to work any more. I get it. Facebook is evil.
- gotocake 8y agoI realize that you’re getting slammed for a pat, trite, or unhelpful answer to a complex problem, but it also happens to be the only answer. It’s an answer with real consequences, but when weighed against giving your privacy over to FB what else is to be done right now? Public social networks are poison, they’re inimical to privacy, and we need to get off of any that harvest personal information. Telling people to “quit FB (and other similar services)” may come off wrong, but for a long time so did “quit smoking.” I get it, I’d love to have cigarettes that are healthy and delicious, but until then... quit smoking. Maybe someday public social media will be safe and sane, but until then... quit.
- shadowprofile76 8y agoOne major difficulty with leaving Facebook in particular over privacy concerns is that it doesn't really stop the social network from violating your privacy, or letting others do it (often without bad intentions on their part). Aside from its now famous shadow profiles, you've got your friends and family or work/business associates posting things with you in them, photos, videos etc and even naming you (don't think they can tag you though if your profile is shut down). And if you've erased your profile you can't even have the minimal safety of monitoring what gets posted by who, so you can ask them to maybe take it down if it's harmful. We get sucked into FB's network effect in all sorts of ways nowadays if we live any kind of normal social life in a connected society.
- piotrkaminski 8y ago> yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not Doesn't Google Voice solve this problem? Or perhaps there are restrictions I don't know about. Of course, you still have to remember to create a burner phone number before giving out your contact info...
- ardy42 8y ago> Doesn't Google Voice solve this problem? Or perhaps there are restrictions I don't know about. Only sort of. I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook rejects Google Voices numbers and will only accept a real-live carrier numbers. It seems pretty easy to do, given how often my GV is rejected by sleezy services I'd like to give a throwaway (e.g. peoplesearch opt-outs). However, I'm not going to personally test this theory by attempting to give a panopticon like Facebook even my semi-throwaway GV number.
- pilif 8y agoEven if FB was not allowing Google Voice, you could give FB the real number and give throwaway GB numbers to recruiters. That would solve the issue voiced by OP
- potatofarmer45 8y agoI imagine most people would have no idea their profiles could be searched via phone number. I didn't know until today. If it never occurred to you that this could happen, you would not take steps to prevent it.
- exhaze 8y agoLet me surprise you then so you can stop making false speculations - you can use a GV number for Facebook 2FA.
- lightedman 8y agoLet me surprise you since you seem to not know and so your idiocy can be corrected - GV only works in the USA.
- on_and_off 8y agoThere are also a non negligible number of people using an alias on facebook because they have good reason. Apparently when a woman uses a pseudonym on facebook, it is not unlikely that it is because of a nasty/stalkerish ex that she would rather get away from. I am actually in favor of a transparent society (a la david brin) , but we have to grown up a lot and handle such cases before the advantages that come with it can even be contemplated.
- bfred_it 8y agoWe had a million years to grow up, I don't think we'll ever get there (without drastic measures a la 1984, if you wish)
- derefr 8y agoWe haven’t started doing any serious genetic engineering (or maybe, depending on timeline, the equivalent for minds uploaded into computers) yet. Once we do, we could do a lot of “growing up” very quickly.
- touristtam 8y agoIt isn't physical "growing up" that we, as a species, need to do. This is the way the whole society act. If you look at politics and corporate world, it feels like a bunch of pre schooler throwing tantrum. As a society we are not acting responsibly. You could argue that the worse are countries that still argue to go to war with their neighbors on the pretends the later are different, but the rest allowing to destroy the planet while keeping the rest of the society under control, preventing us, as a species, to achieve goals that are dreamed by the most creative of us. And it is depressingly easy to keep the status quo. The "Growing up" reminded me of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ja-mHeYAKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ja-mHeYAKM
- derefr 8y agoThe point I wanted to make here is mostly this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/10/society-is-fixed-biology-is-mutable/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/10/society-is-fixed-biolo... IMHO, it doesn’t make sense to blame “society” for being pre schoolers, any more than it makes sense to blame individual humans for becoming mentally ill. Both are just failure modes of our mental hardware (our tribal-status instincts in the societal case.) The only solution to either that would “stick”—what I would interpret “growing up” to mean—is to remake ourselves without those failure modes. Anything less might help individual humans who get some sort of maintenance treatment for their failure modes; but our society as a whole will still be a function of interactions between both people who have treated those failure modes in themselves, and those who have not yet (because e.g. they aren’t aware yet that they have a problem; or don’t see it as a problem; etc.)
- cbzbc 8y agoYou can set it to be searchable by friends only, which should avoid recruiters being able to do this, unless they are adding themselves as friends first.
- fpalmans 8y agoIf you set it to searchable by friends only, wouldn't you still show up in the suggestions? Especially if your number is added in someone's cell phone? By the way: I haven't actually used facebook since 2012...
- cbzbc 8y agoI’m not entirely sure how suggestions work in this context, I would presume that you’d only show up in suggestions to the circle within which you had allowed your number to be searchable, and so ‘friends only’ should prevent being added by phone number.
- bwann 8y agoI totally get people want a "only me" option here, but really how bad is "friends-only" here? If I'm "friends" with you, you probably already know my phone number in real life.
- Vinnl 8y agoI'm not really actively using Facebook anymore, but when I did, the threshold for becoming a "Facebook friend" was a lot lower than that for regular friends, or people I shared my phone number with.
- Broken_Hippo 8y agoBecause a "facebook friend" isn't an actual friend, and having these "friends" have my phone number is like everyone in a bar being able to look up my number. Or perhaps like going to a work conference and everyone being able to call me. The random "How are you are you single wanna talk about sex with me?!!???" messages are bad enough. I certainly don't want those as phone calls. Those on the list that are actual Friends might have my phone number. Might not, though, since there is no point (I moved countries). In any case, they know not to freaking call me unless it is important or you have reason or you want me to answer my door.
- gumby 8y agoMy GF uses a google voice number (and separate gmail accounts) for job search purposes both for this reason and because she can nuke the phone number later, cutting off headhunters once she'd found something she likes.
- Tor3 8y agoSounds useful. It's unfortunate that google voice still isn't available outside North America. I don't know if that is for technical reasons or for (European/Asian) political reasons. But it sure would have been nice to keep separate numbers the same way it's sometimes necessary to keep separate google accounts.
- HenryBemis 8y agoNot advertising.. but Skype can also generate phone numbers for you, and you can equally drop them. I remember I used a Skype landline number for that specifi purpose - throaway number for when I was looking for a new job. And I discareded it immediately after.
- renholder 8y ago>But it sure would have been nice to keep separate numbers the same way it's sometimes necessary to keep separate google accounts. In Sweden, you can request a pre-paid SIM be sent to you in the mail[0]. To be fair, it's not entirely a "burner" SIM, as it's associated with your personnummer but it's a lot more convenient than queuing in a shop (if that's not your thing). Maybe your country has a carrier that does the equivalent? :) [0] - https://webbutik.comviq.se/kontantkort/checkout/comviqcart/processing/ https://webbutik.comviq.se/kontantkort/checkout/comviqcart/p...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- 18pfsmt 8y agoIn the US, I can walk into a store and pay cash for a $30 flip phone without any ID, and unlimited talk and text. 15 years ago it was $150 and 200 minutes talk, 20 texts.
- raverbashing 8y agoPhones are not unique but a lot of them are reused when a subscriber changes provider (They could have always searched you by name, if you're worried about your identity then it makes sense to not connect your phone number to FB)
- Tor3 8y ago>but a lot of them are reused when a subscriber changes provider OT, but I had a not-so-nice experience with that. Some years ago I got myself a data-only phone number/SIM card for my 3G dongle. It turned out that the number was reused, and the previous owner of that number had subscribed to a pay-for message service for upcoming events (concerts, movies, etc). And they kept arriving to my data-only dongle, and I didn't notice for a while. Had to pay for it, though. I don't remember how I eventually managed to turn that off (the software for accessing/manipulating that part of the dongle was Windows only).
- mirimir 8y agoThat's why you never give them your primary number. Have a burner phone. Or lease a SIM in the Philippines.
- jzl 8y agoIf you apply to work at Facebook do they look at non-public content in your Facebook account? Let's assume you're not even keeping your Facebook profile a secret.
- nuclear_eclipse 8y agoNo. This would be a violation of our data privacy policies and would result in immediate termination of all employees involved.
- Teever 8y agoGiven the complete lack of respect that Facebook has for individual privacy and the wellbeing of our society in general why should anyone believe this?
- icebraining 8y agoIf you think that of FB, why would you be applying to work there?
- Faaak 8y agoNot that I support the idea, but big bucks ?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- anticensor 8y agoIt would violate terms of service you agreed to.
- jellicle 8y agoUm, please explain how Facebook using data you gave it for Facebook's purposes violates Facebook's terms of service.
- paul7986 8y agoWhy would you ever use your real number vs. a throwaway google voice number designated for spam?
- simonh 8y agoBecause you don't know about or use Google Voice, or you live in a country it doesn't serve?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- _Microft 8y agoJust two weeks ago: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321236
- throwaway9d0291 8y ago> creating a new phone number for recruiting is not Actually it's really straightforward with Twilio and you can set it to forward to a regular number. Works in most countries/regions. I used it to give my wife a US number for clients (she's a freelancer).
- max_ 8y agoAt this point I have no pity for people who continuously feel violated by Facebook. Data hygiene is both the responsibility of users & social media cooperations. I still wonder why people rely on the kindness of strangers (the people that run the social networks) trying to make money off them. & then start crying foul when they are treated like garbage. Simply don't; - Submit data you find sensitive. - Use bonus credentials where feasible - Deny app access to your mic, location, contacts, camera & calendar - Delete your account if you have substitutes for the features Facebook offers
- michaelt 8y ago...and if a single person (or company) with your number in their phone allows Facebook to access their contacts, FB has your phone number anyway.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoYou use your real phone number on FB? MY no on there is a fake (but real number in my area code). And I don't put my Mobile number on FB at all.
- rocqua 8y agoMight it be possible to compromise your account by getting control of that phone number?
- C1sc0cat 8y agoLol the 66666 number isn't normally handed out in the uk I used xxxx 66666.
- lightedman 8y agoAbsolutely. Using a number you do not control and which is in the possession of someone else is one of the stupidest things you can do in a situation like this.
- naveen99 8y agoSecond phone numbers aren’t that hard or expensive. you don’t need a second sim, just an app. There is a yc startup providing them: openphone
- vowelless 8y agoThey are rarely usable on web sites for 2fa as they disallow voip numbers. In fact, many websites don’t allow google voice numbers for the same reason.
- naveen99 8y agoIs it easy to distinguish voip numbers ?
- leesalminen 8y agoYes, using Twilio’s lookup service it’s trivial.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rimliu 8y agoI honestly do not get what problem are you trying to solve here. If you have content which you think should be hidden from someone, just do not make it public.
- sangnoir 8y ago> Names are often not unique but phone numbers are. Right out of "Myths programmers believe about phone numbers" which was on the HN front page a week back. Has everyone forgotten about landlines? Even cell numbers are not permanently assigned to a single person: especially in jurisdictions where pay-as-you-go accounts are the majority.
- Friedduck 8y agoI haven’t heard: if you replace your phone number will they maintain the association with your historical one? It’d be trivial to get a Google Voice number or burner to replace yours.
- rsync 8y ago"This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not." I create (and destroy) new phone numbers all the time. Via the command line. I can route and forward and block them any way I like, to and from my existing phone (which is single SIM) or to ... nowhere.[1] https://twilio.com https://twilio.com [1] I have a "ring forever" TwiML bin that I like to use.