7 ms·

Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent

139 points by LinuxBender 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
seeknotfind 3y ago
Now where's the tool to lookup all my coworkers.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago
Interesting, after reading this I went to go check my anonymized glassdoor profile (yeah, I would never risk getting fired by giving this company my real name) and discovered that all my reviews were deleted.
- joshsimmons 3y ago
  Coincidentally when I logged in to my account, for the first time in years, they also pulled my reviews. I got one email for each of them, saying: "Our moderators evaluate each review to determine whether it complies with our Community Guidelines. We determined your review does not meet these guidelines. If you wish, you are welcome to edit your review here and your edited review will be reevaluated within 24 hours of receipt."
  - malfist 3y ago
    I just went through the process of deleting my content using their data removal tool and their mechanism for deleting your data triggers those "X was removed for violating community guidelines" emails for everything it deletes. I had 9 emails from them as soon as I submitted it.
    - blowsand 3y ago
      I was wondering what those were triggered by. I actually thought it was a shady attempt to get you to come back and engage. I got several soon after submitting my data deletion request.
- hansvm 3y ago
  Yeah, you can't "pay to remove a review," but if you pay Glassdoor and report every review you don't like for ToS violations, 40% of them disappear regardless of any violations. You can't appeal, for a long time you weren't notified, you can't ask why (though you can re-edit till you find a version that survives a couple moderators), and if they leave the review up then your employer can respond however they like without recourse (unreportable, you can't edit your review once your employer has responded, ...). Your reviews can be removed even after internal moderators have already approved them. The reviews aren't sorted by publicly rated helpfulness or by chronology.
  - JeremyMorgan 3y ago
    This is true. While there is no explicit "pay to remove", if you have a premium account you have far more power to remove reviews you don't like. Source: I know of a company that paid for a huge package, and routinely removed bad (true) reviews about said company. They loved it.
bsder 3y ago
Facebook has locked an account I've had forever (like back from when it required a .edu address) until I give them a "Photo ID". Yeah. I think not.
- pixl97 3y ago
  Quite some time ago I signed up for twitter and then 10 minutes later they blocked my account and asked for a phone number. Said no and never signed up again. Then just a few months later the first big leaks of information including phone numbers started coming out. "Real" information like this is way to expensive for companies like this to have. Having your name get leaked is enough to get you blacklisted in many industries.
  - marssaxman 3y ago
    I had the same experience with twitter, but I decided to be difficult about it: after about a month of daily complaints, they finally unblocked my account, without (of course) ever admitting that they had blocked it solely to squeeze a phone number out of me. Turns out, I have no real use for their service, and I can't remember when I last logged in; but it felt like a moral victory.
  - Terr_ 3y ago
    > "Real" information like this is way [too] expensive for companies like this to have. Or rather, mistakes are not expensive enough to deter them from over-collecting and under-protecting.
- mc32 3y ago
  It is inconsistent. It locked my account as well, but then, many years later, sent me a magic link to sign in --I ignored it for a very long time, but then one day I needed to get some info and tried the link and it worked. So, yeah, that company, it's very inconsistent.
RetroTechie 3y ago
I'm stunned by how time & again, companies manage to fubar a running business for no reason whatsoever. Not a clue how Glassdoor was doing before. And sure, in any field there may be competition. Business models energe & go away over time. Markets change, and successive CEOs, managers etc may have different ideas (and success) in addressing that. But how could anyone at Glassdoor think that this policy change would not drive users away? That this would not hurt their business? (all else equal, fewer users = less profit). If there were an upside to this policy change, sure. Weigh pros vs cons. Ask users. Do some A/B tests or whatever. But this reads like a change with only downsides (for users, and potentially very significant) vs. little (if any) gain for the company. Why do it then? "If it isn't broken, don't fix it", how hard is that?
- beryilma 3y ago
  > But how could anyone at Glassdoor think that this policy change would not drive users away? Money. Because somebody there thought this will make them more money.
  - notyourwork 3y ago
    Sounds like “I chopped my arm off to reduce my weight so I could run faster.” Without realization that the arm weight is there for a reason. Businesses love to self sabotage.
    - Grimblewald 3y ago
      Sold the car for fuel money
- downrightmike 3y ago
  They have a lot of dark patterns. They suck
  - Gigachad 3y ago
    Glassdoor has to be the most broken website I’ve ever used. Even if you go through with their dark patterns, the site flat out doesn’t work. It’s shown a generic error message to me on the home page for the last 6 months now.
Simulacra 3y ago
You guys use your real name?
- water-data-dude 3y ago
  The issue is that they can add your name without consulting you. The user mentioned in the article, Monica, took her name from a support email she sent for something and added it to her profile without asking - then they didn’t give her any way to remove it. The article also mentions that they can add data they collect from third parties, so it’s overall pretty sketch.
  - Simulacra 3y ago
    Well, That is awful to hear. I use an email address that is not connected with me in any other way for sites like that. I don't use my real name. I don't use that email address for anything connected to me. I assumed this was sort of standard practice for tech minded people.
steve-atx-7600 3y ago
Indeed is owned by the same Japanese holding company as Glassdoor. Would be careful there too.
- blowsand 3y ago
  Took some digging but here’s the form that should cover all the HR Tech sites including indeed. https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create Be sure to select “show more sites” in the sites selection.
caseyy 3y ago
[dead]
renegade-otter 3y ago
Never trust anything on the Internet. Just don't.
lamontcg 3y ago
1. Deanonymize users 2. ??? 3. Profit I literally can't figure out what step 2 is supposed to be there, I guess this is why people go get MBAs in order to understand 5D chess moves like this.
blowsand 3y ago
Took some digging but here’s the data delete request form that should cover all the HR Tech sites including Indeed: https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create And for Glassdoor, bottom of this page: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US Be sure to select “show more sites” in the sites selection.
lucumo 3y ago
Looking quickly at the site, I don't see de-anonymized users. I don't see any user profiles at all. Just job titles. Has anybody been able to independently verify this?
mulmen 3y ago
When I logged in on mobile web Glassdoor forced me into a signup flow for something called Communities which included asking for my employment status. I was able to time a stop before the full page load and navigate to the account page. If you log in first you can navigate directly to this URL without answering any questions: https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings which will allow you to close your account. You then need to request they delete your data which can be done at https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US

139 points by LinuxBender 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

seeknotfind 3y ago

Now where's the tool to lookup all my coworkers.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

SlightlyLeftPad 3y ago

Interesting, after reading this I went to go check my anonymized glassdoor profile (yeah, I would never risk getting fired by giving this company my real name) and discovered that all my reviews were deleted.

joshsimmons 3y ago
Coincidentally when I logged in to my account, for the first time in years, they also pulled my reviews. I got one email for each of them, saying: "Our moderators evaluate each review to determine whether it complies with our Community Guidelines. We determined your review does not meet these guidelines. If you wish, you are welcome to edit your review here and your edited review will be reevaluated within 24 hours of receipt."
- malfist 3y ago
  I just went through the process of deleting my content using their data removal tool and their mechanism for deleting your data triggers those "X was removed for violating community guidelines" emails for everything it deletes. I had 9 emails from them as soon as I submitted it.
  - blowsand 3y ago
    I was wondering what those were triggered by. I actually thought it was a shady attempt to get you to come back and engage. I got several soon after submitting my data deletion request.
hansvm 3y ago
Yeah, you can't "pay to remove a review," but if you pay Glassdoor and report every review you don't like for ToS violations, 40% of them disappear regardless of any violations. You can't appeal, for a long time you weren't notified, you can't ask why (though you can re-edit till you find a version that survives a couple moderators), and if they leave the review up then your employer can respond however they like without recourse (unreportable, you can't edit your review once your employer has responded, ...). Your reviews can be removed even after internal moderators have already approved them. The reviews aren't sorted by publicly rated helpfulness or by chronology.
- JeremyMorgan 3y ago
  This is true. While there is no explicit "pay to remove", if you have a premium account you have far more power to remove reviews you don't like. Source: I know of a company that paid for a huge package, and routinely removed bad (true) reviews about said company. They loved it.

bsder 3y ago

Facebook has locked an account I've had forever (like back from when it required a .edu address) until I give them a "Photo ID". Yeah. I think not.

pixl97 3y ago
Quite some time ago I signed up for twitter and then 10 minutes later they blocked my account and asked for a phone number. Said no and never signed up again. Then just a few months later the first big leaks of information including phone numbers started coming out. "Real" information like this is way to expensive for companies like this to have. Having your name get leaked is enough to get you blacklisted in many industries.
- marssaxman 3y ago
  I had the same experience with twitter, but I decided to be difficult about it: after about a month of daily complaints, they finally unblocked my account, without (of course) ever admitting that they had blocked it solely to squeeze a phone number out of me. Turns out, I have no real use for their service, and I can't remember when I last logged in; but it felt like a moral victory.
- Terr_ 3y ago
  > "Real" information like this is way [too] expensive for companies like this to have. Or rather, mistakes are not expensive enough to deter them from over-collecting and under-protecting.
mc32 3y ago
It is inconsistent. It locked my account as well, but then, many years later, sent me a magic link to sign in --I ignored it for a very long time, but then one day I needed to get some info and tried the link and it worked. So, yeah, that company, it's very inconsistent.

RetroTechie 3y ago

I'm stunned by how time & again, companies manage to fubar a running business for no reason whatsoever. Not a clue how Glassdoor was doing before. And sure, in any field there may be competition. Business models energe & go away over time. Markets change, and successive CEOs, managers etc may have different ideas (and success) in addressing that. But how could anyone at Glassdoor think that this policy change would not drive users away? That this would not hurt their business? (all else equal, fewer users = less profit). If there were an upside to this policy change, sure. Weigh pros vs cons. Ask users. Do some A/B tests or whatever. But this reads like a change with only downsides (for users, and potentially very significant) vs. little (if any) gain for the company. Why do it then? "If it isn't broken, don't fix it", how hard is that?

beryilma 3y ago
> But how could anyone at Glassdoor think that this policy change would not drive users away? Money. Because somebody there thought this will make them more money.
- notyourwork 3y ago
  Sounds like “I chopped my arm off to reduce my weight so I could run faster.” Without realization that the arm weight is there for a reason. Businesses love to self sabotage.
  - Grimblewald 3y ago
    Sold the car for fuel money
downrightmike 3y ago
They have a lot of dark patterns. They suck
- Gigachad 3y ago
  Glassdoor has to be the most broken website I’ve ever used. Even if you go through with their dark patterns, the site flat out doesn’t work. It’s shown a generic error message to me on the home page for the last 6 months now.

Simulacra 3y ago

You guys use your real name?

water-data-dude 3y ago
The issue is that they can add your name without consulting you. The user mentioned in the article, Monica, took her name from a support email she sent for something and added it to her profile without asking - then they didn’t give her any way to remove it. The article also mentions that they can add data they collect from third parties, so it’s overall pretty sketch.
- Simulacra 3y ago
  Well, That is awful to hear. I use an email address that is not connected with me in any other way for sites like that. I don't use my real name. I don't use that email address for anything connected to me. I assumed this was sort of standard practice for tech minded people.

steve-atx-7600 3y ago

Indeed is owned by the same Japanese holding company as Glassdoor. Would be careful there too.

blowsand 3y ago
Took some digging but here’s the form that should cover all the HR Tech sites including indeed. https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create Be sure to select “show more sites” in the sites selection.

caseyy 3y ago

[dead]

renegade-otter 3y ago

Never trust anything on the Internet. Just don't.

lamontcg 3y ago

1. Deanonymize users 2. ??? 3. Profit I literally can't figure out what step 2 is supposed to be there, I guess this is why people go get MBAs in order to understand 5D chess moves like this.

blowsand 3y ago

Took some digging but here’s the data delete request form that should cover all the HR Tech sites including Indeed: https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create https://requests.hrtechprivacy.com/create And for Glassdoor, bottom of this page: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US Be sure to select “show more sites” in the sites selection.

lucumo 3y ago

Looking quickly at the site, I don't see de-anonymized users. I don't see any user profiles at all. Just job titles. Has anybody been able to independently verify this?

mulmen 3y ago

When I logged in on mobile web Glassdoor forced me into a signup flow for something called Communities which included asking for my employment status. I was able to time a stop before the full page load and navigate to the account page. If you log in first you can navigate directly to this URL without answering any questions: https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings which will allow you to close your account. You then need to request they delete your data which can be done at https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US