5 ms·

Glassdoor is now adding real names to user profiles without consent

86 points by mry 3y ago

neilv 3y ago
Related: Glassdoor updated my profile to add my real name and location (cellio.dreamwidth.org) | 819 points by throwaway_08932 6 days ago | 316 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
autoexecbat 3y ago
It's baffling that someone thought this was a good idea
1970-01-01 3y ago
It's more than OK to lie to corporations and give them a fake name and email address. I do it every day. I've found this is the only way to actually protect your privacy.
- airstrike 3y ago
  I pity whoever owns nobody@nowhere.com because I've been using that for decades now
  - 1970-01-01 3y ago
    A sinister method is to state your birthday as Jan 2nd 1919. Just enough time to be remotely plausible. Bugs are sure to follow the account for the remainder of its existence.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - k8sToGo 3y ago
    I use fastmail with my own domains. I got a separate domain for myself that I use for trashmails.
    - crusty 3y ago
      I mean that's fine, but you are the registered owner 》renter of that domain, so you are linked to it in a database somewhere, even if your info is behind whoisguard-style obfuscation. Even if unlikely, should a dataset get exposed or the service stop functioning as intended, you're linked. No real worry for singing up for future junk-mail, but risks escalate when employment is at stake.
      - k8sToGo 3y ago
        That’s fine. If they can’t deal with my real opinion it’s better to end that working relationship anyways.
  - tdudhhu 3y ago
    Pro tip: always use example.com because then you are sure you are not spamming someone's inbox.
    - airstrike 3y ago
      Sometimes form validation prevents that from working. nobody@nowhere.com works 99.999% of the time
  - hprotagonist 3y ago
    i can neither confirm nor deny that butts@butts.com has a wide presence on public wifi hotspots scattered across western europe.
  - justin66 3y ago
    That poor guy. He thought when he stopped using blah@blah.com he'd have it easy and look what happened.
- tmpz22 3y ago
  No you can't - they can still link which is the whole problem. The advertising industry has built such a tracking apparatus that some part of your system, maybe even your browser audio, is going to give up your fingerprint.
bigbillheck 3y ago
I went to go log in to see what I had left there, first off it wouldn't let me see the one review I had written, and second I'm now stuck in a "community" popup that won't let me proceed without employment info.
- diggan 3y ago
  Same here. I'm 100% sure I've added at least three Glassdoor reviews over the years, but after logging in, none are visible in my account. I'm not sure if they got removed in their entirety, or if Glassdoor just disconnected them from my profile.
- jzebedee 3y ago
  They made that change a while ago. When I first logged in and saw it, so began the illustrious Taco Bell food service career of Frank Offerman, known to his friends as "F. Off".
- justjohn 3y ago
  I was able to bypass the modal by going directly to the account setting page: https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings From there you can at least deactivate your account, not sure what other pages are also accessible without going through the modal.
vundercind 3y ago
Hm. Went to see if I have some long-forgotten account—yep! Try to deactivate account… but it’s been so long since I logged in that they won’t let me do anything until I answer a bunch of stupid questions including giving them my name. Sigh. [edit] it said the name would be used for “verification” (?!?!) but a fake name worked long enough to let me disable the account, anyway.
- vvanpo 3y ago
  Instead of logging in, file a data erasure request: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US All it requires is verifying your email.
  - sam_lowry_ 3y ago
    I just did, and received an email for each review I ever posted, I guess they are taking my reviews down.
- Teslazar 3y ago
  I just ran into the same thing. Using Chrome dev tools I deleted the overlays prompting me to enter info and that revealed the user menu at the top right. First, I changed my email address to a throwaway address since I doubt they're deleting anything, and then I deleted it. ChatGPT thinks the direct link to the settings page is (or it's just a hallucination, I'm not sure) https://www.glassdoor.com/profile/settings_input.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/profile/settings_input.htm
pyuser583 3y ago
Why would they do this?
- klyrs 3y ago
  Class solidarity.
  - crusty 3y ago
    Money == Class Solidarity == Money Gambling that human inertia leads to a platform with most of its original users but a much more scalable means to monetize them.
v_seen 3y ago
[dead]
bequanna 3y ago
I don’t get it. Is the point of this change to get real people to delete their reviews in favor of the “fake” reviews made by companies to suppress wages?
tomrod 3y ago
Here is the form to delete your data and more: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US
- graybeardhacker 3y ago
  I just went to the form. It states: By clicking the checkbox you are allowing "Glassdoor to permanently delete or anonymize my data." I'll bet you all the donuts they will not be deleting my data.
  - tomrod 3y ago
    I don't like that they carved out a massive caveat with "or anonymized" either. Just pointing out their standard process.
  - maximinus_thrax 3y ago
    > I'll bet you all the donuts they will not be deleting my data. If you're in California (or the EU), I bet they will. Otherwise, you're free to file a complaint with the Attorney General. Wouldn't it be nice to have a federal CPRA?
- whatamidoingyo 3y ago
  Anyone else having form submission issue? I click "submit" but nothing happens.
  - tomrod 3y ago
    I suspect their application may be hammered today.
- Baljhin 3y ago
  I followed that link with two different browsers on my personal, one browser on my work-laptop - just getting a blank page. Anyone else getting this? Any workarounds?
maximinus_thrax 3y ago
This https://www.webworm.co/p/glassdoor https://www.webworm.co/p/glassdoor should have convinced anyone to go ahead and delete all their data and account from Glassdoor.
ok123456 3y ago
Blind seems to be where tech people post reviews now. Non-tech people just use an alternative Google account and post the review on the company's page Google Maps reviews page.
- maximinus_thrax 3y ago
  > Blind seems to be where tech people post reviews now. Yes. But if Blind starts doxxing its users, I think it will tank the industry. Lots of people are going to get fired.
myself248 3y ago
Oh sure, when an individual doxes someone it's harassment, but when a company doxes people it's a growth mindset. This should be illegal.
neilv 3y ago
This is pretty plainly a terrible move, and might destroy them with lawsuits from the users who are able to show harm. (Though I think most of those harmed won't be able to prove it, nor even know for certain it's the reason for specific instances of harm to them.) Interesting is that maybe prominent among those harmed by this underhanded privacy violation are... us techbros. And it'll hit us where we feel it most, which is in our large salaries -- or lack of same, once we get fired for criticism speech on Glassdoor, and then HR hiring pipeline systems for some other jobs start denylisting our applications, for being a troublemaker who makes public negative comments about other employers on Glassdoor. If experiencing this harm close to home -- to ourselves and friends/colleagues -- translates into conscientiousness when we're the ones making decisions about other people's privacy, then that's a silver lining. More generally, you know how sometimes someone is harmed, and that person then goes on to harm others in the same way (as if inspired), but when a different person is harmed, they instead go on to defend others from harm (as if inspired)? It seems the latter person is better for society.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788
n_ary 3y ago
So… instead of moderating fake flowery reviews from the HR, doxing real honest negative reviews to scare away people from leaving those. Saves them a ton of money and headache on moderation, verification and also disgrunted customers(employers).
neilv 3y ago
Buried: 141. Glassdoor is now adding real names to user profiles without consent (teamblind.com) 72 points by mry 1 hour ago | flag | hide | 33 comments

86 points by mry 3y ago

Related: Glassdoor updated my profile to add my real name and location (cellio.dreamwidth.org) | 819 points by throwaway_08932 6 days ago | 316 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

autoexecbat 3y ago

It's baffling that someone thought this was a good idea

1970-01-01 3y ago

It's more than OK to lie to corporations and give them a fake name and email address. I do it every day. I've found this is the only way to actually protect your privacy.

airstrike 3y ago
I pity whoever owns nobody@nowhere.com because I've been using that for decades now
- 1970-01-01 3y ago
  A sinister method is to state your birthday as Jan 2nd 1919. Just enough time to be remotely plausible. Bugs are sure to follow the account for the remainder of its existence.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- k8sToGo 3y ago
  I use fastmail with my own domains. I got a separate domain for myself that I use for trashmails.
  - crusty 3y ago
    I mean that's fine, but you are the registered owner 》renter of that domain, so you are linked to it in a database somewhere, even if your info is behind whoisguard-style obfuscation. Even if unlikely, should a dataset get exposed or the service stop functioning as intended, you're linked. No real worry for singing up for future junk-mail, but risks escalate when employment is at stake.
    - k8sToGo 3y ago
      That’s fine. If they can’t deal with my real opinion it’s better to end that working relationship anyways.
- tdudhhu 3y ago
  Pro tip: always use example.com because then you are sure you are not spamming someone's inbox.
  - airstrike 3y ago
    Sometimes form validation prevents that from working. nobody@nowhere.com works 99.999% of the time
- hprotagonist 3y ago
  i can neither confirm nor deny that butts@butts.com has a wide presence on public wifi hotspots scattered across western europe.
- justin66 3y ago
  That poor guy. He thought when he stopped using blah@blah.com he'd have it easy and look what happened.
tmpz22 3y ago
No you can't - they can still link which is the whole problem. The advertising industry has built such a tracking apparatus that some part of your system, maybe even your browser audio, is going to give up your fingerprint.

bigbillheck 3y ago

I went to go log in to see what I had left there, first off it wouldn't let me see the one review I had written, and second I'm now stuck in a "community" popup that won't let me proceed without employment info.

diggan 3y ago
Same here. I'm 100% sure I've added at least three Glassdoor reviews over the years, but after logging in, none are visible in my account. I'm not sure if they got removed in their entirety, or if Glassdoor just disconnected them from my profile.
jzebedee 3y ago
They made that change a while ago. When I first logged in and saw it, so began the illustrious Taco Bell food service career of Frank Offerman, known to his friends as "F. Off".
justjohn 3y ago
I was able to bypass the modal by going directly to the account setting page: https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings https://www.glassdoor.com/member/profile/accountSettings From there you can at least deactivate your account, not sure what other pages are also accessible without going through the modal.

vundercind 3y ago

Hm. Went to see if I have some long-forgotten account—yep! Try to deactivate account… but it’s been so long since I logged in that they won’t let me do anything until I answer a bunch of stupid questions including giving them my name. Sigh. [edit] it said the name would be used for “verification” (?!?!) but a fake name worked long enough to let me disable the account, anyway.

vvanpo 3y ago
Instead of logging in, file a data erasure request: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US All it requires is verifying your email.
- sam_lowry_ 3y ago
  I just did, and received an email for each review I ever posted, I guess they are taking my reviews down.
Teslazar 3y ago
I just ran into the same thing. Using Chrome dev tools I deleted the overlays prompting me to enter info and that revealed the user menu at the top right. First, I changed my email address to a throwaway address since I doubt they're deleting anything, and then I deleted it. ChatGPT thinks the direct link to the settings page is (or it's just a hallucination, I'm not sure) https://www.glassdoor.com/profile/settings_input.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/profile/settings_input.htm

pyuser583 3y ago

Why would they do this?

klyrs 3y ago
Class solidarity.
- crusty 3y ago
  Money == Class Solidarity == Money Gambling that human inertia leads to a platform with most of its original users but a much more scalable means to monetize them.

v_seen 3y ago

[dead]

bequanna 3y ago

I don’t get it. Is the point of this change to get real people to delete their reviews in favor of the “fake” reviews made by companies to suppress wages?

tomrod 3y ago

Here is the form to delete your data and more: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US

graybeardhacker 3y ago
I just went to the form. It states: By clicking the checkbox you are allowing "Glassdoor to permanently delete or anonymize my data." I'll bet you all the donuts they will not be deleting my data.
- tomrod 3y ago
  I don't like that they carved out a massive caveat with "or anonymized" either. Just pointing out their standard process.
- maximinus_thrax 3y ago
  > I'll bet you all the donuts they will not be deleting my data. If you're in California (or the EU), I bet they will. Otherwise, you're free to file a complaint with the Attorney General. Wouldn't it be nice to have a federal CPRA?
whatamidoingyo 3y ago
Anyone else having form submission issue? I click "submit" but nothing happens.
- tomrod 3y ago
  I suspect their application may be hammered today.
Baljhin 3y ago
I followed that link with two different browsers on my personal, one browser on my work-laptop - just getting a blank page. Anyone else getting this? Any workarounds?

maximinus_thrax 3y ago

This https://www.webworm.co/p/glassdoor https://www.webworm.co/p/glassdoor should have convinced anyone to go ahead and delete all their data and account from Glassdoor.

ok123456 3y ago

Blind seems to be where tech people post reviews now. Non-tech people just use an alternative Google account and post the review on the company's page Google Maps reviews page.

maximinus_thrax 3y ago
> Blind seems to be where tech people post reviews now. Yes. But if Blind starts doxxing its users, I think it will tank the industry. Lots of people are going to get fired.

myself248 3y ago

Oh sure, when an individual doxes someone it's harassment, but when a company doxes people it's a growth mindset. This should be illegal.

neilv 3y ago

This is pretty plainly a terrible move, and might destroy them with lawsuits from the users who are able to show harm. (Though I think most of those harmed won't be able to prove it, nor even know for certain it's the reason for specific instances of harm to them.) Interesting is that maybe prominent among those harmed by this underhanded privacy violation are... us techbros. And it'll hit us where we feel it most, which is in our large salaries -- or lack of same, once we get fired for criticism speech on Glassdoor, and then HR hiring pipeline systems for some other jobs start denylisting our applications, for being a troublemaker who makes public negative comments about other employers on Glassdoor. If experiencing this harm close to home -- to ourselves and friends/colleagues -- translates into conscientiousness when we're the ones making decisions about other people's privacy, then that's a silver lining. More generally, you know how sometimes someone is harmed, and that person then goes on to harm others in the same way (as if inspired), but when a different person is harmed, they instead go on to defend others from harm (as if inspired)? It seems the latter person is better for society.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39761176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39705788

n_ary 3y ago

So… instead of moderating fake flowery reviews from the HR, doxing real honest negative reviews to scare away people from leaving those. Saves them a ton of money and headache on moderation, verification and also disgrunted customers(employers).

neilv 3y ago

Buried: 141. Glassdoor is now adding real names to user profiles without consent (teamblind.com) 72 points by mry 1 hour ago | flag | hide | 33 comments