Employer Review Site Glassdoor Deanonymized Users Without Consent | Hacker News Reader

Employer Review Site Glassdoor Deanonymized Users Without Consent

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221 pointsstanislavb48 comments

That’s super shady, and Glassdoor has lost its usefulness to me, so this easily nudged me to delete my account. Straightforward process can be started at the bottom of this page: https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest

Note that according to the article you also have to specifically request your data be deleted. You can do that here:

https://help.glassdoor.com/s/privacyrequest?language=en_US

Went through the process, not thrilled with the disclaimer I received with the confirmation that my account was deleted:

> Please note, however, that despite your request to delete data, we reserve the right to keep any information in our archives that we deem necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and exercise the right of freedom of expression and information. We will also keep a record of your request for legal and compliance purposes.

Blind was running a promoted/ad about this on LinkedIn today.

What would be good for the industry would be to see Glassdoor totally wiped out over this. It can't be via reputation alone, since Yelp is still around. But it could be via lawsuits.

that would be amazingly good for the industry. not holding my breath, though; I can't think of a precedent even though lots of other companies have done shady stuff

This isn't just evil, it's stupid. I can't imagine a worse policy for the long-term success of that site. Like, I just don't see any upside -- what usage boost are they going to get from putting real names on there?

Perhaps they are trying to reconstitute into something more like LinkedIn. Whatever the case, shady. Deleted my 15+ year old account and data. I always knew the reviews were garbage given that across 3 companies I’ve worked for there were concerted efforts to get employees to post positive reviews. We always knew “Glassdoor season” was coming when there were more “fun” events and all-hands and messages about “winning” the best places to work nonsense.

They have been majoring in stupid for a while now.

do you understand the location of their physical offices? and the amounts of money paid to Cxx at Glassdoor, today ?

they obviously do not care what you think of them, and have no intention of changing their course.

I do not have that information. How do they make their money?

The probably know their time is coming to an end and are now attempting to sell any information they deem valuable. I can imagine some bosses would love to know who posted the scathing reviews while still working for the company and would be willing to pay.

... and, to be fair, posting a scathing review while continuing to work at a company is a little weak in my view.

Think of it as a performance review, but with reversed roles.

You know, the tech job market is pretty bad at the moment. They might even have families where they are the sole breadwinner.

Why?

Glassdoor has the worst UX to popularity ratio I've ever seen. Only X and Jira come close.

What both have is something unique, so people still go there. Yeah Jira is the worst, except for the rest of the similar software. And on Glassdoor, I can check out how much people say they are paid at my company. I have literally no idea about it otherwise.

Those salary estimates are garbage.

Relating to me and my company, they weren't.

> I have literally no idea about it otherwise.

You can ask your coworkers.

As much as "you can't be fired for talking about salary" is supposed to be a thing... Guess how many of my coworkers talked about straight salaries vs "% increase" in our last round of gov salary negotiations.... Yeah, no one said a straight salary number... In theory, great concept. In reality, it is still veryuch taboo in US culture to speak in raw terms of salary.

Most employees aren't afraid of being fired, they're afraid of their coworkers finding out just how underpaid they are, and resenting them instead of their employer.

Our hold head of HR used to remind us that while they can't forbid us from talking about salaries, Theodore Roosevelt said that "comparison is the thief of joy".

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 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

Thanks for the easy steps, they say my data should be removed in 30 days.

Companies understand only one language: lawyers. Though expensive, it is very effective.

I agree but tend to think of it as "money". People apologise with words and actions.

Companies can only apologise with money.

I have actually tried an alternative approach, negotiating that "OK, don't pay damages, instead change behaviour but with reporting, and 10x damages if you reneg".

In every case, companies vastly want to just pay, because? Well, because they plan to re-offend.

People apologize with actions. Companies apologize with actions.

Companies act, for the most part, with money. (Not all actions are apologies.)

You can't do anything without action. I don't see the counter(or supporting?) point you're trying to make.

My point is, a company isn't a person. It feels no humility, or compassion, or empathy. Individual parts of a company may, but most certainly not the whole, as a single entity.

Thus, for the organism to feel pain, it must have resources taken from it. If it is a "bad" company, it must be starved to death!

If they plan to re-offend, it isn't an apology.

Indeed. Yet our legal system won't force much beyond cash, at least for many things, if the company isn't willing to take an alternate route.

this is not absolute -- BUT there is an abundance of clever and experienced attorneys who can and will find a way out for the side that has money to pay. There are serious consequences for a multitude of serious situations, but that is not news. Over time, corporate interests bend the intent of strong laws with repeated paths to escape the harsh results defined in many laws in the USA, IMHO.

> In every case, companies vastly want to just pay, because? Well, because they plan to re-offend.

That's one possible reason. Other reasons are a one time payment extinguishes the conflict, whereas a reporting arrangement prolongs the conflict. There's likely to be disagreements over reporting and such.

> Companies can only apologise with money.

A fine is a price.

This isn't completely true. The history of the US and the formation of unions shows that violence is the other language. This said it's not an optimal course at all.

My decision not to engage with the platform is vindicated. Yay!

Congrats, invite me to the party please.

I decided to not even know they existed until this submission.

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?

It's not about displaying the names next to the reviews on GLassdoor.

It's about building an internal database of user profiles with their names. And they are apparently pretty aggressive, getting the names from support cases and third parties:

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/about/terms/ > "We may update your Profile with information we obtain from third parties. We may also use personal data you provide to us via your resume(s) or our other services."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/glassdoor-adding...

The worry is that when they get hacked, it will be possible to map real humans to reviews. Which is potentially going to be catastrophic for anyone who posted negative reviews. Not a good move from a website which is some sort

Hacking is not the most likely negative scenario. Your data is already in multiple hacked databases, anyway. You've already lost that fight. Even if Glassdoor gets hacked, the information they already have on you (email, place of employment) is enough to deanonymize you when combined with other hacked databases.

The most likely negative scenario is that it'll now be much easier for companies to uncover identities of people posting reviews about them on Glassdoor. HR inviting you for a "chat" due to a negative interview is what I'd be concerned about. As another commenter said already, this is phenomenally stupid from Glassdoor, because they're losing the remaining little trust people had on them for keeping their users anonymous.

Mega massive class action in 3 … 2 …

This story has been posted many times over the past few days. Please check before adding a dupe thread.

Glassdoor, despite what disgruntled employees may desire, is not a platform to post defamatory reviews without fear of reprisal. If a person posts something that fails the libel test (I.e. not opinion but easily demonstrated as to be factually false), Glassdoor can be legally compelled and will deanonymize the person. Be mindful to keep your facts fact and opinions opinion.

> something that fails the libel test

And that is the US libel laws.

In Sweden for instance, the truth won't shield you from being convicted for libel.

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