NEW YORK — Some career Web sites, recruitment services and automated job-application kiosks offer flimsy privacy protections and might even violate employment and credit laws, a report released Tuesday asserts.
Many job sites still let too much information from resumes posted online get into the hands of third parties through online "cookies" that monitor Web surfing, according to the report issued by prominent Internet watchdogs.
The report also faults self-service job application computers commonly used by chain stores. It says they almost always demand Social Security numbers and perform background checks on applicants without clearly stating who will see the information.
Pam Dixon, who led the investigation, urges job seekers to demand more privacy protections. She also wants the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to look more closely at how job sites and recruitment services handle information.
"Technology is in such a place right now where it really is at odds with Title 7," the employment discrimination section of the Civil Rights Act, Dixon said. "I don’t want to see that eroded at all."
Dixon, formerly of the University of Denver’s Privacy Foundation, is now head of her own group, the World Privacy Forum. Other participants in the investigation included the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
The report says that even people who don’t hunt for jobs online should be aware that many resumes, no matter how they are submitted, are processed through vast databases.
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