“When a user provides information, either during the registration process or by uploading a resume, that information will automatically be populated across all Glassdoor services, including our Fishbowl community app,” says Livingood. “When you use Glassdoor and Fishbowl, you always have the option to remain anonymous. Users can choose to be completely anonymous or reveal parts of their identity, such as their company name or job title, when using our community service. The company’s help pages state that real names and email addresses are only used for “verification purposes.” only.”
Glassdoor has always strived to keep its users’ identities private, but there are concerns about these identity changes. “Glassdoor has been second to none in defending its users’ First Amendment rights,” says Aaron Mackey, senior attorney at the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. He represented a Glassdoor user in a case initiated in 2019 when his former employer, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, attempted to unmask reviewers, alleging that former workers had violated severance agreements with their positions. (The parties settled and the subpoena was withdrawn in 2020).
According to Mackey, current conditions represent a significant change. “It’s concerning if the way they run their business now creates the possibility of identifying people, regardless of whether or not they are prosecuted.”
Glassdoor gained notoriety by presenting itself as a place focused on protecting anonymity, but companies with small staffs have always had a good chance of guessing who wrote a particular review. It could be even easier if managers could also see social media on Glassdoor where people post under their real names, indicating which workers have accounts on the site. People unaccustomed to thinking about their online footprint might inadvertently leave big clues, for example by posting anonymously and at the same time in a less secretive way.
Glassdoor terms suggest risk. “You acknowledge that Glassdoor cannot guarantee your anonymity” because the size of a business or service, the content posted and the user’s location may allow employers to infer who has left a review, it says. document. “You should understand this risk before submitting Content to the Services.”
Social pivot
Glassdoor’s acquisition of Fishbowl in 2021 united two platforms that attracted users by hosting relatively unfiltered work chats, a place to collect the kind of gossip most often shared in person. Together, they had offered a counterbalance to LinkedIn, which relies on people using their full identities and which often results in rose-tinted, overly congratulatory and sometimes downright cringe-inducing messages about work.
Glassdoor is owned by Recruit Holdings, which also owns Indeed. Indeed and Glassdoor profit from job advertising. According to the company, some 55 million people visit Glassdoor each month. Verifying profiles could help prevent trolls from posting false information about companies and misleading those seeking an insider’s point of view, thereby eroding trust with other users.
