Popular platform for posting anonymous company reviews, Glassdoor has been accused of revealing the real names of users. The fact came to light when a user, Monica, reportedly discovered that her actual name / identity was visible on her profile, and she had not been asked for permission to display it. She was shocked to see her identity being made public without her authorisation. She has been a user for over a decade, and the incident, needless to say has shaen her trust in the platform.
The platform’s main attraction was that users/employees were able to post their opinions and reviews, even negative, about their employers/organisations, without any fear of ever being found out.
Now, Glassdoor is receiving flak for doing away with this anonymity feature. After all, none of the users who are posting negative reviews of their organsiations want to be ever discovered or identified.
It is pertinent to mention here that Glassdoor acquired Fishbowl, a professional networking app, in 2021. The latter insists on verifying the identities of users. Therefore, Glassdoor clearly made changes to its terms of service making user verification compulsory. This has obviously affected the very feature that had made the platform popular, that is, anonymity.
While Glassdoor assures that employers will not be able to access profile details of users, Monica has lost trust and decided to delete her account. She, like many other users, feels that her identity and privacy are no longer protected or safe. She has gone on to blog about the matter and warn users of the platform to be careful as their privacy may be compromised. In fact, she has urged people to stop using the platform altogether because even after deleting her account, she realised that her real name still appeared on the records of Glassdoor. Following this, she sought her data to be erased from the platform, which is a long-drawn process that may take up to a month.
