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ProPakistan has started what they’re calling a "Professionals Board" which is further being marketed as being a "social network for Pakistani community, especially for the people presently associated as an expert or lead in any of the industry. The board is open for people within Pakistan as well as over seas Pakistanis."
Actually what it really is, is a blog with people’s resumes’ as posts. Whats worse, the entire thing is open for public perusal which includes email addresses and phone number. Oh I can hear some spammer leap with joy upon reading that.
Even worse is the fact that anyone can submit anyone else’s profile on this anonymously - they verify the info provided but not who submitted it to them… so I submit your profile with your phone number and email address and you get the living daylights spammed out of you. Oh good GOD no! The least they can do is call that person (phone number) and confirm "we got your profile for this site would you like to have it up?". Without that, they are a privacy nightmare just waiting for a lawsuit.
There’s a reason people invented login mechanisms and elaborate verification processes. Turns out, its actually important to some people online. Who’da thought!?
| Written by Osama A. on 06/24/08 in PakStartup |
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June 25th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Well, spammers have accounts at Monster and other job sites. What can you do about that?
June 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Well Hazi, for starters I can track them down with their accounts and shut down those accounts?
Atleast I’ll know who’s taking the info and spamming? And yes Monster and others are directly legally liable for such things under privacy protection. I can sue Monster if they give my private info to a legitimate spammer account.
This board has no such tracing
June 25th, 2008 at 12:41 am
This is seriously very worrisome, but what I would like to know, if this was published with their consent
Secondly I feel its just a n00b attempt to jump into the job market. Blog style
June 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Hmmm! We will surely look into what you guys just said and will try to make few changes to it. Just to add to your knowledge, all the information has been shared with consent of the users and they all have seen it.
I agree there are few issues and i appreciate that you pointed them out for us and we will surely rectify them after consultation with the team.
Teeth! For you i have one simple line “You never appreciated what we have been doing till date but you were one of the first to come out with you criticism!”
I think that is enough for you to understand what i mean!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Junaid - good professional comeback. There’s a lot of value in professional profiles but not in terms of resumes.
Good luck and let me know as soon as you’ve fixed some of the challenges so that I can do a followup post.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
looks like a university graduate book
format in which candidate information has been inserted is indeed very specific.
There should be an employer accounts who can access these resumes after a specific validation process in term of registration but it shouldn’t be public - but neway people who posted their info have no issue being public. Best of luck !!
June 25th, 2008 at 10:45 am
******ProPakistan has started what they’re calling a “Professionals Board” ……..”********
Thanks for the timely post Osama! Highly appreciated!
********Actually what it really is, is a blog with people’s resumes’ as posts……….********
Yes we’re using an Open Source for it that we found better for the execution of idea and testing different things at this moment. We’ll definitely be moving for a better one, and will keep you updated accordingly. Now coming to the point you mentioned, there’s no phone number display thingy at all… Please do let me know if you’ve found any!
Secondly yes, we do display email addresses [with profile holders’ consent], that’s in fact not hyperlinked, on some places you may find emails hyperlinked, but we’re working on to remove that. We’ll be removing the email completely and add a contact option shortly.
********Even worse is the fact that anyone can submit anyone else’s profile on this anonymously - they verify the info provided but not who submitted it to them… ……..
That’s exactly we’re to do! Besides that, all the profiles on board have been published with the consent of profile holders, and this will be same in future. Yes, we’re working on privacy policy and user agreement that will be added shortly!
********There’s a reason people invented login mechanisms and elaborate verification processes. ……..”
Agreed, but ‘A’ can submit ‘B’s’ profile more appropriately then. That case can verify an email only! I’ll highly appreciate your ideas in this context!
@Teeth
I did answer your point in above context, please let me know if something left untouched
@smaak
Thanks for the feedback; we’ll be moving that step ahead, inshaAllah!