INDEED has KILLED privacy!

Please don't flame me if I've been in a coma because I was unaware of this.

I'm a headhunter in Detroit and 20 minutes ago I received an e-mail from Indeed.com enticing me to search resumes in their database. There's a big, BOLD announcement that they're getting 2 Million resumes per month. (Wow!)

I clicked on the conveniently provided link to "Search Resumes Now" and punched in some key words and was HORRIFIED to find lists of names and abbreviated resumes. Upon closer view, I opened a side window and there was the candidates full name and employment history, much like you'd find on LinkedIn. EXCEPT, these people apparently voluntarily uploaded their resume.

Call me old fashioned. I'm a little shocked at this.

So I searched "Seat Engineers". What if I was the Engineering Manager at one of the many companies listed there and "curiosity was killing the cat"? Let's say I punch up to see candidates and see one, two, or three of my employees. My mood would be very different for the rest of the day for sure.

To me, there is a HUGE GAP between uploading into a job hunting website where the resume will be in a private database only to be accessed by paid customers VERSUS the LinkedIn open internet posting of 99% of your background without and e-mail or phone number and a BIG HUGE SIGN READING "I'M LOOKING NOW!!!!"

Is anyone with me on this???

- Steve

Comment by Daren J. Mongello on August 28, 2013 at 1:01pm: (1) Touché. I screwed up the math. Sorry. Oh well. Anyway. It's my opinion and only my opinion that I think whoever wrote the "two million" resume banner in the e-mail is wrong and massively exaggerating. Ultimately, who cares about my opinion anyway? (Answer: No one.)

Daren says: There are too many opinions out there. I try to form my opinions based on facts, research......oh, and math. You should try it one day. :)

(2) Gosh. I hope you didn't go into a lot of effort researching and outlining the word "scrape". You're the one who first introduced the word. By the way, I actually have software in my office that does this. It wasn't cheap. (I would, in my opinion, define 'cheap' as being around 100 bucks for a piece of software. But then again, it's my opinion, so who cares?)

Daren says: Hmmm...are you trying to "outwit" me? http://www.outwit.com/
See what I did there?

(3) It's my opinion that Indeed doesn't really grab public profiles from the internet from such sources as Indeed. It's my opinion so once again, who cares?

Daren says: Babe....read that again? Indeed sources from Indeed?
Put some effort into proofreading your work or get an editor, OK? :)

(4) It's my opinion you have not cleared up where and how Indeed is getting their two million resumes. You wrote a lot. For that, I'm humbled and corrected. But I don't think you know where Indeed gets the two million resumes as a matter of fact. Maybe you've met with representatives of Indeed and they disclosed to you where they get all of their resumes. I have an Indeed representative that's been asking to meet. I've not agreed because I've heard the opinions of other recruiters and office managers.

Daren says: Ugh....ok...so you know that Indeed is saying 2 million resumes a month. NOT 2 million US resumes. Big diff. With 100 Million views a month from ACTIVE job seekers, some of them will upload their resume, right? How many? 1% ? 2 % That gets you close to the 2 million.

What you need to know is that not every "resume" is a submitted resume. Many are as they have phone numbers while others dont. I am only SURMISING that they are indexing profiles, formatting them so they all look the same, and tying it to an email address that they sourced online and dropping into their database.

Another reason why they are probably telling us the truth? CLASS ACTION LAW SUITS.
If they lied, they would be liable. As long as ONE month nets 2 million resumes (or close to it) they've covered their butts.

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(5) Finally, back to my point of the original blog posting. I'll correlate it with a more popular topic out there right now. It seems noone's all that surprised that the Cyrus girl decided to do a borderline X-rated performance at the MTV awards show the other night. Looks like the big question floating around is "when is enough enough?" This was sort of my dismay when I saw (and I have a screenshot pictured above) how Indeed displays pseudo-resumes of people that are actually applying for jobs IN CONTRAST TO LinkedIn posting a person's work history and background in a much similar way. The visual content is basically equal but, to me, in my OPINION, question the prudence, or ethics, or morality, or (fill in the blank) of Indeed publicly posting this information the way they do.

Daren says: This is your opinion. I dont think its a big deal....but if it pisses you off.....have at it.
People are on linkedin with resume looking profiles. This was not a happy accident.

(I'm going to now guess that Daren REALLY, REALLY wants to take me to the cleaners now.)
Daren says: Meh....I'm really a nice guy and mean no malice. Ask my mother.

Doesn't matter. No one cares about my opinion.
Daren says: Not true.

- Steve