Panic as Glassdoor begins revealing 'anonymous' users' real names on employer ... trends now
The leading employer review website is facing a crisis of confidence among users after it was accused of betraying their anonymity to bosses.
Glassdoor, which boasts 2.5 million employer profiles, has built its fortune on allowing people to leave anonymous online reviews of their workplaces.
But it is facing some scathing reviews of its own after it was accused of adding users' real names to some profiles, leaving them at risk of retribution from the companies reviewed.
'Big mistake,' wrote user Monica after finding her own name appended to her profile.
'They do not care that this puts people at risk with their employers, they do not care that this seems to run counter to their own data-privacy policies.'
Glassdoor CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong has built the company into one of the biggest online brands with 55 million monthly users
The company now stands accused of betraying trust and jeopardizing users' anonymity
The employer review site is now attracting some scathing online reviews of its own
The company began demanding full names, job titles and employer details from new users in July.
Previously users could use the website with just an email address, but the switch was made after Glassdoor acquired work app Fishbowl and began integrating its features on its site.
Existing users who tried to log on were told that 'entering your real name is required to verify your profile', but reassured that 'other users won't see your name unless you choose to share it'.
Monica claimed in a detailed blog post that after emailing Glassdoor about an 'account-related issue', she found that the company had taken the real name and location from her email and added it to her account profile without her consent.
'I got a reply from 'lead, content and community team' who informed me that though they were 'required' to add my name to my profile, this would not affect the anonymous reviews I had posted in the past,' she wrote.
'Well I would hope not! But still, I said, them storing my name along with that data puts me at risk.
'I pointed out that we've seen ample evidence that anybody with a juicy online database can be hacked, and the mere presence of that involuntary data was a problem.'
The warning sparked horror among many of Glassdoor's 55 million monthly users who have long assumed that
