Job seekers' resumes on major online platforms leaked: CCTV report
Resumes posted on major online recruitment platforms such as zhaopin.com, 51job.com and liepin.com can be downloaded at will, resulting in serious breach of privacy and large quantities of leakage of personal information, according to a China Central Television report.
Such information can be easily found and bought on various online message bulletins, forums and social networking groups like QQ, according to CCTV’s investigation.
Take zhaopin.com for instance. By uploading the business license and personal legal information, the recruiting firm can create an enterprise account of its own, and then is allowed to post job openings and check candidates’ resumes.
Through the account, as long as enterprises pay for membership, they can download a complete resume containing job seekers’ key information such as name, telephone number and e-mail address, and there is no limit to the number of downloads.
The download price of resumes from zhaopin.com is divided into three grades: 40 yuan (US$6.15), 60 yuan and 100 yuan, based on the candidate's educational background, work experience and salary level.
A CCTV Weibo posting discloses how easily it is for anyone to get a resume for only 7 yuan from zhaopin.com.
Although zhaopin.com says enterprise users should not disclose resume information, they lack relevant management and monitoring of the downloads, leaving such private data leaking into the black market, traded online and misused for fraud.
Police in many cities have cracked fraud cases of infringing citizens' resume information.
A recent case in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, is reported to involve more than 15 million pieces of resume information.
Around four hours after the CCTV report, 51job.com announced on its official Weibo account that it will attach great importance to the issue, realizing that much work remains to be done on the security management and data protection of resumes and feeling deeply sorry for the trouble caused to users.
The company said they have started to implement real-name authentication and facial recognition of enterprise account users according to new industry requirements, and strengthened logging management and trace tracking for information browsing of enterprise accounts.
Regulations on the Administration of Online Recruitment Services came into effect on March 1, which requires online recruitment platforms to fulfill the obligations of network security and information protection, assume the responsibility of high-quality service, and accept the supervision of the government and society.
51job.com said they have decided to set up an information security management committee to further improve relevant internal management systems and will strictly enforce the blacklist rules for enterprise client and upgrade relevant monitoring and intervention mechanisms, according to the announcement.
On the job seekers’ side, more work will be done to strengthen user authorization process.
“If any abnormality is identified, we will immediately report it to relevant government departments,” a 51job.com official told Shanghai Daily.
Announcement of 51job.com on Weibo
Zhaopin.com also made response to the exposure at midnight on its Weibo account.
The firm said they have taken corresponding measures against this illegal act of reselling job seekers’ private information, and a special team is in charge of the follow-up rectification work.
They will work harder to upgrade technical means, including implementing electronic business licenses to ensure the information security of users to the greatest extent.
Zhaopin.com said since January, they have started to implement virtual intermediate telephone numbers for some individual users to better protect the candidates’ private information. And this technology will be fully applied within 24 hours to ensure the information security of all its users.
The three companies involved said they will boycott all illegal acts that infringe on the rights and interests of job seekers, and make joint efforts to build a safe and healthy environment for their users.
Announcement of zhaopin.com on Weibo
Apps of the three major recruiting service providers have been removed from the app stores of mobile phone makers including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and VIVO following the CCTV report.
Zhaopin.com claims to have 180 million users, and regards user information security and privacy protection as its "lifeline," and is committed to ensuring user information and communication security.
Nasdaq-listed 51job.com said it has over 100 million registered users and has more than 100 million resumes.
Targeting middle and high-end talent recruitment, liepin.com said it helps bring together over 560,000 well-known enterprises and more than 160,000 certified head-hunters to provide high-paying jobs for 57 million users.
