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Job seekers who go to online sites seeking employment run a considerable risk of having their confidential information improperly sold, shared or used for profiling purposes. That is the finding of a yearlong study into the privacy practices of online job sites released yesterday by The World Privacy Forum, a newly formed privacy rights nonprofit organization.

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"We really need a whole new way of talking with job seekers about how they can look for jobs and not get [their personal information] tracked, diced and sliced in multiple ways," Dixon said. In some cases, information collected for one use was actually being used for other purposes. FastWeb.com, a major scholarship search service owned by Monster Inc., for instance, collected ethnic, nationality and religious information from students, which it then shared with potential employers looking to fill positions based on diversity.

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The rapid proliferation of employment application kiosks inside malls and retail stores also presents a problem from a privacy standpoint, Dixon said. Few have any privacy policies that explain how information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and other pieces of personal information will be used or stored. A Unicru spokeswoman defended the company's practices and said they meet legal guidelines.

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Portland Ore.-based Unicru Inc., one of the largest operators of such kiosks, for instance, didn't post privacy policies at any of its kiosks before, during or after personal information was collected, Dixon said. Unicru's list of clients includes CVS, Universal Studios and Blockbuster.

"Unicru fully meets all federal guidelines with regard to hiring for each of its customers. While there are no current rules or regulations requiring a privacy statement on a job application, Unicru does recommend to its customers, as a best practice, that they have such a policy," she said. Unicru processes on average one job application every second.

Security Of User Data

The rapid proliferation of employment application kiosks inside malls and retail stores also presents a problem from a privacy:

• 1. There were no consistent policies when it came to the collection
• 2. The use of third-party persistent cookies has increased.
• 3. Use of ethnic and racial information.
• 4. We have looked into this in-depth.
• 5. The use of third-party persistent cookies has increased.
• 6. job seekers often may not realize the full extent

Copyright and Security

The rapid proliferation of employment application kiosks inside malls and retail stores also presents a problem from a privacy standpoint, Dixon said. Few have any privacy policies that explain how information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and other pieces of personal information will be used or stored. A Unicru spokeswoman defended the company's practices and said they meet legal guidelines.