Monster.com to operate CDC service 9/27/01

            In addition to having a new home this year, the Career Development Center has a new online registration system hosted by the controversial Monster.com.

            The new location, in the Bakewell Building at 355 Galvez Street, is due to the fire that damaged the CDC’s old building last May; the new registration system is the resuilt of Monster.com’s acquisition of the center’s previous vendor, JobTrak.com.

            As a result of the May 25 two-alarm fire, the CDC relocated this summer to a smaller space in the Bakewell Building.

            “We still have our reference file system for graduate school [and] job employment,” said CDC Director Lance Choy. “We lost all our resources, but we’ve completely restored our stockpile of books.”

            Choy said that because of the lack of space at the Bakewell Building, workshops that the center holds will be at different locations like the Alumni Association Building and Tressider Union.

            But, Choy said, most Cardinal Recruiting interviews will continue to be held at the CDC.

 

Report raises concerns about Monster.com

            The new registration system is called MonsterTrak; its parent company, Monster.com, is a major player in the market for connecting employers with job-seekers.
            MonsterTrak allows students to insert their personal details into an online profile and upload their resumes. Employers can then search through the data to find suitable candidates for employment.

            The Cardinal Recruiting program, which provides students access to on-campus interviews by companies, is also run through MonsterTrak.

            Choy said that the transition from JobTrak.com to MonsterTrak should be easy.

            “Monster.com has left the [JobTrak.com] system intact, [so] we have contracted out to MonsterTrak to do our online job system,” he said.

            However, on Sept. 5, a 24-page report put out by The Privacy Foundation, an industry watchdog group, said that job seekers who use Monster.com’s family of Web sites “face considerable threats to their privacy.”

            The report accused Monster.com of discussing the sale of resume data to marketers, keeping resume data in its files even when the user has deleted it on the system and putting resumes submitted to companies that Monster.com does business with onto Monster.com Web sites.

            It also said that Monster.com has provided business partner AOL Time Warner with specific data on job-seekers, including unique id number identifying a job-seeker with his profile details.

            The foundation also said Monster.com asks job-seekers to disclose gender and ethnic information without benefit of an appropriate privacy policy on MonsterTrak.

            For its part, Monster.com has denied most of the allegations and has issued a brief point-by-point refutation of the reports main accusations.

             “Monster.com does not sell, has never sold, and will never sell personal data to marketers without permission from job seekers,” the company said.

            Pam Dixon, who has written several books on online job searching, did the research for and wrote the report.

            “It took a year to do that research,” Dixon said. “There are some very serious concerns about [Monster.com]’s privacy [practices].”

            Dixon said that while she’s been encouraged by the response of other online job Web sites and people who use them, she’s been disappointed with Monster.com’s reaction so far. She said that other than adding more detailed privacy notices to its Web sites, Monster.com has not done much to alleviate the concerns in the report.

            Regarding MonsterTrak specifically, Dixon said, “If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing about MonsterTrak, I would get rid of the gender and ethnicity questions.”

            Dixon said that these type of questions may be a violation of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission standards.

            When asked about what Stanford students should do after reading the report, Dixon said, “Students will have to decide for themselves; my job is to point out the problem.”

 

CDC Response

            Choy said that he had heard about the Privacy Foundation report, but had not read it in its entirety.

            “This is an issue that all colleges are concerned about,” Choy said. “I went and asked [MonsterTrak], and MonsterTrak assured us that their system adheres to their privacy agreements.”

            But, Choy added, “It raised a fairly strong voice of concern from across the community. It’s a concern of whose [information] is being released. There’s an advisory board [made up of representatives from colleges] that meets with MonsterTrak, and they’ve been concerned about that.”

 

Other changes at the CDC

            Choy also mentioned a new resource for Stanford students on the Internet. He said that at the CDC Web site, there’s a hyperlink to “Profiles of Success,” a feature which will showcase interviews with Stanford alumni who are doing interesting things, to demonstrate potential opportunities for Stanford graduates.

            There will be one new profile each month.

            Otherwise, business will continue to go on as usual at the CDC. With the economic outlook becoming increasingly grim, CDC officials are preparing for an influx of Stanford students eagerly seeking jobs.