There are scammers all around, but the worst kind of scammers are:

• those to exploit a very vulnerable group of people
• those who use desperation of people to their advantage for scamming.

And there’s one group of people that often meet the criteria of vulnerability and desperation – jobseekers.

Anyone who has been a jobseeker at any point in their life knows that searching and finding a half-decent job is nerve-wracking. The chore of looking for job openings. The apprehension of uploading one’s CV and clicking “Submit”. The anxiety of waiting for a response, if a response comes at all. The exhaustion from doing this 1,000 times till one recruiter finally says “yes”. And the headache of negotiation for a salary that’s good enough to afford one extra cup of tea per week. I have been there – admittedly a few times in my career – and really hope I don’t have to go through that process again.

Over the last couple of decades, jobseeking websites have become prevalent. Some of the biggest jobseeking and recruiting platforms in the world are Ziprecruiter, Monster, Indeed and – everyone’s favourite – LinkedIn. Last month, Inc reported an investigation by Incogni which revealsed that all these big jobseeking websites are selling jobseeker’s personal information. Not like, doing it to help a jobseeker find a role, no. They are selling personal data. To anyone who pays a subscription, meant to give them access to such data but not necessarily for the purpose of recruitment.

You would think that India’s jobseeking platform behemoth Naukri is left out of this list? Well, no. This week, Entrackr reported their own investigation where a sales executive from Naukri themselves offered Entrackr access to job candidates personal details. This offer was made by the Naukri executive even after Entrackr stated explicitly they were not recruiting to hire, but need contact details for journalism and marketing stuff. And it costs only ₹2,500 per month.

My favourite part of this Entrackr investigation:

“Hume CXO ka data chahiye, hume hiring nahi karni hai.” We told him we wanted CXO data for business development and sales, not for recruitment.

The response was revealing.

He neither questioned our purpose nor declined the request. Instead, he opened the product, conducted a live demonstration and agreed to sell us the subscription despite knowing we had no hiring requirement.

Go and read that Entrackr piece to know more.

So you may ask, what’s wrong if a recruiter or any company who’s paying a subscription gain access to several thousand jobseeker’s personal information. If you’re asking this question, you don’t know a thing about privacy and data protection and you should contact me for a “Privacy 101” masterclass which I’ll do for free because it’s so important for all of us to recognise privacy as a basic right and its lack of a serious problem.

Just imagine a person looking for a job opens a candidature account on Naukri. He’s inclined to provide whatever information the platform asks for, including salary and caste details which privacy regulations count as sensitive. Whether he gets a job or not, his data is out there, either on Naukri’s servers or in an excel sheet somewhere downloaded by a subscriber who paid ₹2,500/- This practice is against Naukri’s terms of use (which is anyway difficult to read). In the profession of privacy, we have a concept called “balance of power”. It’s when a contractual relationship or situation is used by one party to make it difficult for the other party (the data subject i.e. person) to withold consent for their personal data to be processed. And if Naukri says its terms of service do not allow selling of personal data, privacy regulations expect that said terms of service is easy to read and understand, which Naukri’s is not. After reading this Entrackr piece I am convinced that Naukri – like Ziprecruiter and Indeed and others – is knowingly selling personal data for added revenue with disregard to the potential risks to data subjects.

What irks me more is that Naukri is selling candidates’ data to literally anyone. And personal information – especially sensitive information like salary details, location, present job, etc. are ripe for scammers to use to scam. In Entrackr’s investigation, the Naukri Sales Executive even went as far to say that the candidates numbers’ cannot be easily traced back to Naukri, or the buyer.

Don’t we have a privacy law in India? Yes — the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. Under the law (as is under the GDPR and other leading data protection regulations around the world), personal data must be used only for the specific purpose for which consent was given. Jobseekers upload their resumes to Naukri to find employment opportunities, expecting genuine recruiters to see them, not unrelated commercial uses. The Act also follows the principle of data minimisation, meaning only the minimum data needed for that purpose should be collected and processed. Importantly, the responsibility lies with the data fiduciary, not the subscriber. As a data fiduciary, Naukri must ensure lawful processing and cannot depend only on contractual promises from users.

So, yeah. Naukri is a scammer. Selling personal data to other potential scammers. Personal data belonging to a vulnerable group of people, ripe for being scammed. No wonder jobseeker scams are on the rise.

Headlines:

• Maharashtra government said that bike taxi services – which it banned then allowed then banned again – will be allowed to operate from August. It will begin issuing aggregator permits from August 01st, under a new regulatory framework that requires drivers to possess a Maharashtra domicile certificate.
• Google is appealing Delhi HC’s verdict on the Hindware Trademark / keyword issue. Google says that the order “diverges from established legal precedents in India”. Lol. What legal precedent is there for keyword misuse? Google is also saying the HC decision will harm consumers, but did not elaborate and is clearly faffing.
• There’s a Mahadev betting app syndicate, and its alleged mastermind is a guy called Sourabh Chandrakar. He has been detained in Oman. Indian authorities are seeking his extradition. ED alleges that the Mahadev betting app case involves proceeds of crime worth 6,000 crores and has links to several senior politicians and bureaucrats from Chattisgarh.
• Ola Electric is facing insolvency petitions from two of its suppliers. Ola clarified that these petitions stem from an ongoing arbitration over warranty and performance-led disputes. The company is contesting the petitions. The two supplies though had approached the NCLT over alleged unpaid dues.
• Flipkart introduced its zero commission policy last year for products below 1,000. This week, they expanded the policy to cover all fashion products, irrespective of price.
• CCI clears UpGrad’a acquisition of Unacademy in Al all-stock transaction valued at 2,000 crores. This is the biggest consolation in the Ed-tech space.
• Diljith Dosanjh starter Satluj- earlier Punjab 95 – was removed from ZEE5. It was revealed that the Centre gave the directive under the IT Rules 2021, citing security concerns. It was released on ZEE5 without the 127 cuts suggested by the CBFC in 2022.
• New tech IPO approvals: CarDekho, and cult.fit.
• Government received Meta’s response to the notice on new username feature and is examining it. This is after Meta met MeitY officials last week.

Speaking of Meta…

Meta has denied allegations that Instagram “deliberately” hosted ads promoting CSAM. Of course they would. Meta’s statement says its technology to identify accounts “that have shown potentially suspicious activity related to children, and automatically removed 4 million of these accounts last year.” This statement means nothing. 4 million is not a large number of accounts, considering bot farming and other technologies available. And the statement uses the word “deliberately” because Meta cannot deny that there indeed IS questionable material on Instamart being peddled to pedos.

Also, Meta revealed Muse Spark 1.1 model that includes an image generation feature – and your face can be used by Meta AI unless you opt out. Go opt out. In separate news, Meta is telling the public that its AI glasses “recording light indicator” cannot be tampered with.

PM Modi, on his visit to Australia, praised Australia’s under-16 social media ban. A few states in India are considering similar measures.

This Week’s Find

This soundbar from Sony. More specifically, it’s the “Sony HT-A3000 Real 5.1ch Dolby Atmos Home Theatre System with 360 Spatial Sound Mapping,Wireless Subwoofer & Rear Speakers|Creates 12 Invisible Speaker for Immersive Sound|Hi-Res & 360 Reality Audio”. Quite a mouthful, isn’t it?

It’s the find of the week because it’s listing now for half its original price.

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