Your Privacy Online

When using the Internet for your work search, take precautions against two potential risks:

Keep your work search confidential—take steps to prevent your current employer from discovering you’re looking for work online.

Protect yourself against identity theft.

Keep your work search confidential

• Use your own computer, email and phone number when you’re looking for work, not your employer’s.
• Don’t access your personal email from work.
• Look for work on your own time, not work time. Doing this on work time is unprofessional and your employer is likely to notice.
• Use the email address you’ve set up specifically for work search. Get one for free…more
• Use job search engines or job agents rather than posting your resumé on a job search website.
• Use, but don’t only rely on, job search website features that allow you to block certain people (such as your employer) from viewing your resumé.
• Post your resumé on job search websites using a descriptive title that doesn’t identify you, e.g. Multilingual Human Resources Trainer. Though some employers don’t like this approach, it is acceptable online.

Protect yourself from online identity theft

• Never include the following on your posted resumé:

Social Insurance Number

driver’s licence

professional association registration numbers

birth date.

Legitimate employers require this kind of information only during the hiring process.

• Be cautious about unsolicited offers from employers you don’t know. They could be identity thieves trying to get your personal information using a tactic known as phishing (a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit card information, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords).
• Remove your street address from your online resumé.
• Do include your work search email address so the employer can contact you…more
• Post only to reputable or well-known sites, e.g. Workopolis or Monster and sites operated by industry or professional groups.
• Read the privacy policy on sites you post your resumé to.
• Avoid sites that won’t let you search the site without posting a resumé.