Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

Post by davidsawyer » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:37 AM UTC

BeefySwain wrote: post #91

BeefySwain wrote: post #21

NOTE: It is possible to freeze access to your employment data here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze That being said, it doesn't stop employers from continuing to hand Equifax your data on a gold platter, and therefore does nothing to protect you from the inevitable data breach that will result in Equifax being required to give everyone affected $0.36 or one year of free credit monitoring.

Hijacking here to say, literally all you need to get access to someones employment + salary history is their SSN and birthdate. edit: and a past employer that used this system Birthdays are extremely easy to get (public record), and I seem to recall a specific large organization leaking a bunch of SSN's not too long ago.......

Post by getcrunk » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:39 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #60

tomrod wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in a two person company last year where I ran payroll with ADP. It's there for me too, and I don't recall opt in permission on this.

Three-person company here. We do our own payroll, using Quickbooks (not their payroll processing service, just Quickbooks the desktop application). We have employees in two states.

Post by hansvm » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:41 AM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #121

mgraczyk wrote: post #54

Very interesting, I didn't expect the accuracy and detail in this data. All of my pay from Intel, Google, Facebook is in here. Qualcomm apparently did not report. Also, Google (my latest employer) pulled the data just before I started working, after giving me an offer. My credit card company pulls the data every month, sometimes 2-3 times per month. Several mortgage originators have also pulled the data even though I…

Does the system not ask for SSN to pull this data? If yes, how did Google get your SSN? Disc: Googler.

Post by starwind » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:42 AM UTC

realist39827 wrote: post #104

Yes, it's concerning, but let's be realistic about this. I'm surprised HN readers are so surprised by this! On a scale of Room 641A ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A ) to carriers divulging location when you enter somebody's phone number ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684 ), I'd say this is 2/10 bad. This really has nothing to do with employers colluding and trying to keep salaries low. Instead,…

Post by what_ever » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:43 AM UTC

lumost wrote: post #148

what_ever wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the system not ask for SSN to pull this data? If yes, how did Google get your SSN? Disc: Googler.

IIRC Google requests SSN data for all applicants ahead of interview.