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A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

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Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#31

Post by tlrobinson »

trickstra wrote: post #28
blodovnik wrote: post #17

Why is this a big deal? Of course recruiters search public information. Learn to live with it. If your outrage threshold is this low then you’re going to spent all your life in a state of outrage. It’s nit even interesting let alone important. Information in github, far from being surrounded by an invisible force field of integrity protection, is actually prime hunting territory for recruiters and any recruiter who d…

My first though after reading that a recruiter used GitHub API was "I wish I met a recruiter like that".

More likely they used some tool to do it.

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#32

Post by inlined »

rubenfonseca wrote: post #27

To all people out there that say “you are making your email public by pushing it to github”, please remember that just because something is on the internet doesn’t give you absolutely any right to use it. That’s the big deal here.

Last I checked CA law (an ethics class), a computer permission setting explicitly does not grant actual permission to use a computer. Given that the TOS explicitly prohibits the use of the API for selling info to recruiters, it may be construable that this was hacking. Not sure that Microsoft, the owner of both GitHub and LinkedIn, would cooperate with a claim that a recruiter hacked their dev network.

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#33

Post by lazyjones »

"My email address isn't on the web"

Yes it is, you put it there.

https://github.com/garybernhardt/dotfiles/blob/master/.mutt/...

I fail to see the dramatic issue here. FWIW, I once got a very good (unsolicited) job offer after putting code on the web, more than a decade before github even existed.

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#34

Post by [deleted] »

Latty wrote: post #29
blodovnik wrote: post #17

Why is this a big deal? Of course recruiters search public information. Learn to live with it. If your outrage threshold is this low then you’re going to spent all your life in a state of outrage. It’s nit even interesting let alone important. Information in github, far from being surrounded by an invisible force field of integrity protection, is actually prime hunting territory for recruiters and any recruiter who d…

If I was hiring a recruiter, I would be hoping they could provide me with something more than an ability to spam developers. It seems to me that most good developers would ignore such spam—I get so much of this noise that I pay it no attention whatsoever. If this is the best recruiters can do, then they can apparently provide no real value to the process.

[deleted]

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#35

Post by gorbachev »

privateSFacct wrote: post #10
mcpherrinm wrote: post #2

Eqrecruiters.com has been spamming emails I've used for git commits as well, trying to offer positions at Quizlet and Zume. I really don't appreciate that kind of spam.

Mark them as spam - at least on google it seems to learn pretty quickly and in a few days whoever is spamming is in my spam folder and then not even there (some spam seems to get blasted even from spam folder? Maybe they stop...)

This is also what I normally do. GMail is pretty good at learning how to auto-detect new sources of spam.

However, I haven't had to do this for years now though, for the absolute worst of the worst obnoxious spammers who won't take no for an answer I set a filter to auto-forward their crap to the entire company of the spammer. The spam stops immediately, every time I've done this.

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#36

Post by lidHanteyk »

blodovnik wrote: post #17

Why is this a big deal? Of course recruiters search public information. Learn to live with it. If your outrage threshold is this low then you’re going to spent all your life in a state of outrage. It’s nit even interesting let alone important. Information in github, far from being surrounded by an invisible force field of integrity protection, is actually prime hunting territory for recruiters and any recruiter who d…

This is a big deal because the recruiter is in clear violation of the GitHub ToS[0]. Quoting from section H: "You may not use the API to download data or Content from GitHub for spamming purposes, including for the purposes of selling GitHub users' personal information, such as to recruiters, headhunters, and job boards."

Of course recruiters are incapable of sound ethical judgement. Part of living with people who have poor ethics is enacting rules which force them to conform or be excluded.

If your ability to care about rules is this low, then you're going to spend all of your life in a state of imminent lawlessness.

Your typos are honestly more interesting than anything else; your message isn't important, just wrong and at the top of the page.

I hope that you are ready to explain CCPA to your boss. I won't accuse you of doing a bad job, though.

The recruiter in question, like all recruiters, is to be avoided when possible. Avoid rent-seeking and grifting.

[0] https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#...

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#37

Post by everdev »

lidHanteyk wrote: post #36
blodovnik wrote: post #17

Why is this a big deal? Of course recruiters search public information. Learn to live with it. If your outrage threshold is this low then you’re going to spent all your life in a state of outrage. It’s nit even interesting let alone important. Information in github, far from being surrounded by an invisible force field of integrity protection, is actually prime hunting territory for recruiters and any recruiter who d…

This is a big deal because the recruiter is in clear violation of the GitHub ToS[0]. Quoting from section H: "You may not use the API to download data or Content from GitHub for spamming purposes, including for the purposes of selling GitHub users' personal information, such as to recruiters, headhunters, and job boards." Of course recruiters are incapable of sound ethical judgement. Part of living with people who ha…

You could take the API info you're looking for and then cross reference it with a simple GitHub user search, filtering for users that have "available for hire" selected in their profile.

I used this method years ago, albeit manually. I didn't have much luck though as it's akin to cold calling.

I found it much easier to pay a job and let the interested candidates come to you.

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#38

Post by ChickeNES »

garmaine wrote: post #8
saagarjha wrote: post #4

Why do you need the GitHub API for this? Can't you just clone the repository and log all the commit authors?

People on Twitter don’t know how git works, it seems.

No, the recruiter admitted to following a guide online that used the API

Re: A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits

#39

Post by azhenley »

gorbachev wrote: post #35
privateSFacct wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mark them as spam - at least on google it seems to learn pretty quickly and in a few days whoever is spamming is in my spam folder and then not even there (some spam seems to get blasted even from spam folder? Maybe they stop...)

This is also what I normally do. GMail is pretty good at learning how to auto-detect new sources of spam. However, I haven't had to do this for years now though, for the absolute worst of the worst obnoxious spammers who won't take no for an answer I set a filter to auto-forward their crap to the entire company of the spammer. The spam stops immediately, every time I've done this.

How do you forward an email to an entire company?
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