MedZilla launches new privacy controls to protect job candidates

Marysville, WA - January 28, 2003 - The benefits of posting your credentials on a job board include making it easier to contact the right people and get your information to them. One of the problems is that it can also make it easier for your email address to fall into the wrong hands.

Spam is a major privacy issue. When you include email addresses with your resume, you sometimes get much more than what you bargained for. Instead of, or in addition to, getting qualified leads for jobs, you may also get spammed. "During the past several years we have noticed that some spammers are trying to use job boards as sources for their mailing lists. As a result, we've taken important steps to ensure that email addresses posted with resumes at MedZilla are accessible only to qualified employers, but not to junk mailers," says Frank Heasley, PhD, President and CEO of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that targets jobseekers and HR professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science.

MedZilla's new privacy protection program assigns every MedZilla candidate an email address at MedZilla. The niche board no longer gives out any candidate's personal email address, so all contacts must be initiated through the MedZilla mail server which is configured to block spam.

According to Dr. Heasley, there is no other job board offering the same privacy program for 100% of candidates at no extra charge.

"Privacy issues are at the forefront of job candidates' minds. Addressing these issues is critical to the long-term success of any reputable employment site," says Michele Groutage, director of Marketing and Development with MedZilla. "MedZilla doesn't have ulterior motives-we're not in the business of selling names or using client information in any way other than how it is intended, which is to help people find jobs. We're listening to our clients' needs and are having great success in developing privacy protection controls that help to ensure that candidates' information is given only to those companies or third party recruiters with real positions to fill."

According to Groutage, not only has MedZilla installed new privacy controls that give candidates full say in who gets their email addresses, but the job board also has implemented a way for candidates to report Spam violators. "We have a very strict policy that communications with our candidates only be to discuss real, active job openings. It is illegal in most cases to pose as a third party recruiter to get information for any other reason," she says.

MedZilla's action is timely, according to Gerry Crispin, SPHR, coauthor of CareerXroads, the world's leading directory to job and resume sites published annually. "Privacy is fast becoming a critical 'differentiator' of quality service offerings. The general public has been too indifferent to ready access that nearly everyone has name and address and much, much more. The abuses have grown exponentially and daily we learn of new ways that our personal information can be aggregated, used and sold to the detriment of the data's owners - you and me," Crispin says. "In employment as in any other facet of life, disclosure is critical, protection is essential and the services that are offered should be 'basic' to any offering not an additional 'premium' cost. Sites that don't follow this approach will do so at their own risk and, eventually, share both responsibility and liability for the result."

The move, most importantly, gives peace of mind to candidates, Dr. Heasley says. "Junk email is becoming a serious problem. We are optimistic that this new technology will improve our users privacy by providing them a better way to control who can get their email addresses."

About MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 10,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions and 30,000 archived resumes. These resources have been characterized as the largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the web in the industries served.