Glassdoor has been in the news recently, after a user discovered that their full name, which they wished to remain anonymous, has been attached to their account profile without their consent.
Glassdoor is a site that thrives of anonymity, relying on protecting users so that they may leave honest reviews of companies that they’ve worked for, to help job seekers. As a result, it’s understandable that a lot of users are looking to delete their accounts.
If you’re one of them, read on for a step-by-step guide on how to delete your account, as well as all associated personal data.
How to Delete Your Glassdoor Account
If you want to delete your Glassdoor account, it’s important to know that there are two steps you’ll need to take to totally scrub your profile from Glassdoor’s servers. The first is a simple account closure, which we’ll go through now, but you’ll want to follow the second step too, for total piece of mind.
Firstly, log into Glassdoor, and click on the account icon in the top right corner:
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Next, you’ll want to select Settings from the drop down menu.
From here you’ll find yourself on the account settings page. Scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll find the Deactivate Account option. Click on the red button here.
At this point you’ll need to sign in again. If it’s been a while and you’ve forgotten your login details, you can easily request a password reset from this screen.
Next up you’ll be presented with a warning that you are about to delete your Glassdoor account, as well as any associated contributions you may have made to the site. If you’re happy with this, continue.
You now no longer have a Glassdoor account. If you want to return in the future, you can sign up again with the same email address, but you will be starting from scratch.
Read on to find out how to strip all your data from Glassdoor.
How to Remove ALL Personal Data from Glassdoor
Now you’ve closed your Glassdoor account, you might be thinking the job is done. Not quite. Even though you no longer have a presence on the site, the company may still be retaining some of your data.
The next thing you’ll want to do is put in a request via Glassdoor’s automated privacy tool, which will remove consent for Glassdoor (as well as its subsidiary, Fishbowl) to use your data. If you want to, you can also request that the company send you a copy of all the data it has on you.
After this, you’ll be sent an email with a link, which you’ll need to follow to verify your account. You’ll then receive a message that your request has been accepted and will be processed within 30 days.
Why You May Want to Delete Your Glassdoor Account
Glassdoor can be a great place to read reviews of companies (including your own), job search, and share your thoughts with other users.
One of the key features of Glassdoor was always that users could be anonymous if they wished, which many found important when wanting to truthfully discuss the companies they worked for. Glassdoor even states itself that real names won’t be used, unless authorized.
However, that right to anonymity has been dragged into question, after a Glassdoor user of ten years, Monica, discovered that after she reached out to the company’s customer support, it attached her real name, taken from her support request, to her account.
When Monica asked that this was removed, Glassdoor informed her that she was required to have her name attached to her profile.
It’s worth noting that while her name wasn’t displayed on the front end of the site for other users to see, Monica was not comfortable with the idea of Glassdoor taking this information and attaching it to her profile, without her consent.
Speaking to Techcrunch, Monica voiced concerns that having this information on the site’s backend meant that it could be vulnerable in cases like a data breach, and all her reviews and comments about places she had worked could easily be attributed to her.
While Glassdoor hasn’t suffered a data breach to our knowledge, the list of companies that haven’t been affected by data breaches gets shorter each day, and the company has had form in the past with sloppy data handling. In 2016, it was sued for sending out a message with the email addresses of 600,000 users for all to see.
It’s not too hard to understand Monica’s fears, and it’s only right that in 2024, we should have the final say on what information a company does or doesn’t hold about us.
