This newsletter is all about how you should handle your CV Privacy versus getting a new Job – what should be considered to avoid risks like identity theft, cyber stalking, scams and other misuse of your CV information.

Last week on the Comoto’s blog we received a complete CV as a blog post with personal data, detailed private information and phone and other private numbers

My first thought was rather negative – but then I started to consider that in a world with more than 200 million unemployed, you might decide to take all risks in the hope of a job and instead I decided to help! Therefore, I have compiled the following advice on how you could handle your privacy issues and on our blog you can find an article with general advice for you to consider – reading more here.

What needs to be done!

As part of your CV Creating, Managing and Optimizing you should always consider which details you should include and/or show in your CVs (in Comoto this is easier, you have detailed control on both). Please read more here, if you should include among other your full address, phone numbers and also how to use a correct email address.

Remember that one of the many strong points on Comoto is the ability to handle both multiple CVs and Web online profiles – therefore, on Comoto you can have different approaches to CVs – CVs with full details, some CVs with limited details and CVs or Resumes with only few private details to be used in the public (web) space. Comoto also makes it possible to control the access to your web profile with a password.

The level of details in a CV can be handled in two different ways on Comoto – You can either make a copy (clone) of your current CV and remove certain parts or you can manage the visibility with on/off switches with the red/green buttons – see the picture

Why should you care about what you show ! Is this important ?

A few statistics and related information on identity theft

It is expected as many as 10 million Americans a year are victims of identity theft. The United States Department of Justice states that in 2010, 7% of all United States households had at least one member of the family at or over the age of 12 who has been a victim of some sort of identity theft. As many other issues this is now spreading all over the world – consider this happened for you! (read more here).

But what can happen if your identity has been stolen!

• 47% of victims had trouble getting credit or a loan as a result of identity theft
• 19% of victims had higher credit rates and 16% had higher insurance rates because of identity theft
• 11% of victims say identity theft has a negative impact on their abilities to get a job
• 70% of victims have trouble getting rid of (or never get rid of) negative information in their records

You can find out more about identity theft and how to handle it here.

Similar precautions to which information you show in your CVs/Resumes should be considered when you publish or share/send CV information or update your CV/Web profile.

Carefully consider if there are there any information that could harm you or somebody else – read more about the correct levels of details in your CV here and read more about the correct time to update your CV/Resume here

Now you properly have made the appropriate number of CVs – worked with the CV Data and the layout (template) and you are ready to start using the CV – you have taken the correct precautions, considered the proper information for each CV and are ready to share it with everybody in the world – or are you ?

I am afraid there are way too many job scams, fake jobs and bogus recruiters and suspicious CV databases (see our evaluation here) out there you should consider first. I have collected some relevant information and tips for you here

• Recruiters (here)
• CV Databases (here)
• Companies (here)

Your Privacy is important for Comoto

Remember, at Comoto we regard our user’s privacy very high and give you numerous options and features to help you handle your CVs/Resumes privacy – like you can have many CVs – for example (and remember the CV Data can be intelligently linked for easy updates). For example

• One CV without many details that can be broadly used
• Another CV with more details for X, targeted for a specific job type
• And one made for your current employers file (to illustrate you can build your CV history/log on Comoto)

You can have many web profiles – for example

• One or more profiles with very little details for public access – see here what to include and not to include
• Other CVs with little differences – yes why not have several – each made with a different password

The Comoto CV Manager also ensures your privacy

• All access to your information in password protected (remember to have a strong password – here)
• All information on the Comoto CV Manager application is secured (try here)

In the next version – which we are working hard to finish – we will be adding further features for you to be in full control of your CV/Resume privacy and risks involved in the management of your CV/Resume.