Career-Services Platform Under Scrutiny for Privacy Concerns
A career-services platform that was founded by three engineering students at Michigan Technical University and is being used by more than 160 colleges to run their career centers is under scrutiny for making some students’ grades visible to employers without permission, Inside Higher Ed reported.
When a college partners with Handshake, it gains access to software built by the startup to upload basic information about students (i.e. names, major, etc.) and then makes those student profiles visible to companies on the platform that have connected with their university. Colleges have reported seeing a significant increase in students interacting with college career centers and companies as a result of using the platform. While some students have filled out their profiles as they would on LinkedIn or other professional networking sites, others have said they never signed up but their GPA and other information is displayed — raising questions from students and privacy experts.
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