Glassdoor Accidentally Blasts out Email Addresses of 600,000+ Users

The workplace ratings website sent out an email announcing that it had changed its terms of service, but instead of blindly copying recipients, Glassdoor pasted their addresses in the clear.

The error was inadvertent and due to a technical glitch, company spokeswoman Samantha Zupan said. She declined to elaborate further.

Each recipient was able to see the email addresses of 999 other Glassdoor users.

The company sent out the message to multiple sets of users, 1,000 at a time, Zupan said. Ultimately, the messages exposed the addresses of more than 2 percent of the company’s users, she said.

Last month, the company said it had some 30 million monthly active users, meaning that more than 600,000 were affected by the exposure.

“Among those affected by the gaffe was Larry Karson, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown. Karson, who’s used Glassdoor for about 18 months, was outraged that his and other email addresses were exposed. But he was even more upset that when he tried to contact the company about the problem, no one picked up the phone or quickly responded to his message,” Silicon Beat reports.