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December 9, 2013

Jobseeker’s webpage hit with spam CVs by tech protesters

The government's Universal Jobmatch site has a browser plugin that automatically sends CV to several advertisers.

By CBR Staff Writer

Several employers on the government’s official jobseekers’ site have been spammed with CVs by a group of techno-activists, protesting over poor-quality advertisements and ‘the drudgery of work’.

The technique, the Universal Automation plugin, has been developed by "people who identify as anarchists and work in the tech industry".

After the user searches for a related job, the plugin automatically posts a CV to every position advertised on the first page of the displayed results with a single click.

One of the developers said that most of time users would be just sending the CV to as many places as they can and hoping to get a response.

"With Universal Jobmatch it’s even worse," the activist told the Guardian.

"The majority of postings on the site are spam. If they are not outright attempts at identity theft, a lot of them (and I mean a lot, I would say up to 90% on some queries) are third-party posts which are automatically reposted on the site and link to their websites.

"Now people who use Universal Jobmatch do so because they are forced to do so and they’re also forced to apply to jobs posted directly on it, so that they can be monitored by job centres."

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However, the group is targeting to highlight the drudgery of work on the whole.

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