Can my employer find my CV on a job board?

How a CV becomes findable

Job boards typically give you a choice between a CV that only the employers you apply to receive, and a CV that sits in a database recruiters and employers can search. The searchable version is the one that finds you work without your asking, and the one that lets someone at your own company find you without your knowing. The setting is easy to forget, because it is chosen once, usually at sign-up, sometimes years ago.

Indeed

Indeed calls the two settings Employers Can Find You and Employers Can't Find You. Its privacy page says a profile set so that employers can find you may be available to anyone accessing the site, including users of its CV search product, which it calls Resume Search, and anyone with the profile's address. A searchable profile can include more than the CV: the pay you want, whether you would relocate, and the rest of your job preferences.Indeed privacy FAQ

Two lines on the same page matter most for a quiet search. When a profile is searchable, search engines and other third parties can copy it and publish it elsewhere, and switching it back to private on Indeed does not affect those copies. And switching to private does not affect applications you have already made, or stop employers you responded to from contacting you.Indeed privacy FAQ

With Employers Can't Find You, your profile goes only to the employers you apply to or share it with.Indeed privacy FAQ

CV-Library

CV-Library lets you hide your CV. Its help page says you can then still apply for jobs, but recruiters cannot search for your CV in the database. The alternative is deleting the account, which removes the CV and stops you applying; the deletion can take up to 24 hours to go through. The board says it endeavours to give database access only to recruiters genuinely looking for candidates, which is a description of who can search, not a promise about who works where.CV-Library help

Every other board

The names differ, the question does not: is my CV in a database someone can search, and who can search it? Answer it for every board you have ever used, not only the ones you use now.

1. List every board you have registered with. Old confirmation emails in a personal inbox are the quickest way to find them.
2. Log in to each one and set the CV or profile to private, hidden or not searchable.
3. Delete the accounts you will not use again, rather than leaving a CV you no longer control.
4. Search the web for your name with your current job title, to see whether a copy of an old profile has been published somewhere else.
5. Do all of this before you update your CV, so a refreshed CV is never searchable even for an hour.

Questions people ask

If I make my Indeed profile private, can the employers I applied to still see it?

Yes. Indeed says changing the setting does not affect applications you have already made or stop employers you responded to from contacting you. It only stops new people finding you in search.

Can I block my own employer and stay searchable to everyone else?

Neither Indeed's privacy page nor CV-Library's help page describes a way to do that. On both, the choice they describe is searchable or not.