"Technology is in such a place right now where it really is at odds with Title 7," the employment-discrimination section of the Civil Rights Act, Dixon said. "I don't want to see that eroded at all."

Other prominent Internet watchdogs also participated in the investigation, including members of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

The report says that even people who don't hunt for jobs online should be aware that many resumes, no matter how they are submitted, are processed through vast databases.

For example, Eliyon Technologies Corp., a private company in Cambridge, Mass., has a file of 16 million executives that it sells to headhunters, employers and companies seeking leads for sales pitches. Eliyon's Web site says its customers include IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.

Eliyon's advanced software mines information about people from Web sites, press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other public sources. Dixon said she was surprised at the level of detail in an Eliyon search about her sister. Though the sister is not a public figure, the names of her children and husband were listed.

Dixon alleged that Eliyon has no clear method for people to correct or remove erroneous data. That makes it "an end-run around the Fair Credit Reporting Act," which requires that consumers be able to examine adverse information maintained about them in commercial files, she said.