JobTech co-founders Charlotte Lim and Ang Wee Tiong. Ms Lim said a job portal, which she declined to name, had served JobTech a notice to refrain from using data from its website.

JobTech, a local start-up which provides an online job-matching service for retrenched workers, has been forced to take down its Jobseeker website.

Co-founder Charlotte Lim told The Straits Times that a job portal had served JobTech a notice "to refrain from using data from its website".

She declined to name the portal but said the legal warning prompted JobTech to temporarily shut down its Jobseeker website to regroup and rethink its strategy. The move comes just one month after JobTech crossed its one-year anniversary.

The start-up - chaired by Mr Philip Yeo, who is synonymous with A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) - made headlines last year when it made an open offer to Facebook to help sift and label fake news on social media.

Last week, JobTech sent out an e-mail with the subject heading: "We didn't think this would happen..."

In the sobering note to some 5,000 subscribers - mostly professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) - it wrote: "Recently, we found out that not everyone shares our view of wanting to help retrenched PMETs get back to work. As a result, we have had to take down our Jobseeker website for the moment. We didn't think it would happen because we thought we were providing a valuable and important service."

More at http://www.sgsme.sg/news/job-matching-website-jobseeker-shut-down-after-legal-warning