Job applicant data privacy notice

We are sending you this privacy notice as we have received an application or enquiry for a role with Netscientific. 

As part of our recruitment process, we collect and process personal data relating to job applicants/candidates. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

What information do we collect?

We collect a range of information about you. This includes:

• Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
• Details of your qualifications, skills, experience, and employment history
• Information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements
• Whether or not you have a disability for which the company needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
• Information about your entitlement to work in the UK
• Equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health, and religion or belief

We collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs, resumes, motivation letters, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment including online tests.

We will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks.  We seek information from third parties only once a job offer has been made and we will let you know that we are doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why do we process personal data?

We need to process data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract with you.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, we are required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts (known as right to work checks).

We have a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Where we rely on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data (when receiving applications or speculative approaches), we have considered whether those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers, and we have concluded that they are not.

We process health information if we need to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where we process other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, we are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Who has access to your data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team (which may include an outsourced service provider), interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff (which may be via an outsourced service provider) if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We will not share your data with third parties, except for outsourced service providers with which we engage and where it is necessary for the performance of their roles. 

We will share your data with your stated reference contacts which may include former employers, Universities, and colleges to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

How do we protect the data?

We take the security of your data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused, or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.

How long do we keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will delete and destroy your data after the end of the relevant recruitment process.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in the 

Company data protection policy.

Your rights

The UK GDPR provides the following rights for individuals. As a data subject you have the right:

• To be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
• To access and receive a copy of your personal data, and other supplementary information
• To have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete
• To have your personal data erased
• To request the restriction or suppression of your personal data
• To data portability which allows you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services
• To object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please make a subject access request by contacting Rebecca Davies at rebecca@netscientific.net.

If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.

Automated decision making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.

Identity and contact details of the Netscientific controller

Netscientific is the controller and processor of data for the purposes of the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR).

If you have any concerns as to how your data is processed, you can contact:

Rebecca Davies, rebecca@netscientific.net.