Candidate data policy

The short version: your CV goes to the employer whose advert you answered, and to nobody else. No employer can search for you here, nothing about you is sold or shared, and you can have everything we hold erased with one email or one button, free, and we will not argue about it.

This policy is the plain English companion to the privacy notice. Where the two say the same thing they use the same words on purpose. If you think they disagree anywhere, tell us and we will fix it: dpo@hiringuk.co.uk.

1. When you apply to an advert

• Your name, email, phone number if you gave one, your covering note and your CV file go to the employer who placed that advert, and to us.
• They go nowhere else. Not to another employer, not to a recruiter, not to a list, not to an advertiser, not to anybody at any price.
• We keep the application for 12 months, so we can help if there is ever a dispute about whether it arrived, and then the record and the CV file are erased automatically.
• The employer holds their own copy as an independent controller. What they do with it is governed by their own privacy information and by our terms of business, which bind them (see section 6). Ask them directly about their retention, or ask us and we will pass the request on.

2. There is no candidate database here

We do not operate a searchable database of candidates and we do not sell access to candidate data. There is nothing to buy and no subscription that unlocks people. An employer receives what a candidate deliberately sent to their own advert, and nothing else. The single exception is one a candidate asks for: an anonymous card with no name and no contact details, which an employer can read and enquire about, and which produces nothing at all unless that person then says yes. Why we work this way.

3. If you ask us to keep your CV on file

HIRINGUK LTD also recruits directly, permanent and temporary. When you apply there is a separate box, unticked, asking us to keep your CV so our own team can contact you about roles we are filling ourselves. Exactly what that means:

This is the box, and this is its wording, exactly as it appears on the application form and exactly as it is stored with your consent record (v1, 28 August 2026):

Keep my CV and details on file at HIRINGUK LTD so the HIRING UK team can contact me about other jobs, including roles HIRINGUK LTD recruits for as an employment agency or employment business. I understand my CV is not shared with any other employer or sold to anybody, that only the HIRING UK team can see it, that it is erased after twelve months unless I confirm again, and that I can withdraw at any time with one click.

That is not a summary. It is the same sentence, rendered from the same place in our software as the live form, so the document and the form cannot say different things.

• It is off unless you tick it, and leaving it alone changes nothing about your application.
• Only the HIRING UK team can see it. No employer can search it, it is never shown to advertisers, and it is never sold or shared.
• We keep it for twelve months from the last time you confirmed it, then erase the record and the CV file automatically. We email you at ten months so you can decide.
• One click withdraws it, from any email we send or from your candidate area. No reason needed, no delay, and the file is deleted immediately.
• We store the exact wording you agreed to, its version and the date and time, so you can always see what you consented to and so can the regulator.
• If a role comes up, we speak to you first. We never send your CV to an employer without asking you about that specific role.
• We will never charge you a penny. Charging a work seeker a fee is against the law and we would not do it anyway.

The full explanation is on keeping your CV on file.

4. How your CV is actually protected

Not a promise, the mechanics:

• Your CV file is stored outside the public part of the website, under a name nobody can guess. No page lists CV files and there is no address anybody could try.
• It is released to one employer: the one whose advert you answered. Every download by that employer is logged with the date.
• The site is served entirely over HTTPS, and files sit on encrypted storage.
• Your password, if you create an account, is stored only as a salted hash. Nobody here can read it.
• Access follows the principle of least privilege. One person at HIRING UK has administrative access, the director. There is no shared login and no outsourced support desk.
• Deletion is done by the software on a schedule rather than by somebody remembering, and it deletes the file as well as the record.

The full technical and organisational detail is in section 8 of the privacy notice.

5. Sensitive information: please leave it out

We actively discourage candidates from including special category data (health, disability, ethnicity, religion, political opinions, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic or biometric data) in a CV or covering note. We do not need this information to process an application. You also do not need to give your date of birth, marital status, a photograph, or your nationality beyond confirming your right to work.

If a candidate nevertheless includes such data, we process it only on the basis of their explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a) UK GDPR, and only for the purpose of that specific application. We do not use it for any other purpose. We never extract it, index it, search on it, or make any decision using it, and it is erased with the application.

Asking for a reasonable adjustment is a different thing, and you should ask. If you need something changed to attend an interview or to do the job, tell the employer in your covering note, or ask us and we will pass the request to that employer for that application only. You never have to explain a diagnosis to have an adjustment considered: the Equality Act 2010 puts that duty on the employer.

6. What employers must do with your CV

Every employer who advertises here agrees, in the terms of business, that they will:

• use your application only to consider you for the role you applied to;
• observe the three month rule: A downloaded CV, and any copy of it, must be deleted within three months of the download, unless the employer has its own lawful basis for keeping it longer and has told the candidate what that basis is. That sentence appears word for word in the terms of business they signed up to;
• never sell, publish, bulk export or otherwise pass your details outside their own organisation, their group companies included;
• never add you to a marketing list or use your data to train an artificial intelligence model;
• keep it somewhere access controlled rather than a shared inbox;
• stop contacting you entirely once we tell them you have asked to be erased;
• tell us within 48 hours if candidate data they received from us is lost or exposed.

If an employer ignores that, tell us. We suspend accounts for it, without a refund, and we report serious cases to the Information Commissioner's Office.

7. Everything we hold about you, and for how long

These are not aspirations. The software deletes on this schedule by itself, and every erasure is recorded.

8. Changing or removing your data

There are three ways, and all of them are free:

• Do it yourself. Sign in to your candidate area and press delete. Your account, your applications and the CV files attached to them are erased immediately.
• One click. Every job alert email and every CV on file email carries a link that stops it or withdraws it on the spot.
• Ask us. Use the data request form or email dpo@hiringuk.co.uk. Say whether you want your data updated (send the new details or a new CV and we replace them) or erased (we delete it and confirm in writing).

We action requests within one month and usually within days. There is no charge, and we will not ask you why.

One honest limit: we cannot reach into an employer's own systems. Erasing your data here does not erase the copy an employer already received. Ask them directly, or ask us and we will pass the request on for you.

9. Your rights, in one place

• See it. Ask and we send you a copy of everything we hold about you.
• Correct it. Tell us what is wrong and we fix it.
• Delete it. A button in your candidate area, or ask and we erase it and confirm in writing.
• Stop it. Withdraw consent for alerts or for a CV on file, in one click, at any time.
• Object, restrict, or take it elsewhere. All available, all free, all answered within a month.
• No automated decisions. No algorithm scores, ranks or rejects your application. A person at the employer reads it.

10. If you are not happy

Tell us first at dpo@hiringuk.co.uk. You have a statutory right to complain to us about how we handle your data under section 164A of the Data Protection Act 2018: we acknowledge within 30 days, investigate without undue delay and tell you the outcome in writing. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at any time, without coming to us first: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113.

11. Who is responsible

Grigore Octavian Pupazan, Data Protection Lead and director of HIRINGUK LTD, at dpo@hiringuk.co.uk. A request about your own data goes to him, not to a queue.

12. If somebody has died

Data protection law does not cover the deceased, but leaving an account open helps nobody. If you are the executor or an immediate family member, email dpo@hiringuk.co.uk with the person's name and the email address they used, and we will close the account and erase what we hold. No paperwork demanded.

13. What we will never do

• Charge a candidate anything, for any part of this service, ever.
• Sell, rent or share your details with recruiters, list brokers or marketing companies.
• Let an employer browse, search or buy candidate data. There is nothing to browse and nothing for sale.
• Send your CV to an employer you did not apply to without asking you first about that specific role.
• Use your CV to train an artificial intelligence model.

14. Spotting a bad advert

No legitimate employer on this site will ask you for a payment, for bank details before an offer, or for your passport before an interview. If one does, stop, and report the advert or email hello@hiringuk.co.uk. We take adverts down for it, refuse refunds to the advertiser, and report serious cases to the authorities.