Privacy Notice for Clients, Candidates and Others

What is the purpose of this document?

At Start Something Different Limited, we take your privacy very seriously.  We are committed to protecting the privacy of our website users, clients and candidates and any individual making enquiries to the company.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It applies to all of our clients, candidates, website users and those generally making enquiries to us.

Start Something Difference Limited is a "data controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.  We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice. 

We may update this notice at any time.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection law.  This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.

2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.

3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.

4. Accurate and kept up to date.

5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.

6. Kept securely.

The kind of information we hold about you:

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.  It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are "special categories" of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you (where applicable):

• The information you have provided to us in any curriculum vitae;
• The information you have provided to us in any covering letter;
• The information you have provided to us in application via email, job board, telephone or LinkedIn;
• The information you have provided to us in a registration form for the company;
• Personal contact details such as name, title, address, telephone numbers and personal email addresses;
• Date of birth;
• Gender;
• Marital status
• Next of kin and emergency contact information;
• National Insurance number;
• Bank account details and tax status information;
• Salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information (for any role you are currently in);
• Copy of driving licence and/or passport (including nationality);
• Copies/detail of right to work documentation;
• Copies of references;
• Proof of qualifications;
• Any information you provide during an interview; and
• Any test results or scoring from any assessment we ask you to complete.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions;
• Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records; and
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information about our clients, candidates, those using our website and those making general enquiries in the following ways:

• From you directly;
• From a job board you may have applied via; and
• From LinkedIn.

We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including former employers, credit reference agencies or other background check agencies.

How we will use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.

2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else's interests).

2. Where it is needed in the public interest.

Situations in which we will use your personal data

We need all the categories of information in the list above (see above “The kind of information we hold about you”) primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations.  In some cases, we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.  The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

• Processing your personal details to identify you;
• To provide a comprehensive recruitment service to you;
• To send your CV with permission to clients for roles you have been spoken to about;
• To match your CV to the roles we are recruiting for which match your skill set and experience and to help us to find the best role;
• To send your personal information to the client with your consent for the roles and enable us to meet our contractual obligations with our clients;
• To answer any enquiries you may have;
• We may also need to release personal information to regulatory or law enforcement agencies if they ask us to do so;
• For equal opportunities monitoring.

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always keep your Personal Data rights in the highest regard and take into account all of your data protection right under any and all current UK legislation.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as providing a recruitment service to you or helping to find you a role and match you with our vacancies or provide a response to your query), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure your right to work in the UK).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

“Special categories" of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection.  We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.  We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.

2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations.

3. Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring.

4. Where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else's interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.  We may also process such information about members or former members in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

Our obligations as a Controller

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

• We will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work.
• We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

Do we need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with this notice to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights in the field in which we operate.  In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data.  If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent.

Information about criminal convictions

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so.  This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else's interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We may also process such information about members or former members in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

We envisage that, particularly for applicants, we will use information relating to criminal convictions to provide to our clients whom you are applying for a job with.

Automated decision-making

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention.  We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:

1. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a re-consideration.

2. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

3. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

Data sharing

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We may transfer your personal information outside the EU.

If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information?

"Third parties" includes in the case of applicants: clients whom applicants have requested a job application is made to. In the case of clients third parties include applicants for roles you have advertised with us. Each party is aware that the information is being sent before it is sent.  Data is also stored on our CRM with is provided by a third party.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

The third-party provider of our CRM system is required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies.  We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. Our CRM system is also encrypted.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

Transferring information outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

If we are required to transfer your data to another country outside the EEA, we will notify you in advance and confirm any protective measures we are putting in place.

Data security

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.  In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those other third parties to the situations set out above. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We adopt the following security measures:

1. Staff must input passwords to access our IT systems.
2. Documents containing personal data are password protected.
3. An applicant’s consent will be sought before releasing any personal data about them which they have requested, for example for future employers.
4. Our CRM systems are encrypted.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

How long will you use my information for?

In the case of candidates, we will retain your personal information for a maximum period of 5 years after you apply for a full registration with us which is as long as necessary for us based on our legitimate interests of retaining candidates for which we may be given relevant vacancies in the future. If we wish to retain your personal information on file for longer than this 5-year period, on the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to consider you for that, we will write to you separately, seeking your explicit consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.

For all others who this notice relates to and who are not candidates, we will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected have it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. 

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current.  Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request").  This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.  This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information.  This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact Lizzy Reid (Founder and Director) in writing at lizzy@startsomethingdifferent.com.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights).  This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact Lizzy Reid (Founder and Director) in writing at lizzy@startsomethingdifferent.com.  Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Queries on the privacy notice and complaints

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact Lizzy Reid (Founder and Director) in writing at lizzy@startsomethingdifferent.com.  You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact Lizzy Reid (Founder and Director) in writing at lizzy@startsomethingdifferent.com