SurveyMonkey global applicant and candidate data privacy notice

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SurveyMonkey Global Applicant and Candidate Data Privacy Notice

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 27, 2018

LAST UPDATED: July 15, 2024

This SurveyMonkey Global Applicant and Candidate Data Privacy (“Notice”) is provided to let you know what Personal Data SurveyMonkey¹ (“we, us, our”) may hold in relation to you and how we use that data.

SurveyMonkey respects the fundamental importance of data privacy, security, and protection. As a global business that prioritizes these principles, we are committed to handling your personal information responsibly, transparently, and in accordance with all applicable data protection laws.

Please see below to understand our use of your Personal Data. We may provide you with more information when we collect your personal information when we think this might be relevant and proper to do so.

Scope

This Notice applies to you because you are considering applying, you have applied to work with us, or because our talent team has sourced your data and is interested in reviewing your qualifications. It applies to all Personal Data collected, maintained, transmitted, stored, retained, or otherwise used (i.e., processed) by us.

It also applies to third parties whose information you provide to us (e.g., work references), and you should share this Notice with those people. This Notice does not apply to our handling of data gathered about you in your role as a visitor of our website or user of our services. When you interact with us in that role, the SurveyMonkey Privacy Notice applies.

This Notice does not form part of or create any offer or contract of employment and does not create a contractual relationship between us and you.

What is Personal Data?

'Personal Data' is any data relating to a living individual who can be identified directly from that data or indirectly in conjunction with other information. We may hold some or all of the categories of Personal Data set out below, in relation to you. We collect such information either directly from you or (where applicable) from another person or entity, such as an employment agency or consultancy, background check provider, or other referral sources (in accordance with local national laws and regulations).

Personal - Identifiers such as a name, postal address, online identifier, email address;
Protected classifications – such as nationality;
Professional or employment related information – including Curriculum Vitae, cover letter and/or application form, previous employment background, references from previous employers, selection and verification records, educational details, professional transcripts, professional certifications, special skills, language skills, memberships of committees or other bodies;
Audio recordings – such as recordings of interview/interview notes,;
Premises and IT access - including information required to access office locations and information about your connection to our networks while on premises;
General correspondence/meetings - relating to the recruitment process;
Financial - Payroll and finance, including paying any agreed applicable expenses associated with the recruitment process e.g. travel expenses (if any);
Incapacity - any accommodations or adjustments required for interview or application purposes in connection with any incapacity.;
Other information that directly or indirectly identifies you – such as visa status, gender, date of birth, and publicly-available information, such as publicly-available information in social media profiles;
Sensitive personal information - including drivers’ licence information and race (US candidates only).

Purpose and Basis for Processing

We may hold, process, and disclose Personal Data provided by you for the following purposes:

Personal Data	Source	Purpose	Basis
Contact details (including name, address, phone number, email, etc.) Qualification details (e.g., CV, educational information, work experience, information relating to skills, publications or speaking engagements, professional transcripts, memberships of bodies or committees, etc.) Application information Identification information (e.g., passport, date of birth, visa status) Any other data you submit to us	You Publicly available sources, such as websites where you publicly disclosed such information Third parties such as references, sourcing companies, or background check agencies	Providing you with building and IT access Recruitment/ appointment, including processing and tracking your application, assessing your job application Payroll and finance, including paying any agreed applicable expenses associated with the recruitment process e.g., travel expenses (if any) Hiring for a specific job posting, as well as for openings we may have in the future, subject to your authorization Internal analysis of job applicant information to understand the applicants who apply to work with us, to improve our recruitment process, for ethics and compliance reporting, and to manage safety of us and our employees Occasional use of applicant information for legal purposes, such as in connection with any challenges made to our hiring decisions	This processing of your data is necessary for our legitimate business interest to process job applications submitted by you, or on your behalf, and to assist in our determination as to whether to engage you.
Data regarding gender, race, sexual orientation, marital status, etc.	From you	Monitoring and promotion of equal opportunities, including the review of gender breakdown and recruitment. Ethics and compliance reporting	This processing of your data is necessary for our legitimate business interest in managing our business, including legal, personnel, administrative and management purposes and for the prevention and detection of crime, provided our interest is not overridden by your interest.
Data gathered in relation to interviews and phone screenings (including information relating to the application process and any background screening results, where applicable)	You Publicly available sources, such as websites where you publicly disclosed such information Third parties such as references or background check agencies	Recruitment/appointment Managing health and safety at our office Exercising our right to defend, respond, or conduct legal proceedings Contacting references with your authorization Conducting lawful background checks	This processing of your data is necessary for us to comply with any legal or regulatory obligations.
Recruiting, identity verification, and general information about you	Publicly available sources, such as websites where you publicly disclosed such information Third parties such as references, recruiters, market research companies, identity verification providers, or background check agencies	To verify your identity and eligibility for employment	This processing of your data is necessary for our legitimate business interest to assist in our determination as to whether to engage you and to consider you for opportunities at SurveyMonkey.

We may hold and process Personal Data from other third-party sources for the following purposes:

Purpose	Basis
Information that may be acquired from sources such as recruiters, market research companies, identity verification providers and information you made available through publicly available websites Background checks regarding professional bodies, etc. (where legally permissible)	This processing of your data is necessary for our legitimate business interest to assist in our determination as to whether to engage you and to consider you for opportunities at SurveyMonkey.
Data gathered by way of cookies and other tracking technology when you interact with our website.	Please see our website Privacy Notice.

Please note that you have a right to object to processing of your Personal Data where that processing is carried on for our legitimate interest. We may aggregate/pseudononymize your Personal Data to analyse and improve our recruitment processes and to ensure we are meeting our diversity and inclusion goals.

Special Categories of Personal Data

Certain categories of your Personal Data are regarded as 'special' or ‘sensitive’ including information relating to:

Physical or mental health data - such as information about your physical or mental health or condition; for example, we will use information about disability status to consider whether we need to provide for appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process.
Driver’s license number (for example if required for a background check)
Other special categories of Personal Data - such as racial or ethnic origin; religious or similar beliefs; membership of a trade union; the commission or alleged commission of any offence; and any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed, the disposal of those proceedings, or the sentence of any court in those proceedings.

We only process such data where necessary and to uphold specific rights of SurveyMonkey or of a prospective employee, under employment law or for the assessment of your working capacity. This information may be used to help us monitor compliance with equal opportunity legislation, along with accommodations or adjustments required for interview or application purposes in connection with any incapacity. In most applications, this is probably not going to be the case but if it is necessary, we will treat this data with the utmost sensitivity. SurveyMonkey does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than purposes for which you cannot opt out under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (‘CCPA’).

We will only process data relating to your criminal convictions or involvement in criminal proceedings when permitted by law, or where provided voluntarily by you.

Consent

In principle, we do not rely on your consent for data use. We may, however, from time to time, ask for your consent to (i) use your Personal Data for a specific purpose (including to consider you for future job opportunities within SurveyMonkey or to attend recruiting events); and/or (ii) process your Personal Data (including ‘special’ or ‘sensitive’ data) to protect your vital interests or the interests of another. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the data that we would like and the reason we need it, as well as the fact that you can revoke your consent at any time and how you should do that. If you withdraw your consent, we will no longer process your application and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your Personal Data securely.

Where you do not provide us with your Personal Data

If you do not provide us with certain Personal Data, we may not be able to process your job application or assess your suitability for a particular role, comply with our legal obligations, or manage our business.

Security and Storage of Personal Data

We securely store your Personal Data in a centralised database and within certain trusted third-party vendor tools, with controlled access to these locations. Access to Personal Data (including special data) in both electronic and paper form is restricted to members of the HR Department and employees who have a legitimate and justifiable reason to view such data.

Recipients of Your Personal Data

We may disclose your Personal Data to a Group Company² including, without limitation, for the following reasons: to run global processes, carry out group wide reporting, or make decisions about hiring or promotion. It may be necessary from time to time for us to disclose Personal Data to third parties or agents, including without limitation to the following:

Vendors to assist in the administration, processing and management of certain activities pertaining to prospective employees;
Individuals or companies employed by SurveyMonkey to carry out specific services, functions, or consultancy work, including external reference agencies and other financial institutions;
Relatives or legal representatives of prospective employees;

Regulatory bodies or others to whom we are legally obliged or required to disclose information, including Workplace Relations Commission, relevant government departments or agencies, Courts and Court-appointed persons;
Legal and medical practitioners;
Other SurveyMonkey personnel (including personnel of affiliates and subsidiaries) involved in the recruiting and hiring process;
Litigation Purposes: to seek legal advice from our external lawyers or in connection with litigation with a third party;
Medical Practitioners at your request, such as relating to any adjustments made in connection with any incapacity; and

Potential or actual purchasers or bidders of SurveyMonkey.

We will inform you in advance, to the extent legally permissible, if we intend to further process or disclose your Personal Data for a purpose or to a party other than those set out above. We take all reasonable steps, as required by law, to ensure the safety, privacy, and integrity of such data and information and, where appropriate, enter into contracts with such third parties to do so.

Transfer of Personal Data outside the EEA

The Personal Data that we collect from you may be transferred and stored, inside or outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), for the purposes described above, including by personnel who work for us or for one of our third-party vendors who act on our behalf. We will provide for suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and integrity of your Personal Data in such circumstances.

Data Retention

Data will be stored for as long as required to satisfy the purpose for which the data was collected and used, unless a longer period is necessary for our legal obligations or in relation to a legal claim(s).

For European candidates, we retain your data for a period of 1 year after the job application process is finalized, unless, you consent to us storing it for longer for consideration for future roles. We will also retain your data longer if we are legally or contractually required to retain it for a longer period (e.g. if you are employed by SurveyMonkey).

For non-European candidates, we retain your data for a period of 5 years after the job application process is finalized, unless you consent to us storing it for longer for consideration for future roles. We will also retain your data longer if we are legally or contractually required to retain it for a longer period (e.g. if you are employed by SurveyMonkey).

Your Data Rights

If these rights are provided to you by local law, you have several rights in relation to your Personal Data. You may have a right to:

access a copy of your Personal Data held by SurveyMonkey;
request rectification of your Personal Data if it is inaccurate or incomplete;

request erasure of your Personal Data in certain circumstances;
restrict our use of your Personal Data in certain circumstances;
move (or port) Personal Data which is automated in certain circumstances;
object to the processing of your Personal Data where our legal basis for processing your data is our legitimate interests;
not to be subject to a decision based on automated processing of your Personal Data, including profiling which has legal or similar significant effects;

withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing of your Personal Data based on consent before its withdrawal;
Not receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of these rights; and
lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (or other relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction).

However, these rights may not be exercised in certain circumstances (e.g., if needed to comply with a legal obligation or in relation to a legal claim(s)). If you wish to exercise these rights – or would like to designate an authorized agent to do so on your behalf - please contact our HR Department. We may request proof of identification to verify your request.

We do not “sell” or “share” your Personal Data, and specifically do not have knowledge that we “sell” or “share” the Personal Data of candidates under 16 years of age, as the terms “sell” and “share” are defined in the CCPA.

Further Information

If you require any further clarification regarding this Notice, please contact

hr-privacy@surveymonkey.com.

The SurveyMonkey Global Applicant and Candidate Data Privacy Notice may be updated at any time. We may notify you if there are any material changes to how we handle your Personal Data. It is acknowledged that you have received a copy of the SurveyMonkey Global Applicant and Candidate Data Privacy Notice and that you understand and agree to its contents.

¹ SurveyMonkey may refer to SurveyMonkey Inc. or any other affiliate/subsidiary SurveyMonkey hiring entity.

² For the purposes of this Notice, “Group Company” means a company which is a Subsidiary or Holding Company of SurveyMonkey or any Subsidiary of such Holding Company from time to time (and for this purpose "Subsidiary" and "Holding Company" have the meanings given to them respectively in sections 7 and 8 of the Companies Act 2014).