Job Applicant Privacy Notice

Effective Date: January 1, 2020
Last Updated: June 28, 2023

ZipRecruiter, Inc. (“ZipRecruiter”, “we”, or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.  This Job Applicant Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”) applies solely to candidates who reside in the United States, Canada, or Israel, and apply for an open position to work at ZipRecruiter (“you” or “applicant”). This Privacy Notice does not apply to job seekers that use www.ziprecruiter.com or any other ZipRecruiter website or application to search and/or apply for open positions with third-party companies. 

This Privacy Notice describes how we collect and use your personal information during the application, recruitment, interview, and/or any on-boarding process prior to employment, when you choose to apply for an open position at ZipRecruiter.  We will only use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice. You can download a PDF version of this Privacy Notice here.

DISCLAIMER: Providing you with this Privacy Notice is not an indication and does not guarantee that you will be interviewed for the position to which you applied or that you will be offered employment by ZipRecruiter.

1. Information We Collect

For purposes of this Privacy Notice, “personal information” means any information about an identifiable individual or otherwise as defined in accordance with applicable privacy law. Personal information excludes anonymous or de-identified data that is not associated with a particular individual.

A. Personal Information You Provide to Us

We may collect the following categories of personal information from you in connection with our recruiting activities:

• Identifiers and personal contact details such as name, name pronunciation, preferred pronouns, title, address and location, telephone number, and email address. 
• Social media accounts that you choose to provide as part of your application (such as your LinkedIn profile).

• Employment history and other relevant professional experience, including information contained in your resume, CV, cover letter, or job application, such as your employment history, qualifications, and/or professional memberships. 
• Education information, including degrees awarded, transcripts, graduation year, and other information provided in support of the job application.
• Information collected during phone screenings, interviews, and other hiring-related assessments.
• Details regarding the type of employment sought, desired salary, willingness to relocate, job preferences, and other information related to compensation and benefits.
• Reference information and information you provide during any background check, where applicable.
• Information necessary to confirm and/or demonstrate your ability to work in a particular jurisdiction.
• Other information that you provide and/or that we may need to collect during the recruiting and/or during any on-boarding process prior to employment (for example, if you are traveling for an interview with us, we may need to collect your date of birth, gender and/or other information to book your flight)

B. Personal Information We Collect from Third Parties

We may receive certain information about you from third parties in connection with our review of your application and our recruiting activities.  Third parties that provide us this information may include personal or professional references, recruiters, service providers (such as those that conduct background checks), and recruiting tools and services. Information we collect from them may include the types of information listed in Section 1.A, above.

C. Non-Personal Information

ZipRecruiter may collect, use, and share de-identified, anonymized, and/or aggregated information, which is not considered personal information. De-identified, anonymized, or aggregated data may be derived from your personal information, but is not considered personal information, since it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. To the extent that ZipRecruiter collects consumer information that is in de-identified form, we will maintain and use the information in de-identified form and not attempt to re-identify the information. 

2. Collection and Use of Personal Information

We will collect, use, and process your personal information in connection with carrying out our application, recruitment, and on-boarding process (as applicable), including to:

• Process and review your job application, including any cover letter, resume, and/or references.
• Consider you for employment opportunities and assess your skills, qualifications, and interests for a particular position. 
• Contact you if we need more information related to your application or respond to questions from you.
• Schedule and/or conduct an interview with you.
• Reimburse you for any travel expenses relating to interviews and/or any on-boarding prior to employment.
• Verify your information and carry out employment, background, and reference checks, where applicable and/or where required or permitted by applicable law.
• Assess and determine an appropriate compensation package, if we decide to extend an offer of employment to you.
• Communicate with you about the recruitment process and your application.
• Manage any on-boarding process or procedures.
• Keep records related to our hiring processes, and monitor for diversity and equal opportunities.
• Analyze and assess the effectiveness of our recruiting processes.
• Create and submit reports, as required by applicable laws or regulations.
• Comply with legal, compliance, regulatory, and/or other corporate governance requirements (including, for example, to ensure compliance with applicable non-discrimination laws).
• Protect and defend the rights and property of ZipRecruiter, other job applicants, our employees, or the public.
• Detect and protect against security incidents and malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, or violations of ZipRecruiter’s policies or the law; for fraud and crime prevention; and for information protection and cybersecurity.
• Collect information for internal business, product, strategy, and technological development.
• Comply with our disaster recovery, business continuity, and record keeping obligations.

3. Data Sharing

We may share your personal information with the following parties: 

Internal Parties

• With a ZipRecruiter wholly-owned subsidiary in order to facilitate the application, recruitment, or on-boarding process.  These subsidiaries include ZipRecruiter Canada Ltd. (for applicants based in Canada), and ZipRecruiter Israel Ltd. (for applicants based in Israel).

External Parties

• Vendors, service providers, and contractors we use to assist in providing services to us or assist us in administering the recruitment process.  We require all our third-party vendors, service providers and contractors, by written contract, to implement appropriate security measures to protect your personal information consistent with our policies and any data security obligations applicable to us. 
• Background check providers that verify information about you as part of your application.
• Professional advisers, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance, financial, auditing, and accounting services to us so we can operate our business.
• Law enforcement agencies, courts, supervisory authorities, regulatory bodies and certain other third parties, to the extent that we are permitted or required to do so by applicable law, or in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, or in the interests of national security, or to respond to verified requests relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity.
• To protect the rights, property, or safety of ZipRecruiter, our services, employees or others; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; or to otherwise exercise or defend legal claims or comply with our legal obligations.
• To other third parties with your authorization or upon your direction, such as to conduct a reference check.
• To other third parties, in connection with a change of corporate control or other investment in ZipRecruiter, such as a restructuring, merger, transfer, or sale of some or all of our assets.

4. Data Transfer and Storage

Recruiting is managed by ZipRecruiter, Inc., which is headquartered in the United States. The information that you provide as part of the application, recruitment, or on-boarding process will be transferred to the U.S. and/or to another country where we have a subsidiary or where we have engaged service providers. 

As a result, your personal information may be subject to data protection and other laws that may differ from your country of residence. Your personal information may be disclosed in response to inquiries or requests from governmental or regulatory authorities in the countries in which we and/or our service providers operate.

5. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate physical, technical, and organizational security measures designed to secure your personal information against accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure. In addition, we limit access to personal information to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties that have a legitimate business need for such access.

However, no transmission of information via the Internet or wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control and accordingly, the security, integrity and privacy of data exchanged between you and us cannot be guaranteed.

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

6. Data Retention

If you are hired, your application information becomes part of your employment record, and we may use it in connection with your employment consistent with our employee privacy notice.  

If you are not hired, we keep your application to allow you to obtain information about the recruitment process and to consider you for other job openings.

We also will retain your personal information to comply with our legal obligations under applicable law; for the time that ZipRecruiter uses the data in furtherance of fraud prevention, security, or to otherwise help ensure the integrity of our company and services; the time that ZipRecruiter uses the data in furtherance of establishing or defending a legal, regulatory, or law enforcement claim or investigation; and/or for any other permitted purpose under applicable privacy law.

7. Additional Information for Applicants that are California Residents

We are providing this additional information to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, the “CCPA”).  This section applies solely to applicants who reside in the State of California. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this section of the Privacy Notice. 

A. Categories of Personal Information We Collect

During the application, recruitment, interview, and/or any onboarding process prior to employment at ZipRecruiter, we collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you. Table 1 below identifies the categories of personal information that ZipRecruiter has collected from you as an applicant to an open position at ZipRecruiter in the preceding twelve (12) months:

ZipRecruiter will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collect for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes, without providing appropriate notice to you.

B. Sources of Personal Information

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you. For example, when you submit your application and resume/CV, or correspond with us by post, phone, e-mail or otherwise.
• Indirectly from you. For example, through automated technologies or your interactions with us.
• Third Parties. We may receive personal information about you from various third parties, such as references, background check providers, service providers, or other third parties that you direct to disclose information to us.

C. Purposes for Collecting and Using Your Personal Information

We collect, use, and process your personal information for various business purposes as an employer to evaluate you as a candidate, including those listed in Section 2 above. 

In addition to the reasons listed above, ZipRecruiter may collect and use your sensitive personal information only as necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer, or as otherwise permitted by the CCPA. Specifically, ZipRecruiter collects or uses your sensitive personal information for the following business purposes: 

• Monitoring equal employment opportunities.
• Conducting background verification processes (to the extent permitted by applicable laws).

D. Disclosures of Your Personal Information

We describe in Section 3 above the context in which your personal information may be disclosed to a third party. Table 2 below identifies the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties, service providers, or others for a business purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months:

In addition, ZipRecruiter may disclose any or all of the personal information identified in the categories above to the following categories of third parties for a business purpose, depending on how you interact with our Services and/or where ZipRecruiter has an obligation to make such disclosure:

• Government entities, where required by law or in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations
• Other third parties, where required by law or in order to protect our rights, or the rights of our customers or others
• Third parties, in connection with a change of corporate control or other investment in ZipRecruiter.
• Third parties, where you have expressly consented to the disclosure your personal information

ZipRecruiter does not “sell” or “share” your personal information (including sensitive personal information) as each term is defined under the CCPA, and it does not have actual knowledge that it sells or shares personal information of consumers under 16 years of age. ZipRecruiter does not use or disclose your sensitive personal information, except as necessary to evaluate you as a candidate (as detailed further in this Privacy Notice).

E. Your Rights Under the CCPA

The CCPA provides consumers with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how you can exercise them. These rights are not absolute, and in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law.

If you are a California resident, and the CCPA does not recognize an exception that applies to you, your personal information or our processing of your personal information, you will have the rights identified in Table 3 below.

To exercise a CCPA consumer right as described above, you can submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing hrprivacy@ziprecruiter.com.

Making a Verifiable Consumer Request: 

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.  We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Using an Authorized Agent: If you use an authorized agent to submit a consumer request, the authorized agent must provide documentation or other proof indicating that they are authorized to act on your behalf. For requests to correct, access or delete personal information, we may require you to verify your identity directly with us (for example, by emailing us directly from your email address associated with your application), and directly confirm with us that you provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request.  If you are an authorized agent, you may make a request by emailing hrprivacy@ziprecruiter.com and providing documentation or other proof indicating that you are authorized by the consumer to act on their behalf. The authorized agent must provide documentation necessary (as determined in ZipRecruiter's discretion) to verify the agent has authority to act on the consumer's behalf in relation to CCPA requests.

Limitations on CCPA Requests: You may only make a verifiable consumer request to know or for access twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative; and
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

Response Timing and Format: We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing (email suffices). The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable.

For data access requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily usable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance, for example, through an Excel or JSON file format.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the verifiable consumer request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

CCPA Metrics: Metrics related to general CCPA requests received during the previous calendar year are available here.

8. Additional Information for Canadian Applicants

A. Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure, and Objection

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 the recruitment process. 

You have the right to request access to and to correct the personal information that we hold about you or withdraw your consent to the use of your personal information under certain circumstances. To do so, please contact us at the email address below. 

Any such communication must be in writing. We will provide you access to your personal information within the time period provided by applicable law, unless we are prohibited by law to do so. For example, we cannot provide you access if it violates the right to privacy of another person.

We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and your right to access, and to provide you with the personal information that we hold about you or make your requested changes. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you of the reasons why.

B. Cross-Border Data Transfers

We will transfer and store the personal information we collect about you in the United States. This means that your personal information becomes subject to the laws of general application of the United States. See Section 4 above for additional information.

9. Contact for Privacy-Related Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, how we handle your personal information, or to exercise a consumer right, please contact us at the below:

• Email: hrprivacy@ziprecruiter.com
• Mailing Address: 604 Arizona Avenue, Santa Monica, California 90401, USA, Attn: People Team 

If you are a Canadian resident, you may also contact us at canadaprivacy@ziprecruiter.com.  

10. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to modify or update this Privacy Notice at any time.  We will post a copy of any  updated Privacy Notice on our website when we make any updates and/or provide appropriate notice to you.