GDPR, Jobbatical and You

Everything you need to know about Jobbatical and the General Data Protection Regulation.

This article aims to answer any questions you might have about the General Data Protection Regulation, and explain what happens at the intersection between GDPR, Jobbatical and you.

What’s GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU).

This regulation defines the roles and processes organizations must implement to ensure that any personal data they possess is secure and processed under a legal basis which could be the consent of the person, legitimate interest or other ground under the GDPR.

In short, the EU commission felt that people should have more say about how their personal data is processed, especially by tech companies, so they passed a regulation that aims to improve how organizations collect, protect and secure personal information, and provide EU and EEA citizens with greater control over their data.

It’s not about stopping companies from processing personal data, but ensuring it is looked after properly, kept accurate and not abused.

Once GDPR comes into effect on May 25, 2018, it will immediately become law in all EU member states, and every organization will have to adhere to its processes. Even companies outside the EU will have to comply with the GDPR if they do business within the European Economic Area.

What is personal data?

Any piece of information that can identify a living individual is considered personal data. Even a single email address is considered personal data.

What rights do I have?

The core of GDPR is to provide anyone with rights they can exercise against organizations processing their personal data.

• Access. You can request access to your personal data and learn how an organization uses it after they’ve obtained it from you.
• Erasure. You have a right to withdraw consent to store and use your personal data and have the information erased.
• Data Portability. If technically possible, you have the right to transfer your data from one service provider to another.
• Rectification. You can require any errors in personal data to be corrected.
• To Be Informed. All companies must be transparent and clear about how they gather data and must do it before they collect it.
• Restrict Processing. You have the right to block, restrict and suppress processing of your personal data.
• Stop Processing. You can object to using and processing all your personal data. However, stopping and even restricting certain types of personal data could mean that rendering the service to you might turn out impossible. Thus, it could mean the end of the relationship.

Will companies comply?

EU companies and companies that process EU citizens’ data are obliged to comply with the new regulation and act on any requests from persons wishing to exercise their rights.

If they don’t, GDPR fines can go up to twenty million Euros or 4 percent of annual global revenue, whichever is highest.

What information is tracked?

When you use Jobbatical and fill up your profile, we record and process the following information.

We do not collect any personal data about you which is made available outside our platform.

If you are a candidate

As a candidate, we collect all the necessary information to make your job search a seamless and effective process.

• Profile data, including name, date of birth, location, work experience, skills, education, contact information, e-mail address and other personal information related to your suitability for a job vacancy.
• Application data, including responses.
• Messages sent to and received from employers.
• All actions on the site via web analytics tools.

If you are a business

As a business, we collect all the necessary information to make sure you can attract, filter and hire the best available candidates.

• Status of all applications, including all changes you make.
• Messages sent to and received from candidates.
• All actions on the site via web analytics tools.

How does Jobbatical use that information?

If you are a candidate

We try to limit our use of that information as much as possible. That said, we perform the following actions.

• Share your information with employers.
• Recommend your profile to an employer even if you didn’t apply, upon your separate consent.
• Provide you with job recommendations.
• Provide an overall better user experience.
• Resolve any service quality issues between us.

Personal data is disclosed only to employers who have joined Jobbatical. Profile and other personal information is not available to the public and it is not indexed by search engines such as Google.

If you are a business

We try to limit our use of that information as much as possible. That said, we perform the following actions for your business.

• Internal statistics.
• Provide you with candidate recommendations.
• Provide an overall better user experience.

What rights do I have regarding my information?

Under GDPR, you have strong rights related to your data, and how Jobbatical makes use of it. In other words, you have absolute rights to:

• Know what information is being recorded and how it will be used
• Access and viewing the information
• Have your information erased
• Correct the information about you
• Get a copy of the information for yourself
• Restrict specific uses or stop altogether the usage of your information.

To invoke these rights, simply email support@jobbatical.com and submit your request. The instructions on how to fully delete your data are also presented after you deactivate your account under Settings.