Candidate Privacy Notice

1. About this Privacy Notice

Linkedskills Limited, trading as Linkedskills Expert Talent Solutions (“Linkedskills”, “we”, “us” or “our”), is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy.

This Candidate Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, share, retain and protect your personal data when you:

• apply for a role advertised by Linkedskills;
• register as a candidate;
• submit your CV or professional information to us;
• communicate with one of our recruitment consultants;
• are identified as a potential candidate from a professional or publicly accessible
• source; or
• otherwise use our recruitment services or website.

Linkedskills Limited is the data controller responsible for the personal data described in this notice.

We process personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018 and other applicable Irish data protection laws.

2. Our Contact Details

Data protection enquiries: Ta-Team@linkedskills.ie 

3. Personal Data We May Collect

Depending on your engagement with us, we may collect and process:

• your name, address, email address and telephone number;
• your CV, employment history, education, qualifications and professional memberships;
• information about your skills, experience and career preferences;
• your current and expected salary or remuneration;
• your preferred working arrangements, locations and availability;
• information provided in application forms, interviews and communications with us;
• interview notes, assessment results and feedback received from prospective employers;
• references and referee contact details;
• evidence of qualifications, licences, certifications and professional training;
• information relating to your eligibility and right to work;
• copies of identification or compliance documents where required for a particular
• placement;
• links to professional profiles or information available from sources such as LinkedIn,
• professional directories, corporate websites, job boards and CV databases;
• records of our communications with you;
• information required to investigate complaints, establish legal claims or comply with legal obligations; and
• technical information collected when you use our website, such as your IP address, browser type and website activity, where applicable.

We will only request financial, tax or payment information where it is necessary for a particular employment, contracting or payroll arrangement.

4. Special Category and Criminal-Conviction Data

In limited circumstances, we may need to process information regarded as special category personal data under Article 9 GDPR. This may include health or disability information provided for reasonable accommodation, occupational health, workplace safety or employment-related requirements.

We will only process special category data where an additional lawful condition under Article 9 GDPR applies, such as:

• your explicit consent;
• processing necessary for obligations or rights relating to employment or social protection law; or
• the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

We will only process criminal-conviction or offence information where this is legally permitted and genuinely required for a specific position. We will not request this information routinely.

Please do not provide special category or criminal-conviction information unless we have requested it or it is genuinely relevant to your application.

5. How We Collect Your Personal Data

• We may collect personal data directly from you when you:
• apply for a position;
• upload or send us your CV;
• create or update a candidate profile;
• communicate with us by telephone, email, website, social media or another channel;
• attend an interview, assessment or recruitment event; or
• provide information during the recruitment or placement process.

We may also receive personal data from:

• prospective employers and Linkedskills clients;
• referees you have authorised us to contact;
• job boards and CV databases;
• recruitment platforms;
• professional networking sites such as LinkedIn;
• publicly accessible professional or corporate websites;
• another recruitment business or professional contact, where legally permitted; and
• recommendations or referrals.

Where we obtain your personal data from another source, we will provide you with the information required by Article 14 GDPR within one month, at our first communication with you, or before first disclosing your information to another recipient, whichever occurs first, unless a lawful exception applies.

6. How We Use Your Personal Data

We may process your personal data to:

• create and maintain your candidate record;
• assess your qualifications, experience and suitability for employment opportunities;
• identify roles that may reasonably match your background and preferences;
• contact you about potential opportunities;
• confirm your interest, availability and salary expectations;
• present your application or CV to a prospective employer;
• arrange interviews, assessments and preparation calls;
• obtain and share recruitment feedback;
• manage offers, placements, onboarding and start-date arrangements;
• verify qualifications, references, licences and right-to-work information;
• communicate with you and respond to your questions;
• manage our relationship with candidates and clients;
• maintain accurate business and recruitment records;
• prevent fraud, misuse or security incidents;
• comply with legal, regulatory, tax and accounting obligations;
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• investigate and resolve complaints; and
• monitor and improve our recruitment services, systems and website.

We will normally identify the prospective employer and obtain your agreement before submitting your CV or identifiable candidate profile to that employer.

7. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

We rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Legitimate interests

We process personal data where necessary for our legitimate interests in:

• providing professional recruitment services;
• identifying and approaching potentially suitable candidates;
• matching candidates with appropriate employment opportunities;
• managing candidate and client relationships;
• maintaining accurate recruitment records;
• protecting our business, systems and legal rights; and
• developing and improving our services.

Before relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether the processing is necessary and whether your interests, rights or freedoms override our interests.

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. We will stop the relevant processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds to continue or the processing is required for legal claims.

Steps requested before entering into a contract or performance of a contract

We may process information where necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you, including where you are engaged directly by Linkedskills under a relevant employment or contracting arrangement.

Legal obligations

We may process information where necessary to comply with Irish or EU law, including applicable employment, equality, immigration, tax, accounting and regulatory requirements.

Consent

We rely on consent where the law requires it or where we have specifically asked for it.

Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. Withdrawal will not affect processing carried out lawfully before consent was withdrawn.

We do not rely on a general acceptance of this Privacy Notice as consent for every form of processing described in it.

8. Job Opportunities and Marketing Communications

We may contact you about employment opportunities that reasonably match your professional background and preferences.

Where this communication is based on our legitimate interests, you may object or ask us to stop contacting you at any time.

Where consent is required for a particular mailing list, newsletter or marketing communication, we will obtain that consent separately. You may unsubscribe using the link provided in the communication or by contacting us.

9. Sharing Your Personal Data

Where necessary for the purposes described in this notice, we may share relevant personal data with:

• prospective employers and Linkedskills clients;
• interviewers and authorised representatives of prospective employers;
• referees you have authorised us to contact;
• providers of recruitment, applicant-tracking, email, document-signing, communications, cloud-storage and IT-security services;
• providers carrying out screening, verification or occupational-health services where appropriate and legally permitted;
• professional advisers, including accountants, auditors, insurers and legal advisers;
• public authorities, regulators, law-enforcement bodies or courts where required by law;
• another recruitment partner where you have been informed of the arrangement; and
• a purchaser, investor or successor organisation in connection with a genuine sale, merger or restructuring of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.

We only disclose information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose. Our service providers are required to process personal data securely and in accordance with our instructions and applicable data-protection law.

We do not sell candidate personal data.

10. International Transfers

We aim to store and process personal data within the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

Some technology providers or their support operations may process information outside the EEA. Where a transfer outside the EEA takes place, we will ensure that an appropriate transfer mechanism and safeguards are used as required by Chapter V GDPR.

These safeguards may include:

• a European Commission adequacy decision;
• European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses;
• supplementary technical and organisational measures; or
• another transfer mechanism permitted by applicable data-protection law.

You may contact us for further information about the safeguards applying to a relevant transfer.

11. Data Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against:

• unauthorised access or disclosure;
• accidental loss, alteration or destruction;
• misuse; and
• unlawful processing.

These measures may include access controls, authentication, system monitoring, secure cloud services, staff confidentiality obligations, backups and appropriate agreements with service providers.

Access to candidate information is restricted to people who require it for legitimate business purposes.

No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Where a personal-data breach occurs, we will investigate it and notify the Data Protection Commission and affected individuals where required by law.

12. How Long We Retain Your Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements.

Unless a longer period is required for a specific legal or operational reason, our standard retention periods are:

• Candidates who have not been placed: up to 24 months from your last meaningful interaction with us.
• Active candidates: for as long as you remain actively engaged with our recruitment services.
• Placement, contractual, invoicing and compliance records: generally, up to six years after the relevant placement, engagement or transaction has ended.
• Consent records and suppression records: for as long as necessary to demonstrate your preferences and ensure that we respect an opt-out or deletion request.
• Information connected with a complaint or legal claim: for as long as necessary to investigate the matter and establish, exercise or defend legal rights.

At the end of the applicable retention period, we will securely delete or anonymise the information unless continued retention is required or permitted by law.

Where you ask us to stop contacting you, we may retain limited information on a suppression list so that we can respect your request and avoid adding your details to our active database again.

13. Keeping Your Information Accurate

Please tell us if your personal information changes or if you believe the information we hold is inaccurate or incomplete.

You can contact us at

Ta-Team@linkedskills.ie to request an update to your candidate record.

14. Your Data-Protection Rights

Subject to the conditions and exemptions contained in applicable law, you may have the right to:

• obtain confirmation that we process your personal data;
• request access to your personal data;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion of your personal data;
• request restriction of processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• object to direct marketing;
• receive certain personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• request that certain data be transmitted to another controller;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
• not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing where that
• decision produces legal or similarly significant effects.

These rights are not absolute and may be limited in certain circumstances.

To exercise a right, contact Ta-Team@linkedskills.ie. We may ask for information necessary to verify your identity before completing your request.

We will normally respond within one month. Where a request is particularly complex or numerous, the response period may be extended as permitted by GDPR, and we will inform you of that extension.

15. Automated Decision-Making

Linkedskills does not make recruitment decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing.

Our recruitment technology may assist with searching, organising or identifying potentially relevant candidates. A Linkedskills recruitment professional remains involved in assessing suitability and managing candidate submissions.

Final hiring decisions are made by the prospective employer.

16. Providing Your Personal Data

Providing personal data to Linkedskills is generally voluntary. However, we require sufficient information to assess your suitability, communicate with you and represent you in a recruitment process.

If you do not provide necessary information, we may be unable to consider you for a particular position, submit your application or complete a placement.

17. Complaints

We encourage you to contact us first if you have a concern about how we process your personal data so that we can try to resolve it.

You also have the right to raise a concern or lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission:

Website: www.dataprotection.ie

Email: info@dataprotection.ie

You may also complain to another competent supervisory authority where applicable.

18. Changes to This Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice to reflect changes in our services, processing activities or legal obligations.

The current version will be published on our website with its effective date. Where a change materially affects how we process your personal data, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to your attention.

19. Contact Us

Questions, requests or concerns about this Candidate Privacy Notice or the use of your personal data should be sent to:

Email: Ta-Team@linkedskills.ie