European Economic Area and Switzerland Residents – Applicants for employment with ghSMART

ghSMART GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (“GDPR”)

August 18, 2021

G. H. Smart & Company, LLC, ghSMART UK Limited, G. H. Smart GmbH, G. H. Smart & Company Pty Ltd and G. H. Smart & Company Canada, ULC (collectively “ghSMART”), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This ghSMART GDPR Privacy Policy (“privacy notice”, “privacy statement”, or “notice”) describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with GDPR. Our mailing addresses are included at the end of this notice.

ghSMART conducts in-depth verbal interviews or discussions as part of our recruiting process.

It should be noted that our legal basis for processing is indicated below. 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.

For the purposes of the GDPR, ghSMART is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. As a data controller we are required under GDPR to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Your data

In this section we outline the purposes for which we may process your data as permitted by applicable law. For each ‘purpose’ we also list the types of data we may process and our legal basis for the processing it; with regard to types of data we collect directly from you the below list contains examples only.

I. For the Purpose of Recruiting and General Administration

Additional purpose explanation:

  • Maintaining contact information for current and prospective job applicants or individuals being considered for a role at ghSMART;
  • Acknowledging your application;
  • Determining and providing statements of opinion about your suitability for current and future vacancies or roles;
  • Meeting arrangement/travel/scheduling;
  • To facilitate the reimbursement of approved travel, accommodations, or other expenses during the early stage recruiting process.

Types of personal data that may be processed (please note that we do not process this data in all cases and that with regard to types of data we collect directly from you, this list contains examples only):

  • Personal data allowing identification such as name, address, email address, phone number; education; training; professional experience; contact details of employer; employment appraisal/assessment; details of qualifications; job description tasks and responsibilities; linguistic and job related skills and competencies; details of past and current organizational projects and initiatives; assessment of individual strengths and weaknesses; organizational structure; expressions of opinion or future intentions; reason for leaving prior roles; standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships;
  • Data included in application forms and CV/Resume, covering letters, emails, meeting notes and other correspondence with the candidate regarding desire and suitability for role;
  • Employment verification and/or references from former employers;
  • Education verification and/or references from former educational institutions;
  • Meeting arrangement/travel/scheduling details;
  • Information needed to reimburse expenses incurred during the recruiting process, such as travel receipts, account holder name(s), name of bank, sort code, account number.

Lawful basis for processing personal data:

  • Pursuing our legitimate interest in recruiting candidates for employment (sec. 26 para. 1 sentence 1 German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz/BDSG) – “necessary for hiring decisions”);
  • To comply with EU record keeping obligations (applying GDPR Art 6.1c – compliance with a legal obligation);
  • Pursuing our legitimate interest in enabling effective management and reporting; to comply with US record keeping obligations; establishing, exercising and defending their rights if it comes to litigation in connection with the recruitment process (applying GDPR Art 6.1f – a legitimate interest);
  • Where required, we will obtain your consent (applying GDPR Art 6.1a).

If you fail to provide personal information

A failure to provide certain requested information may prevent us from completing our recruiting process, however you are under no obligation to provide us with personal information.

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.

Data sharing 

Your data will be accessed by those individuals involved in the ghSMART service process(es) you are participating in, and wherever possible we try and minimise the number of people this involves. Within ghSMART this will include our internal consultants, the administrative staff, and the third parties disclosed in the next section. Please note administrative staff are performing functions such as scheduling, document management, and expense management.

Third parties and sources of data

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities. The following categories of third-parties may have access to your personal data:

  • Report production technicians for document editing and document related services;
  • Service providers required for processing standard business functions for cloud data storage, anti-virus scanning, email, invoice processing, accounting systems, document management, contact/meeting management, and other information technology services;
  • Government officials/law enforcement agencies if required by law or regulations.

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the ghSMART group are 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, in accordance with our instructions and under the terms of a data processing agreement.

Note that we may obtain personal data from third parties to whom you first supplied your data, such as a recruitment agency. They will also operate as a data controller or processor for the purposes of the GDPR and as such have their own responsibilities for the security of your data. Specific categories of data are personal data allowing identification (title, surname, first name, date and place of birth); contact information (street address, telephone and email address); nationality (or immigration status); education; training; professional experience (prior jobs, tenure, employer name, location of employment, contact details of employer, employment appraisal/assessment, main tasks and responsibilities, linguistic and job related skills and competencies, current and prior compensation, reason for leaving prior jobs); standardized test scores; volunteer or professional organization memberships; details of qualifications; expressions of opinion or future intentions; assessment of strengths and weaknesses; and other professional or personal information voluntarily provided.

Transferring information outside of the EU and Switzerland

ghSMART may transfer the personal data we collect about you to countries outside the European Union and Switzerland where ghSMART has administrative service providers, client consultants and client leadership (e.g., the United States, Australia, Canada and the UK).

To provide adequate protection for the personal data we transfer to the United States, ghSMART participates in and is committed to comply with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework, which is administered by the International Trade Administration (“ITA”) within the U.S. Department of Commerce (the, “Data Privacy Framework”).

In the event ghSMART transfers personal data received under the Data Privacy Framework to a third party acting on our behalf, ghSMART is responsible if the third party processes such personal data in a manner inconsistent with the Data Privacy Framework Principles, with certain exceptions.

Please be aware that ghSMART may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. You can access a copy of the Data Privacy Framework List at Data Privacy Framework. ghSMART commits to subject to the Data Privacy Framework Principles all personal data received in the United States from the EU and Switzerland in reliance on the Data Privacy Framework. As a participant in the Data Privacy Framework, ghSMART is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission.

ghSMART has designated JAMS (https://www.jamsadr.com/DPF-Dispute-Resolution ) to address complaints and provide appropriate recourse free of charge to data subjects. Under certain conditions, data subjects may have the option to invoke binding arbitration for certain claims. You can contact us at dataprotection@ghsmart.com if you have any questions about the above.

The period for which data is stored 

The information we collect during the ghSMART service process will form part of our records and as such will be retained as required by legal, accounting, reporting standards as reflected in the ghSMART corporate records retention policy applicable to our business. ghSMART may also be required to retain this information based on statute of limitations for specific countries, as well as government record retention requirements for tax purposes. ghSMART reviews the data to determine that the policy for data storage is in line with our stated purposes for which we may process your data. In some circumstances, we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may continue to use such information without further notice to you.

Data security

When we process your personal data, we will always apply the core principles of the GDPR to ensure it is:

  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.

We have put in place appropriate security measures designed to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we have policies and procedures designed to limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 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.

Your rights

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 also 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 (also known as rectification) 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);
  • 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 (also known as portability) of your personal information to another party.

Your right to object

  • Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to 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.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal information, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact dataprotection@ghsmart.com in writing.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of your personal data infringes applicable law.

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.

Changes to this privacy notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice.

Contact details 

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact: dataprotection@ghsmart.com.

Mail address:

G. H. Smart & Company, LLC
203 North LaSalle Street
Suite 2100
Chicago, IL 60601
The United States of America

ghSMART UK Limited
Suite 2, First Floor
Templeback
10 Temple Back
Bristol, BS1 6FL
United Kingdom

G. H. Smart GmbH
Grosse Gallusstr. 16-18
60311 Frankfurt
Germany

G. H. Smart & Company Canada, ULC
885 West Georgia Street
Suite 1480
Vancouver
British Columbia
V6C 3E8
Canada