Privacy policy

1. Who We Are

Hier is operated by HIER APPLICATIONS LIMITED, a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 17102004.

Registered office:
167–169 Great Portland Street
London
England
W1W 5PF

In this Privacy Policy, references to “Hier”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean HIER APPLICATIONS LIMITED.

For most personal data processed through the Hier platform, HIER APPLICATIONS LIMITED acts as the data controller, meaning we determine why and how that personal data is processed.

For privacy enquiries, data protection requests or complaints, contact:

hello@hierapp.co.uk

2. Scope of This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, disclose and otherwise process personal data when you:

• create or use a Hier account;
• use the Hier website, mobile application or business dashboard;
• create or manage a candidate profile;
• create or manage a business account;
• advertise, view or apply for jobs;
• communicate through Hier;
• participate in a referral, promotional or rewards programme;
• contact our support team;
• receive communications from us; or
• otherwise interact with our services.

This Policy applies to Candidates, Businesses, authorised Business users and other individuals whose personal data we process.

Where a Business receives Candidate information through Hier and uses that information for its own recruitment purposes, that Business will generally act as a separate data controller for its subsequent use of that information.

Businesses are responsible for complying with their own data protection obligations.

3. Age Requirements

Hier is intended for individuals aged 16 and over.

We do not knowingly permit individuals under 16 to create Candidate accounts.

Users aged 16 or 17 may be subject to additional safeguards or feature restrictions.

Certain promotions, rewards or third-party services may have a higher minimum age. Unless a particular referral campaign expressly states otherwise, participation in the Hier Referral Programme is restricted to users aged 18 or over.

If we become aware that we have collected personal data from an individual who is not eligible to use a relevant service, we may delete the information and close or restrict the associated account.

4. Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you use Hier, we may process the following categories of personal data.

4.1 Account Information

This may include:

• name;
• email address;
• telephone number;
• account type;
• login and authentication information;
• account status;
• user preferences;
• profile identifiers; and
• security information associated with your account.

4.2 Candidate Profile Information

This may include:

• profile headline;
• professional summary;
• employment history;
• education;
• qualifications;
• skills;
• experience;
• job preferences;
• preferred working locations;
• salary expectations;
• employment type preferences;
• availability;
• profile photographs;
• portfolio information; and
• other professional information you choose to provide.

4.3 CV and Uploaded Information

This may include:

• CVs and résumés;
• documents;
• images;
• employment-related files;
• application materials; and
• information contained within uploaded documents.

Please avoid including information in your CV or profile that is unnecessary for recruitment purposes.

4.4 Application Information

This may include:

• jobs viewed;
• jobs saved;
• jobs applied for;
• application dates;
• application status;
• progress through recruitment stages;
• interview information;
• responses to application questions;
• Business interactions with an application; and
• outcomes or status information provided through the platform.

4.5 Business Account Information

This may include:

• business name;
• company information;
• business email address;
• telephone number;
• billing information;
• account administrators;
• authorised users;
• job advertisements;
• recruitment activity;
• subscription information; and
• information entered into the Business dashboard.

4.6 Communications

This may include:

• messages sent through Hier;
• communications between Candidates and Businesses;
• support requests;
• complaints;
• feedback; and
• communications with our team.

We may review communications where reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, user safety, dispute resolution, compliance or enforcement of our Terms.

4.7 Referral and Reward Information

Where you participate in a Hier referral or reward programme, we may process:

• referral codes;
• referral links;
• identity of the referrer;
• identity of the referred user;
• referral dates;
• account registration status;
• CV upload status;
• job application activity;
• referral qualification status;
• reward status;
• reward value;
• name;
• email address;
• fraud or duplicate-account indicators; and
• records of rewards issued.

4.8 Payment and Subscription Information

Business payments may be processed through third-party payment providers including Stripe.

We may receive information such as:

• payment status;
• subscription plan;
• billing address;
• transaction reference;
• invoice information; and
• payment history.

We do not ordinarily receive or store complete payment-card numbers.

4.9 Device, Technical and Usage Information

We may collect:

• IP address;
• device type;
• browser;
• operating system;
• application version;
• device identifiers;
• login timestamps;
• pages or screens viewed;
• interactions with features;
• error logs;
• security logs;
• referral attribution information; and
• other technical information necessary to operate, secure and improve Hier.

4.10 Information From Businesses

Businesses may provide information about Candidates or authorised Business users where this is necessary to use Hier.

Where a Business uploads personal data that it independently obtained, the Business is responsible for ensuring that it has a lawful basis to provide that information to Hier.

4.11 Information From Third-Party Data Providers (Extended Network)

Hier licenses professional contact and career information from third-party business data providers. We refer to individuals whose information we hold from these sources, and who do not have a Hier account, as the Extended Network.

This information is limited to professional and business-context information, and may include:

• name;
• current and previous job titles;
• current and previous employers;
• professional skills and industry;
• approximate location, such as town or city;
• a professional email address; and
• professional profile identifiers.

We do not license special category personal data from these providers, and we do not license home addresses, personal financial information or government identifiers.

Where we hold information about you from a third-party data provider, you can ask us to remove it at any time using the link included in every message we send, or by contacting us at hello@hierapp.co.uk.

5. Special Category and Sensitive Personal Data

CVs, messages and other user-generated content may occasionally contain sensitive information such as:

• health or disability information;
• racial or ethnic origin;
• religious or philosophical beliefs;
• sexual orientation;
• trade union information; or
• other special category personal data.

Hier does not require users to include unnecessary special category information in a standard Candidate profile.

Where you voluntarily include such information in a document, message or other content, we may incidentally process it in order to host or transmit the material at your direction.

Where Hier intentionally processes special category personal data for a specific feature or purpose, we will ensure that an appropriate lawful basis and additional condition under applicable data protection law applies.

You should not upload criminal offence information unless it is genuinely necessary, lawful and relevant to the purpose for which it is being provided.

6. How and Why We Use Personal Data

We may process personal data for the following purposes.

• Creating and maintaining your account: Performance of a contract
• Providing Candidate and Business features: Performance of a contract
• Displaying Candidate profiles to relevant Businesses: Performance of a contract
• Enabling job applications: Performance of a contract
• Enabling recruitment communications: Performance of a contract
• Managing Business subscriptions: Performance of a contract
• Processing payments and billing: Performance of a contract and legal obligations
• Operating the referral programme: Performance of the Referral Programme Terms
• Verifying referral eligibility: Performance of a contract and legitimate interests
• Preventing referral fraud or abuse: Legitimate interests
• Sending referral rewards: Performance of a contract
• Providing customer support: Performance of a contract and legitimate interests
• Maintaining platform security: Legitimate interests and legal obligations
• Preventing fraud, misuse and unlawful activity: Legitimate interests and legal obligations
• Moderating user content and communications: Legitimate interests and legal obligations
• Complying with online safety obligations: Legal obligations and legitimate interests
• Improving platform functionality: Legitimate interests
• Analysing service performance: Legitimate interests and, where required, consent
• Sending service communications: Performance of a contract and legitimate interests
• Sending direct marketing: Consent or legitimate interests where permitted by law
• Complying with legal or regulatory obligations: Legal obligation
• Establishing or defending legal claims: Legitimate interests and applicable legal conditions

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests may include:

• operating and developing Hier;
• protecting users and Businesses;
• maintaining network and information security;
• preventing fraud;
• protecting Hier against misuse;
• improving our services;
• administering promotions;
• enforcing contractual rights; and
• protecting our business and users from unlawful conduct.

We consider whether those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of affected individuals.

7. Candidate Profiles and Businesses

Hier enables Candidates to make professional information available to Businesses for recruitment purposes.

Depending on your use of the platform and applicable settings, Businesses may be able to access information including:

• your Candidate profile;
• employment history;
• skills;
• employment preferences;
• CV;
• application information; and
• other information you choose to provide.

When a Business receives Candidate personal data and independently decides how to use that information for recruitment, hiring, talent management or employment purposes, the Business is generally responsible for that subsequent processing as a separate controller.

Hier does not control a Business's independent recruitment decisions.

Businesses are contractually required to use Candidate information lawfully and only for legitimate recruitment purposes.

7.1 The Extended Network and Recruitment Outreach

Where a Business is recruiting, Hier may identify individuals from the Extended Network whose professional experience appears relevant to a role, and may contact them on that Business's behalf about that opportunity.

Our lawful basis for this processing is legitimate interests — connecting people with relevant employment opportunities, and enabling Businesses to recruit. We have assessed this against the rights and freedoms of the individuals concerned, and we apply the following limits:

• we only process professional, business-context information;
• we contact people only about genuine recruitment opportunities, and never for unrelated marketing;
• every message identifies Hier, states that the information did not come from you, and includes a one-click link to remove yourself;
• where somebody asks not to be contacted, we suppress them from future contact and from future search results, and that suppression persists even if the same information is later supplied to us again;
• contact is made through Hier rather than by passing your contact details to the Business, unless and until you choose to respond; and
• we do not sell this information.

You have an absolute right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes, and a right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. If you object, we will stop.

You can exercise either right using the removal link in any message from us, or by contacting hello@hierapp.co.uk.

8. Artificial Intelligence, Recommendations and Profiling

Hier may use automated systems or AI-assisted technology to help provide features such as:

• matching Candidates to jobs;
• matching Businesses to Candidates;
• ranking or ordering content;
• generating recommendations;
• summarising information;
• identifying potentially relevant applications;
• providing job or Candidate insights; and
• detecting fraud, abuse or suspicious activity.

These systems may analyse information such as:

• profile information;
• CV information;
• skills;
• experience;
• preferences;
• job information;
• application activity; and
• platform interactions.

AI-generated outputs and rankings are intended to assist users.

Hier does not use an AI score or recommendation by itself to make a final decision to employ, reject, dismiss or otherwise determine an individual's employment outcome.

Businesses remain responsible for their recruitment decisions and should exercise meaningful human judgement.

If Hier introduces solely automated decision-making that produces a legal or similarly significant effect on an individual, we will provide the information and safeguards required by applicable law, including appropriate rights to obtain human involvement, make representations and challenge relevant decisions where applicable.

We may test systems for accuracy, security, fairness and bias.

9. Referral Programme and Giftcloud

Hier may operate referral or promotional programmes under which eligible users can receive rewards.

Under the current referral programme, qualifying referrals require both the referrer and the referred user to satisfy the eligibility requirements stated in the Referral Programme Terms.

Where a reward becomes payable, Hier may provide limited personal data to Giftcloud Limited in order to issue and administer the reward.

This may include:

• name;
• email address;
• reward value;
• campaign identifier;
• reward eligibility; and
• other information reasonably necessary to fulfil the reward.

When processing information provided by Hier solely to fulfil our reward programme, Giftcloud acts on our behalf as a data processor.

Giftcloud may contact an eligible user for the purpose of delivering or administering a reward.

When a user subsequently interacts with Giftcloud's own platform, websites or services, Giftcloud may process certain information for its own purposes as a separate data controller. Its own privacy notice will apply to that processing.

Hier does not provide Giftcloud with CV contents or job application contents for reward fulfilment.

10. Who We Share Personal Data With

We may disclose personal data to the following categories of recipient where necessary.

Businesses and Employers

Candidate data may be shared with Businesses using Hier for legitimate recruitment purposes.

Hosting, Infrastructure and Technology Providers

We may use third parties to provide:

• cloud hosting;
• database infrastructure;
• file storage;
• software infrastructure;
• cybersecurity;
• monitoring;
• communications; and
• technical support.

Payment Providers

Payment information may be processed by payment providers including Stripe.

Reward Providers

Eligible referral or promotional reward data may be provided to Giftcloud Limited and relevant reward or voucher providers where necessary.

Professional Advisers

We may disclose information to:

• lawyers;
• accountants;
• insurers;
• auditors; and
• other professional advisers.

Regulators, Law Enforcement and Authorities

We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

• comply with law;
• respond to lawful requests;
• protect individuals;
• prevent or investigate crime;
• comply with online safety obligations;
• report unlawful content where required;
• enforce our legal rights; or
• protect Hier, its users or third parties.

Corporate Transactions

If Hier is involved in an investment, financing, merger, acquisition, restructuring or sale of all or part of its business, relevant information may be disclosed to prospective purchasers, investors, advisers or counterparties subject to appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell Candidate CVs or personal data to third parties for unrelated advertising purposes.

Data Providers

We share limited identifiers with third-party business data providers in order to retrieve or update professional information about individuals in the Extended Network. This processing is subject to contractual data protection terms and, where a transfer outside the UK is involved, an appropriate transfer mechanism.

11. International Transfers

Some service providers, group companies or subprocessors may process personal data outside the United Kingdom.

Where a transfer is a restricted transfer under UK data protection law, we will use an appropriate transfer mechanism where required, such as:

• UK adequacy regulations;
• the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;
• an approved UK Addendum to appropriate contractual clauses; or
• another lawful transfer mechanism.

We also assess the protection afforded to transferred personal data where required.

You may contact us for further information about safeguards relevant to your personal data.

12. Marketing Communications

We may send operational communications that are necessary to administer your account or provide Hier. These are not marketing communications.

Marketing communications will only be sent where permitted by applicable law.

Where consent is required, we will obtain it.

You can unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time using the unsubscribe mechanism provided or by contacting us.

Unsubscribing from marketing will not prevent us from sending important service, security, billing, application or account communications.

We do not require users participating in the Referral Programme to provide a friend's email address to Hier solely so that Hier can send unsolicited marketing to that person.

Users must not use the Referral Programme to send spam or unlawful electronic marketing.

13. Cookies, Analytics and Similar Technologies

Hier may use cookies, local storage, software development kits and similar technologies.

Some technologies are necessary to:

• keep users logged in;
• maintain security;
• remember essential preferences;
• operate the platform; and
• prevent fraud.

Where required by law, non-essential technologies used for analytics, advertising or tracking will not be activated until appropriate consent has been obtained.

Users may be provided with cookie or privacy controls where appropriate.

14. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, security, regulatory and dispute-resolution requirements.

The period will depend on:

• the nature of the information;
• the reason it was collected;
• whether an account remains active;
• legal or regulatory requirements;
• the risk associated with the information;
• limitation periods for potential claims;
• fraud prevention requirements; and
• whether continued retention is necessary to protect users or Hier.

Extended Network Data

Information licensed from third-party data providers is retained only while it remains relevant for recruitment purposes, and is reviewed periodically. Where an individual asks to be removed, we suppress their record and retain only the minimum information needed to ensure they are not re-added or contacted again.

Account and Profile Data

Generally retained while an account remains active and for a limited period after closure where necessary for security, recovery, disputes or legal compliance.

CV and Candidate Data

Generally retained while required to provide the Candidate service and deleted or anonymised following account deletion, subject to legal retention requirements, active disputes and secure backup cycles.

Businesses that have independently received Candidate information may have their own lawful retention requirements.

Applications and Messages

Retained while reasonably necessary to operate the recruitment service, provide account history, resolve disputes, protect users and comply with law.

Referral Records

Referral eligibility and reward records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to:

• administer rewards;
• prevent duplicate or fraudulent claims;
• resolve disputes;
• maintain appropriate audit records; and
• meet financial or legal obligations.

Payment and Accounting Records

Financial and transaction records may be retained for periods required by tax, accounting and company law, which may be up to six years or longer where legally required.

Security Information

Security logs and fraud-prevention information may be retained for a reasonable period based on the security risk.

Backups

Information deleted from live systems may remain temporarily in encrypted or protected backups until those backups are overwritten in accordance with our normal backup cycle.

Where information is no longer required, we will delete, anonymise or put it beyond use as appropriate.

15. Data Security

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

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

Measures may include, where appropriate:

• access controls;
• authentication controls;
• least-privilege access;
• encryption in transit;
• encryption or equivalent protection at rest where appropriate;
• security monitoring;
• backups;
• logging;
• vulnerability management;
• staff confidentiality obligations;
• supplier due diligence; and
• incident-response procedures.

No online service can guarantee absolute security.

Users are responsible for protecting their account credentials and should notify us promptly if they believe an account has been compromised.

16. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on the circumstances and 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 information;
• request completion of incomplete information;
• request deletion of personal data;
• restrict certain processing;
• object to certain processing;
• receive certain personal data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• object to direct marketing;
• raise concerns about profiling;
• request safeguards in relation to relevant automated decisions; and
• complain about our handling of personal data.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to exemptions or legal requirements.

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

We will respond within the time required by applicable data protection law.

To exercise your rights, contact:

hello@hierapp.co.uk

17. Right to Object

You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests in certain circumstances.

Where personal data is processed for direct marketing, you have the right to object to that processing at any time.

If you object to direct marketing, we will stop using your personal data for that purpose.

18. Data Protection Complaints

If you believe that Hier has handled your personal data incorrectly or breached applicable data protection law, you may make a data protection complaint to us.

Complaints can be submitted to:

hello@hierapp.co.uk

Please include enough information for us to understand and investigate your concern.

We will:

• provide a reasonable means for individuals to make complaints;
• acknowledge receipt of a data protection complaint within 30 days;
• investigate the complaint appropriately;
• keep you informed where appropriate; and
• inform you of the outcome without undue delay.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator.

We encourage you to contact us first so that we have an opportunity to resolve your concern.

19. Account Deletion

Users may request deletion of their account through available account functionality or by contacting us.

Following a valid deletion request, we will delete or anonymise personal data unless continued retention is necessary for:

• legal obligations;
• fraud prevention;
• security;
• financial records;
• legal claims;
• regulatory requirements; or
• another lawful purpose.

Deletion of a Hier account does not automatically require a Business that previously received Candidate data as a separate controller to delete that data. Requests concerning a Business's independent processing may need to be made directly to that Business.

20. Third-Party Links and Services

Hier may contain links to or integrations with third-party websites and services.

Those organisations may independently collect or process personal data.

Their privacy practices are governed by their own privacy notices, and Hier is not responsible for processing undertaken independently by those organisations.

20.1 Reference Data We Use

To work out how far a role is from where you want to work, Hier matches the location you enter against a list of place names and their approximate coordinates.

That list is held within Hier's own systems. The location you enter is matched against it by us, and is not sent to any third-party geocoding, mapping or location service.

The place name data is provided by GeoNames (geonames.org) and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

21. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy where necessary to reflect:

• changes to Hier;
• new features;
• legal or regulatory changes;
• changes to suppliers;
• changes to our processing activities; or
• improvements to our privacy practices.

Where a change materially affects how we use personal data, we will provide appropriate notice before or when the change takes effect where required.

The current version will display the date on which it was last updated.

22. Contact Us

For privacy enquiries, rights requests or data protection complaints:

HIER APPLICATIONS LIMITED
167–169 Great Portland Street
London
England
W1W 5PF

Email: hello@hierapp.co.uk