Last updated: February 01, 2022
Dear Candidate,
We are very pleased about your interest in ResearchGate and your interest in working with us.
During the recruitment process, we will be processing your personal data. Within this Candidate Privacy Policy, in accordance with Art. 13 and 14 GDPR, we will describe what personal data we are processing, for which purpose, and how.
If there are any questions about our processing of your personal data that this Candidate Privacy Policy does not answer, please reach out to our Data Protection Officer.
1. Responsible party and Data protection officer
The controller and responsible party for data processing during the recruitment process is ResearchGate GmbH, Chausseestraße 20, 10115 Berlin, Germany (“we”, “us”, “our”).
Our Data Protection Officer can be reached by:
E-Mail: privacy@researchgate.net
Letter to: Data Protection Officer, ResearchGate GmbH, Chausseestr. 20, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Contact form: https://www.researchgate.net/contact
2. What data are we processing, for which purpose and what is our legal basis?
A. Categories of data
1. Generally speaking we will process such personal data that is relevant to the recruiting and application process. This can be data regarding yourself (e.g. name, address, contact details), information regarding your education, professional experience, and related reference letters or certificates, and other information that you share with us during the application process.
2. Depending on the position for which you have applied, the following data might also be processed:
Results of tests and/or assigned tasks during the recruitment process.
3. We might also process publicly available, personal professional data from professional social networks such as Xing or LinkedIn, where this has been made available and/or shared by you with us.
4. Any other data voluntarily provided by you via email, letter, or verbally will also be processed during the recruiting process.
5. If you are voluntarily participating in our candidate experience survey, no personal data will be requested. If you are using free-form fields in such surveys and choose to leave personal data, this data will be processed.
B. Purpose of the data processing and legal basis
We will process the data mentioned above for the following purposes, based on the accordingly mentioned legal basis. Our data processing generally relies on the German BDSG and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
1. We will process the applicant data that is necessary for the decision to commence an employment relationship with the candidate.
Our legal basis is § 26 BDSG, Art. 88 GDPR.
2. Where you have provided us with your voluntary consent regarding processing of your personal data, your consent is our legal basis for such processing, Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.
3. We will reach out to Candidates and ask them to provide feedback about our Recruitment Process by participating in a candidate experience survey.
Our legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. It is our legitimate interest to understand how we can improve our recruitment process and how we can make it as enjoyable and attractive as possible for candidates. Finding and recruiting talent is crucial to a successful future for ResearchGate. We aim to find the most talented, best-suited candidates and offer a recruitment process that is well-planned and designed to attract talent at this early stage. To understand whether our process is what talented candidates expect and whether it can foster the necessary trust in ResearchGate, we need to ask the candidates, as they are best positioned to assess the quality from their perspective. Candidate participation is absolutely voluntary, and we will only ask for participation once.
3. Recipients of your personal data
A. The personal data processed (see 2. A. 1 to 4 above) will be shared with those ResearchGate employees that are involved in the recruitment process. From the HR department, that involves the recruitment team recruiting for the position. From the department for which the HR team is recruiting, that usually involves the department’s head and potentially one or two colleagues from the department. It may happen that other employees of ResearchGate will also be involved, for example, employees that will foreseeably collaborate with you but are not employed in the same department. If such employees are involved, they will also access your personal data. Only the recruitment manager and the hiring manager will also have access to your salary expectations.
B. Your personal data will also be processed by service providers such as our recruitment management software, IT service provider (e.g. hosting provider, email server), and technical interview platforms.
C. Recipients outside of the European Union
Some of our service providers that process your personal data have their registered seat outside the European Union. To maintain a comparable level of privacy, in accordance with Art. 44 GDPR, we either collaborate with companies that have their registered seat in countries with an adequacy decision of the European Commission (Art. 45 GDPR) or we have concluded so-called Standard Contractual Clauses with them (Art. 46 GDPR).
4. Data retention
Your data will be retained for the duration of the recruitment process, i.e., for as long as the data is required to reach a decision about your application.
In the instance where you have given us your explicit consent to retain your data in our talent pool, we will apply the according retention period and will automatically anonymize the data once the retention period has elapsed.
Where you have not granted consent to retain your data in our talent pool, we will, in cases where the recruitment process did not lead to employment with ResearchGate, retain your personal data for a period not exceeding six months in order to, among other things, enable us to manage potential disputes. Once the retention period has elapsed, your data will be anonymized.
5. Automated decision-making
We do not engage in automated individual decision-making, including profiling (according to Art. 22 (1) and (4) GDPR).
6. Your rights
The following list contains your data subject rights, that you can exercise at any time by contacting ResearchGate and/or our Data Protection officer.
-
-
- Right of access by the data subject in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR, § 34 BDSG
- Right to correct inaccurate personal data or complete incomplete data according to Art. 16 GDPR.
- Right to obtain deletion of your personal data stored with us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, § 35 BDSG
- Right to restrict the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR
- Right to data portability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR
- Right to object in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR
- Right to lodge a complaint with your competent supervisory authority. Your competent authority is the authority at your usual place of residence or the authority competent for us.
- You have the right to object to all types of processing that are based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests), based on grounds relating to your particular situation, Art. 21(1) GDPR.
-
7. Withdrawing consent
In cases where you have given us your consent for the processing of personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing that consent has a proactive effect on future processing and will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on this consent prior to its withdrawal.
8. Do you have to provide us with personal data?
No, you don’t have to provide us with personal data. There is no legal or contractual obligation to provide us with personal data, however, the recruitment process naturally necessitates the processing of certain personal data. Should you choose not to share your personal data with us, we will unfortunately not be able to conduct the application process together.
To view or download a PDF version of this document, click here.