Recruitment Privacy Notice – Secret Escapes Limited
The controller of your personal data is Secret Escapes Limited, a company registered in England under company number 07026107 with its registered office at 4th Floor 120 Holborn, London, England, EC1N 2TD (referred to in this privacy notice as “we“, “us” or “Secret Escapes“).
This privacy notice applies to anyone who applies to work at Secret Escapes on a permanent and a non-permanent basis, including contingent workers, temporary and contract workers, independent contractors, consultants, professional advisors, secondees, interns and other third parties engaged to carry out work for us and who have access to our premises or internal systems (collectively referred to in this privacy notice as “you“). This categorisation is for convenience and does not indicate any particular employee, worker or other status.
The purpose of this privacy notice is to help you understand how we use your personal data, who we share it with and what rights you have relating to your personal data.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal data please contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) at dpo@secretescapes.com.
We regularly review this privacy notice and will update it where necessary.
This privacy notice was last updated on 9 July 2024.
If you would like to receive a copy any previous versions, please contact our DPO at dpo@secretescapes.com
How do we collect information from you?
We obtain information about you when you:
- visit Secret Escapes Careers (Website) to apply for a role;
- apply for a role at Secret Escapes via an external job board;
- contact us directly regarding a job role;
- existing Secret Escapes employee contacts us to personally refer you for a role; or
- apply via a third-party recruitment agency.
What personal data do we collect about you?
Throughout your application process, we will collect and process personal data about you. This includes the following information:
- basic contact details including full legal name, telephone number, personal email address, and postal address;
- full work or education history;
- references details of previous employer(s) or education establishments;;
- details of your nationality and immigration status; and
- details of the role applied for and assessment of your suitability for that role.
What is our lawful basis for using your personal data?
When Secret Escapes processes your personal data, we must have a lawful reason to do so under data protection legislation (“lawful basis”).
The table below sets out the personal data we collect and use about you and the lawful basis we rely on.
You are required to provide certain personal data either by law or under the terms of your contract of employment and we have identified the personal data below with an“*”.
If you do not provide this personal data, we may not be able to continue with your application at Secret Escapes.
| Personal data processed | Purpose of processing | Lawful basis |
| Basic contact details including full legal name; telephone number; personal email address; and postal address* | To contact you, in order to discuss your application with Secret Escapes | Legitimate Interests; to allow Secrets Escapes to contact individuals in order to discuss a job opportunity |
| To enable us to send you updates of future relevant positions at Secret Escapes if you are unsuccessful in your original application | Consent | |
| If your application progresses and you accept a verbal offer to join our team, your personal data will be used to prepare your contract of employment | Legal Obligation | |
| CV and full work history * | To assess your suitability to work for us | Legitimate Interests: to allow Secret Escapes to assess suitability for a role and screen applications |
| References details from previous employer(s). If provided, by you as part of your application | To assess your suitability to work for us | Legitimate Interests: to allow Secret Escapes to assess suitability for a role and screen applications |
| Your nationality and immigration status* | To demonstrate that you can legally work in the country you are applying for if we offer you a role | Legal obligation |
| Details of your working requirements | To understand your requirements for the role and assess your suitability | Legitimate Interests: to allow Secret Escapes to assess suitability for a role and screen applications |
| Opinions and responses given to a series of competency based questions during your interview* | To assess your suitability to work for us and ensure you fit with the culture of Secret Escapes | Legitimate Interests: to allow Secret Escapes to assess suitability for a role and screen applications |
| Details of professional development training or relevant qualifications* | To assess if you have suitable qualifications or training for the role that you are applying for | Legitimate Interests: to allow Secret Escapes to assess suitability for a role and screen applications |
Special category data
During your application we will not collect any sensitive personal data about you, this is known as “special category data”. For your reference special category data includes:
- details of medical history or special requirements you may need;
- sexual orientation; or
- details of illness and time off for periods of sickness in previous roles.
You should not provide us with any special category personal data during your application or interview and if you do we will not record or use this information.
We do not process any criminal data about you during application.
If you are offered a position at Secret Escapes we will collect special category data and this will be fully detailed within our Employment Privacy Notice provided to you with your contract of employment.
Sharing your personal data with third parties
During your application process, it will share your personal data with third parties. This is to assist with your application process and the operational running of our business. The types of third parties with whom we will share your personal data includes:
- online recruitment platform provider;
- IT services providers;
- Recruitment agencies;
- regulatory or law enforcement agencies;
- professional advisors, such as lawyers and accountants;
- Pre employment screening provider to carry out right to work, prospective/previous employers (reference purposes) and criminal records check if required; and
- potential purchasers of some or all of our business or on a restructuring.
When we share your personal data with third parties, we only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes in accordance with our instructions. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with data protection laws and the recipient of the personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
Keeping your personal data secure
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way.
We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with a suspected personal data security breach. We will notify you and any relevant regulator of a suspected personal data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
How long do we keep your personal data for?
If you are not successful in the role we will retain your application records for a further 12 months, this is to allow Secret Escapes to respond to any queries regarding your application or to contact you about other relevant positions if you have provided consent.
If you are offered a role at Secret Escapes, your personal data will be processed as an employee of Secret Escapes and will be retained in accordance with our employee privacy notice. The employee privacy notice will be provided with your contract of employment.
Transferring data overseas
In some cases, we may need to transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom (UK). Where this is the case, we will only share the minimal amount of personal data necessary for the purpose of processing and, where possible, we will share the personal data in an anonymised form.
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- we may transfer your personal data to countries for whom there has been an adequacy decision by the UK Secretary of State (as applicable) confirming that the country provides an adequate level of protection for personal data; or
- we may use specific contracts approved by the UK Secretary of State which give personal data the same protection it has within the UK. When we rely on this measure we will ensure that the third party can comply with the provisions of such contracts and we have confirmed that the country to which the personal data is transferred provides enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available there; or
- a specific exception applies under applicable data protection law.
Please contact dpo@secretescapes.com if you would like further information about the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data overseas.
Your Data Subject Rights
Under data protection laws you have the following rights:
- Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate personal data we hold about you corrected.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data 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 data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see point d below).
- Object to processing of your personal data 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.
- Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
- Request that your personal data is sent to another controller (the right of portability). In certain circumstances, you have the right to get your personal data from us in a way that is accessible and machine-readable, and you also have the right to ask us to transfer your personal data to another organisation. This does not apply to all of your personal data, only personal data that you have provided to us and which is held electronically. We only have to comply with this right if it is technically feasible to provide this personal data in a commonly used format, for example, a CVS file.
If you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights, please contact dpo@secretescapes.comIn most cases we will deal with your request as soon as possible and at the latest within one calendar month of the date the request was received.
If we need to extend the time period for responding to your request, we will let you know within the one-month period.
We do not charge a fee for any such requests unless there are exceptional circumstances.
How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your personal data. If not, you can contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or via telephone on 0303 123 1113 for further information about your rights and how to make a formal complaint.