WorkGrades Privacy Notice

When we collect personal data

We collect and process personal data by expressly obtaining it from you and your reference provider. (i) when you create an account on our Website (and thereby become a “Registered User”), (ii) when you enter information into the Reference Profile Page on our Website, (iii) when you request information from us via email and (iv) when you use our Services or our Website in any capacity (whether as a Registered User or not), such as sharing your LinkedIn profile or providing employment verification or references.

In addition, we collect personal data about a person’s previous employers (such as email address and phone number) from the person who provides that information to us.

With respect to the personal data we collect and process, we will typically be the data controller. In some cases, we may be a data processor.

What types of personal data do we collect?

We may collect certain personal data, as described below.

• Job Seekers and Other Registered Users – When you create an account on our Website and thereby become a “Registered User,” you will be required to provide us with certain personal data about yourself (including your first and last name, email address, username and password). When you provide information in your Reference Profile Page you will be asked to provide certain other personal data, including employment history, title and job skills. You are asked to provide the email addresses and phone numbers of those who can verify your employment history and provide references. Although providing information to us (other than that required for registration) is optional, including such information will make our Services more useful and valuable to you.
• Hiring Companies & Staffing Agencies – We process the personal data of individuals who access our Website or use our Services on behalf of a hiring company or staffing agency, as well as the personal data of other personnel of any hiring company or staffing agency (e.g., hiring managers, talent coordinators, etc.) that use our Services or our Website.
• Previous Employers — If you are using WorkGrades solely to provide employment verification or references for job seekers, we will have collected personal data (such as your email, your email address and phone number) from the user who provided that information to us. We will also collect such other personal data that you may provide in a reference. By default, your contact information (which include your name, your email address and phone number ) will be shown with any reference you provide, and will be available to candidate’s, to such candidate’s potential employers, and to us. We also collect data regarding your employment with previous employers in the form or ratings and reviews.
• Contacting Us — Our Website permits you to contact us via email. Whenever you send an email via our Website, you will be providing us with your name, email address and any information you choose to include in the text of your message. You may also choose to provide your mailing address or other information that may be necessary or helpful for us to address your query or other concern.

You can remove your information at your convenience as described below under the heading "Data Retention and Modifications." However, if you do not provide personal data to us when requested, we may not be able to provide Services to you. We may also not be able to perform any contract we have (or are trying to enter into) with you.

What types of technical data do we collect?

The Website uses commonly-used automated information gathering tools. While you are using our Website (including through a WorkGrades-generated link in response to a request to provide employment verification or reference, or connecting through a URL provided by a user), we automatically log your Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number assigned to your computer when you use the Internet), general data (including your domain name and the name of the web page from which you entered our Website) and your activity while accessing and using our Website.

Additionally, in order to personalize and enhance your WorkGrades experience, we may also collect information through "cookies." Cookies are small strings of text that are sent by our Website to your browser and then stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. We use cookies to help diagnose problems with our servers and to administer our Website. We also use cookies to gather broad demographic information and to help identify you (by certain personally identifiable information) in respect to visits to our Website, so that we may improve your user experience, and to determine whether you visited our Website from a particular Internet link or advertisement.

WorkGrades may also use small bits of code called "one-pixel gifs," "clear gifs," or "web beacons" embedded in web pages to gather certain Website information. Information may also be collected passively in the form of log files that record Website activity, including how many "hits" a particular web page is getting (a.k.a., "click-through data"). For example, log file entries are generated every time a user visits a particular page or clicks an image on our website. These entries enable WorkGrades to track a particular user's visits to a web page, assess overall Website activity, track interest in particular User Profile Pages or other portions of our Website, troubleshoot technical concerns, and identify the type of browser you are using. We may also use the log file entries for our internal marketing and demographic studies, so we can constantly improve the Website.

By visiting our Website, you consent to the placement of cookies and beacons in your browser and HTML-based emails in accordance with this Privacy Notice. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. If you disable cookies, some features of our Website may become disabled, and some aspects of our Website may not function properly. Deleting cookies does not necessarily delete Flash objects. You can learn more about Flash objects – including how to control and disable them – through the Adobe interface. If you choose to delete Flash objects from our Website, then you may not be able to access and use all or part of our Website or benefit from the information and services offered.

How we use your personal data and technical data

We process personal data to operate our business, to provide Services, and to operate our Website. Specific purposes for processing personal data include:

• to establish your account with us;
• to provide the Services offered by WorkGrades;
• to correspond with you regarding WorkGrades or matters arising under our agreements with you;
• to inform you of developments in our company or with our Services that we believe may be of interest to you;
• to personalize your use of our Services and the Website;
• to conduct research and development for the improvement of WorkGrades to provide you and other users with a better experience and drive user growth and engagement;
• to monitor Website usage and other activity;
• for our internal operations, including troubleshooting and diagnosing problems with our computer servers;
• for identification and security purposes;
• to comply with applicable laws, regulations and legal processes;
• to enforce our agreements with you; and
• to protect the rights, property, or safety of ourselves, our users and others.

Parties with whom we may share personal data and technical data

Your trust is important to us, which is why we do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties solely for marketing purposes.

We may share personal data about you with others if:

• a user searches for you through WorkGrades website
• we have given you notice, such as by telling you about it in this Privacy Notice;
• it is necessary to carry out your instructions, to provide any Services to you, or to provide the features and functionality of our Website.

In addition, we use third party service providers (our “Service Providers”) to assist us in operating our business. Service Providers provide a wide range of services to us, including, but not limited to: legal and compliance, accountancy, investment banking, marketing, data analytics, telecommunications (including telephone and video conferencing), website administration, information technology, courier, human resources and security services.

From time to time, we may share your personal data with our affiliates and our Service Providers, and those affiliates and Service Providers may process your personal data on our behalf and at our direction. The types of personal data we may share with our affiliates and our Service Providers include:

• your name;
• your contact data (including email address and telephone numbers);
• technical data, including internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, device identifiers, geolocation information, and other technology on the devices you use to access our Website;
• information about how you use our Website and our Services; and
• your preferences in receiving marketing from us and from third parties, as well as your communication preferences.

We may also share anonymous/aggregated information with third parties, including our Service Providers, to facilitate our business operations.

Additionally, we may share your personal data for the following purposes:

• to protect and defend our rights, property, or safety or those of our users, or others;
• to enforce the terms that govern this Website or our provision of the Services;
• to issue requests for employment verification or references to those to whom you have directed us;
• when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities (such as for potential fraud or infringement);
• when required to do so by law or regulation, or in response to legal process (for example, a court order, search warrant or subpoena) or a request from a law enforcement or governmental agency or authority, and in other circumstances in which we have a good faith belief that a crime has been or is being committed by you or another user or that an emergency exists; and
• with our affiliates and third parties providing services on our behalf. We require our affiliates and third parties providing services on our behalf, and our users, to limit their use and disclosure of your information to uses and disclosures that are consistent with this Privacy Notice; however, we cannot guarantee their compliance. We may, however, also share, in aggregate, statistical form, non-personal information regarding traffic patterns, and Website usage with our partners or affiliates.

Please note that if you elect to make your Reference Profile Page public, then your Reference Profile Page can be accessed through searches on web search engines, which will publish portions of your profile.

Sharing of your personal data

You may choose to share personal data, references you have obtained from your employers, and other information with third parties (such as recruiting firms that place direct-hire and/or temporary employees, and prospective employers). Through our Website, you can ask former employers and colleagues to provide employment verification and a reference. You can copy, post and email your own URL which links to your Reference Profile Page, where anyone may view and access your information. We cannot and do not guarantee that any information you share in this fashion will be kept confidential or private.

If you share your references with direct hire recruiting firms or companies for prospective employment, such firms may provide those references to their clients or hiring managers (as prospective employers). By electing to share your references with any company, you acknowledge and are deemed to consent to their providing those references to their clients.

Additionally, if a recruiting firm has placed you as a temporary employee with its clients, that recruiting firm may use WorkGrades to request and collect references from those clients regarding your assignment, without obtaining your consent to do so. Information in those references may include clients’ opinions regarding your job performance. Clients would send completed references back to the recruiting firm via WorkGrades. The recruiting firm may then share those references about you with its other clients to fill open job orders.

All information that reference providers provide in their references, including any personal information that is in those references, will be made available to the candidates and their potential employers. That information will also be available to us.

By providing references through our service, reference providers thereby consent to having their contact information shared with candidates and with potential employers of the candidates and possibly being contacted by them.

“Do not track” signals

We do not collect personal data about your online activities over time and across third party websites or online services. Accordingly, we do not currently process or comply with any web browser's "do not track" signal or other mechanisms that provide consumers with the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personal data about your online activities over time and across third party websites.

Data retention and modifications

We retain your personal data while your account is in existence, or as needed to provide Services to you. We may also retain your personal data even after you have closed your account if retention is reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations, meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes between us and any third party, resolve any disputes between users, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce this Privacy Notice or our agreements with you, and for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis.

We generally delete or de-personalize closed account data if personal information is no longer needed. We may also retain personal data if requested by law enforcement or as required under applicable law, regulation or legal process.

We strive to maintain the accuracy of any personal data that may be collected from you, and will use our reasonable efforts to update our database when you tell us the information in our database is not accurate. It is your responsibility to ensure that such information is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

You may access, modify and correct your personal information by logging into your account or by contacting us at support@workgrades.com. You may either delete your personal information or close your account only by contacting us at support@workgrades.com. When you delete a reference, it will no longer appear on your references dashboard; however, we will still retain that reference in our database. Furthermore, you may not delete references that recruiting firms have obtained from their clients at which they have placed you as a temporary employee.

You can request your personal information that is not viewable on your profile or readily accessible to you (for example, your IP access logs) by contacting us at support@workgrades.com.

Any removed information may persist in our backup files but will not be generally available to users. We will not endeavor to delete information contained in our backup files..

Email lists

Anyone may choose to subscribe (at no charge) to our email mailing list. If you choose to subscribe to the email mailing list, we will periodically send to you updates and other information regarding our Services.

Opting out of receiving communications

You may opt out of receiving communications from us and our affiliates at registration or, thereafter, by following the opt-out link provided in any email received from us or by emailing us at support@workgrades.com.

Children

We do not intend for children under 13 years of age (or age 16 within the European Economic Area) to become users. WorkGrades does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 (or age 16 within the European Economic Area) or knowingly allow such persons to register. However, in any event, if you are under 18, please do not attempt to register for this Website or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. By using our Website, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age.

Third party websites, advertisers and applications

WorkGrades may reference or include links to third party websites, including those provided by our Registered Users on their Reference Profile Page. Neither WorkGrades nor any user controls or is responsible for the third-party websites or for the privacy policies or information practices of third parties or their websites. You should review the privacy policies posted on such sites. Moreover, WorkGrades does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed on your computer by such third parties.

Protecting your personal data

Because security is important to both you and us, we will use reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. WorkGrades employs physical, electronic and administrative safeguards to protect the information we receive from you from unauthorized disclosure. This includes our requirement for user names and passwords to access certain information and data and our use of industry-standard SSL encryption to protect data transmissions. Users should not share their usernames or passwords with anyone. In addition, if you suspect unauthorized access to your information, it is your responsibility to contact WorkGrades immediately at support@workgrades.com.

WorkGrades personnel will never ask you to divulge your password in written or electronic communications. If at all, we will only ask you for your password when you contact us by phone and only in cases where you request customer service to correct a service problem which requires your password.

Please be aware that Internet data transmission is not always secure and we cannot warrant that information you transmit utilizing this Website is secure.

Business transfers of personal data

We may, in the future, sell or otherwise transfer some or all of our assets to a third party. Your personal data and technical information may be disclosed to any potential or actual third-party purchasers of such assets and/or may be among those assets transferred. We may also share or transfer personal data and technical information in connection with a merger, divestiture, reorganization or other disposition (whether of assets, stock or otherwise), or in the event of our bankruptcy or other insolvency proceeding.

California “shine the light” law

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, known as the "Shine The Light" law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us a list of what personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year and the names and addresses of those third parties. Requests may be made only once a year and are free of charge. Under Section 1798.83, we currently do not share any personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

Users in the European economic area

This section applies only to individuals in the European Economic Area.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), individuals in the European Economic Area (“EEA Individuals”) have certain rights in relation to their personal data, which are summarized below. These rights are subject to your exercising them in good faith and are subject to our legitimate interests or other valid basis to continue processing your personal data, in accordance with our policies and applicable law.

Our lawful basis for processing your personal data for the purposes described under the headings “How We Use Your Personal Data and Technical Data” and “Parties With Whom We May Share Personal Data and Technical Data” in this Privacy Notice are: (i) performance of any contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you, (ii) it is necessary for our legitimate interests, (iii) we must comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, or (iv) we have received your consent.

EEA Individuals who wish to exercise any of the rights they have under the GDPR should contact us in writing by email. Our email address is shown at the end of this Privacy Notice. We may need to request specific information to help us confirm your identity, so that your personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request.

Generally, EEA Individuals will not have to pay a fee to exercise the rights described below. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

EEA Individuals may lodge a complaint with the appropriate regulatory body or supervisory authority in the country where they reside, where they work, or in the place of the alleged infringement of the law.

Access

If asked by an EEA Individual, and if we are obligated to do so under applicable law, we will inform that individual about whether we are processing his/her personal data. If we are processing such EEA Individual’s personal data, we will provide access to the personal data that we have about that individual. If you request additional copies of your personal data, we may charge you a reasonable fee.

Rectification (i.e., Correction)

If the personal data we hold about an EEA Individual is inaccurate or incomplete, that individual may ask us to have it corrected.

Erasure

EEA Individuals may request that we erase (i.e., delete or remove) their personal data in certain circumstances. If you are legally entitled to erasure, and if we have shared such personal data with third parties, we will take reasonable steps (taking into account available technology and the cost of implementation) to inform such third parties of your request, to the extent we are required to do so by applicable law.

Restriction of Processing

EEA Individuals have the right to restrict the processing of their personal data in certain circumstances, such as if they contest the accuracy of that personal data, if the processing of the personal data is unlawful, or if we no longer need the personal data for our business purposes. If you are legally entitled to restriction, and if we have shared your personal data with others, we will use reasonable efforts to inform such third parties of your request, if we are required to do so.

Data Portability

EEA Individuals may ask to receive their personal data from us, where the legal basis of our processing is their consent, and where we carry out the processing of their personal data by automated means. If EEA Individuals so request, we may transmit their personal information directly to another organization if it would be technically feasible to do so.

Objection to Processing

EEA Individuals may object to the processing of their personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party). As noted above, you also have the right to object to (i.e., opt out of) our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

EEA Individuals have the right not to be subject to a decision when it is based on automatic processing, including profiling, if it produces a legal effect or similarly significantly affects you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us.

We do not engage in decision-making based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning an individual or similarly significantly affects an individual.

Processing of Special Categories of Personal Data and of Personal Data Relating to Criminal Convictions and Offenses

There are certain types of personal data that require a higher level of protection, known as “special categories” of personal data under the GDPR. We do not process special categories of personal data unless (a) we have obtained such individuals’ explicit consent or (b) we are otherwise legally permitted to do so. For example, we may collect special categories of personal data of EEA Individuals in the context of dietary requirements or restrictions for events and meetings that such individuals voluntarily provide to us.

We do not collect personal data about criminal convictions and offenses, unless revealed by due diligence conducted to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation or unless we are authorized to do so under applicable law.

Withdrawing Consent

We do not collect personal data about criminal convictions and offenses, unless revealed by due diligence conducted to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation or unless we are authorized to do so under applicable law.

International data transfers

We are based in the United States and our computer servers are located in the United States. Accordingly, all personal data in our possession and control is collected and processed by us in the United States. Any party that provides personal data to us is thereby transferring such data to the United States and is explicitly consenting to the transfer of their personal data to the United States. United States law may provide fewer protections to individuals than other jurisdictions, particularly the European Economic Area. The European Commission has not determined that the United States offers an adequate level of data protection, and individuals outside of the United States may suffer risks because of the absence of an adequacy decision and appropriate safeguards. Individuals who access the Website from outside the United States do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, rules and regulations.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right, at any time, to modify or update this Privacy Notice. Any such modifications or updates will be effective upon posting. You are responsible for checking the Website for any updates to this Privacy Notice. If we modify this Privacy Notice, your continued use of the Website or of our Services will signify your acceptance of the modified Privacy Notice.

Questions or concerns

WorkGrades will happily address any questions or concerns about our Privacy Notice or about our processing of your personal data. Contact us at support@workgrades.com. Our mailing address is below:

Work Grades, LLC
10100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 900
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Attn: Kelly Quijano, Project Manager