IdealJobs privacy notice
Last updated
IdealJobs is a job portal operated by Idealweb (Pty) Ltd, trading as IdealJobs (“we”). This notice explains how we handle personal information when you browse the site, create a profile, set up job alerts or apply for a job advertised by a recruitment agency or an employer. IdealJobs is for people of 18 and over.
Who is responsible
We are the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) for your IdealJobs account and profile, for job alerts and for the running of this site.
An agency or employer that receives your application, registration or profile is separately responsible for what it does with that information, including its recruitment decisions and the records it keeps.
Many agencies and employers use recruitment software that we provide. Where we host their records, we do so on their behalf and on their instructions.
Some adverts here are placed directly by an employer, or by a recruitment agency for its client. When you apply to one, your application goes to that employer or agency, which decides how it is used for its recruitment and is responsible for that use. IdealJobs holds the application for it, and also uses your information for its own purposes as this notice describes. The advertiser's name is on the advert, so you know who you are applying to.
What we collect
What you give us. Your name, email address, cell number and location. Your saved identity details, including citizenship, date of birth and ID, permit or passport number. Your other answers under Your details and what you add to your profile, such as the work you are looking for, your salary expectation and your notice period.
Your CV and the profile built from it. Work history, education, skills and languages.
Your activity. The jobs you apply to or save, your searches and alerts, whether your profile is switched on, and a record of your consent and any withdrawal.
Technical information. Network address, device and browser type, the pages requested, and cookies (see Cookies and analytics).
From agencies and employers. Information about an application you made, such as its status.
To create a profile we need your name, an email address you can confirm, your cellphone number and your acceptance of our terms. We also need your home town (suburb or town), gender, current and expected salary (amount and period for each), citizenship, ID number (or passport or permit number), date of birth, the job you are looking for and a CV. Your ethnicity is also required; by continuing, you consent to recruitment agencies you apply to or register with using your ethnicity for employment equity shortlists and reporting. These details help agencies and employers assess your suitability for jobs. Without the required details you cannot complete your profile or send an application. Other details are your choice.
A CV often holds more than we ask for, such as a photograph or the details of referees. Leave out sensitive information a job application does not need, such as information about your health, religion or beliefs. Include other people's details only with their knowledge. What you do include is handled as part of your CV, for the purposes below. If your CV gives your date of birth and your details do not, we copy it into your details, where you can change it.
Why we use it
We use your information to run your account and profile, send your applications and help agencies and employers find you for jobs. We send the job alerts and matches you ask for. We also use your information to secure, support and improve the service, prevent abuse, comply with the law and deal with disputes and legal claims.
We do this to provide the service you have asked for, with your consent where we ask for it, to meet our legal obligations, and where it is in our legitimate interests or those of an agency or employer looking to fill a position.
Automated tools
We use automated tools, including language models, to read your CV into a profile, to interpret what is typed into the search box and to match jobs with profiles. You can correct your profile in your account. We do not decide who is shortlisted, interviewed or hired. Agencies and employers make those decisions. They may use automated tools, including tools we provide to them, to screen and score applications against criteria they set; those tools sort applications for them, and they decide. Ask them how an application is assessed.
Who can see your information
Agencies and employers you apply to or register with receive your full profile, CV and contact details. An application includes the identity details you saved: your citizenship, date of birth and ID, permit or passport number. It also includes your answers under Your details.
Other agencies and employers. While your profile is switched on, any recruitment agency or employer using IdealJobs can find it. They can view your details, including your name, contact details and CV. They may contact you about a job. You can switch your profile off, withdraw consent or delete your account. When your profile is switched off, no agency or employer can find it on IdealJobs.
Copies already received. Switching your profile off, withdrawing consent or deleting your account does not remove copies an agency or employer already holds. Your account lists the agencies and employers that received your details through IdealJobs (Agencies and my details). Each is responsible for its own copies, including whom it shares them with.
Profiles are not public web pages and are not made available to search engines.
Our staff and service providers have access where that is needed to run, support and secure the service. We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or where that is necessary to protect our rights, our users or the service. We do not sell your information. We share contact details with Google for advertising on our behalf, as explained under Cookies and analytics.
Service providers and processing outside South Africa
Your account, your CV file and our backups are hosted in South Africa. Some of our service providers process information in other countries, mainly the United States and, for some functions, the United Kingdom and the European Union:
Language-model and text-analysis services receive the contents of your CV and what is typed into the search box, and support the matching of jobs with profiles.
A network delivery and security service carries the traffic between your browser and this site.
An analytics service measures how the site is used (see Cookies and analytics).
An advertising service measures our advertising and matches registered job seekers to its users for the advertising purposes explained under Cookies and analytics.
Mapping services look up the place names typed into a search.
Notification delivery services carry the IdealJobs app's notifications to your phone (see Job alerts and email).
Those countries may not have data protection laws equivalent to POPIA. Where a provider receives personal information, we rely on our agreement with it or on its binding terms of service, which govern how it may use what we send. We may change providers, and we update this notice when the kinds of provider or the countries involved change materially.
How long we keep it
Your account and profile are kept while your account is open. We may close accounts that have not been used for an extended period.
Job alerts set up with an email address alone are kept until you stop them, or until they have gone unused for a period.
When you delete your account we remove your profile, your CV, your saved jobs and your saved searches from the live service. We keep limited records where we have a lawful reason to: evidence of what you agreed to and of the deletion, a record of which agencies and employers received your applications and when, email delivery and unsubscribe records, and security logs. We keep these to show that we acted lawfully, to deal with queries, disputes and legal claims, and so that we do not contact you again after you have asked us to stop.
Backups are kept for a limited period and then overwritten. Information deleted from the live service can remain in a backup until then.
Copies held by agencies and employers are kept under their own policies. Deleting your IdealJobs account does not delete them. From your account you can withdraw an application, or ask an agency to delete what it holds; the decision on that request is the agency's.
Cookies and analytics
We use cookies that the site needs in order to work, for example to keep you signed in and to remember your cookie choice.
We use Google Analytics to measure how the site is used: the pages viewed and their addresses, which can include the words typed into a search, the site a visitor came from, the type of device, an approximate location, and whether a visit led to a registration or an application. We do not send Google Analytics your name, your email address or your CV. Depending on where you are visiting from, analytics is either on until you switch it off or off until you accept it; the cookie notice shows which applies, and you can change your choice in the cookie settings at any time.
When you reach IdealJobs from one of our adverts on Google, we later tell Google whether that visit led to a registration, a job alert or an application, using the reference Google added to the link you clicked. We do this to measure our advertising.
We use Google Ads Customer Match to show registered job seekers adverts for IdealJobs and to exclude them from adverts for our recruitment software for agencies and employers. We send Google a coded version of your email address, called a SHA-256 hash, and may also send a hash of your phone number. Google can match these codes to its users; they are not anonymous. Google processes these details on our behalf under its Data Processing Terms. To opt out, email us at [email protected] and we take you off the list. This does not change what you see on IdealJobs.
When you register, apply or ask for a job alert, we keep with it how you reached IdealJobs: the site or advert you came from and the labels in the page address, so we can tell which of our advertising works. This is part of what you send us, not a cookie, so it is kept whatever you chose in the cookie notice, and it is deleted with your account.
Google Ads uses cookies on IdealJobs to measure our advertising. Browsing or searching without an account does not create a profile that agencies or employers can find.
Job alerts and email
We send the job alerts and matches you have asked for, and messages about your account. Alert emails carry a link to stop them. We do not use your details to market unrelated products or services to you without your consent. If you unsubscribe, we keep a record of that so that we can respect it.
The IdealJobs app keeps a notification code for your phone from Apple or Google so we can tell you about new jobs and your applications. You can turn notifications off in the app or on your phone, and we remove the code when you sign out.
Security
We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the information we hold, including encrypted connections, access controls and limiting staff access to what a role requires. No online service can be guaranteed to be secure. If your information is compromised, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as the law requires.
Your rights
You may ask us whether we hold information about you and for access to it; ask us to correct or delete it; object, on reasonable grounds, to how we process it; object to direct marketing; and withdraw a consent you have given. Withdrawing consent does not affect what was done before it, or processing that rests on another lawful ground. We may need to confirm who you are, and the law allows or requires us to refuse or limit some requests, for example where we have to keep a record.
In your account you can download a copy of your main account information, edit your profile and manage alerts. You can also switch your profile off, withdraw consent or delete your account. When your profile is switched off, no agency or employer can find it on IdealJobs. For other requests, or if you cannot get into your account, write to [email protected].
For information held by an agency or employer, contact it directly. We assist where we host its records.
You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa: through its eServices portal at eservices.inforegulator.org.za, at [email protected], on 010 023 5200 or 0800 017 160, or at Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice. The date at the top shows the current version, and a change that matters will be pointed out on this page.
Contact
IdealJobs is a service of Idealweb (Pty) Ltd (registration 2015/054112/07), 87 Marjoram Avenue, Sinoville, Pretoria, 0129, telephone 087 265 2153 / 072 617 4893, email [email protected]. Our Information Officer is Louis Coetzee, at the same email address. The terms cover how the board itself works.