Privacy policy

The short version

• You can apply for jobs without making an account.
• Your application goes only to the employer you applied to. We never sell your information.
• Applications and resumes are stored in Canada and deleted automatically about 3 years after you apply.
• Job alert emails only start after you confirm, and every one has a one-click unsubscribe link.
• You can ask to see, fix or delete your information at any time: email hello@hirehood.ca.

Who we are

Hirehood is a local job board for Pembroke, Petawawa and the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada. It is run by {{LEGAL_ENTITY}} (“Hirehood”, “we”), 1356 Pembroke St W, Pembroke, ON. We are responsible for the personal information described here, under Canada’s federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

The person accountable for how we handle personal information is our privacy officer: {{PRIVACY_CONTACT}}. You can also write to hello@hirehood.ca or to the mailing address above.

What we collect, and why

When you apply for a job

Your name, email, phone number (if you give it), your resume and cover letter (if the employer asks for them) and your answers to the employer’s questions. We use these only to send your application to that employer, to email you a code to confirm your email and a receipt, and to let the employer reply to you and schedule an interview.

We also record that you agreed to share your application, the wording you agreed to, when, and the internet (IP) address you sent it from. We keep the address as proof of your agreement and to spot fake or automated applications.

While you fill in an application, what you type (not the agreement box) is saved in your browser on that device, so you can come back and finish it. It isn’t sent to us until you press send. It is removed when you send the application, when you choose “Start over” or “Clear it”, or after 7 days. On a shared computer, clear it when you’re done.

The employer may add private notes and labels to your application and move it through their hiring steps. If an employer asks a yes-or-no question and your answer doesn’t meet their stated requirement, a “Doesn’t meet requirements” label is added automatically (a fixed rule, not artificial intelligence). You can ask us to see these notes and labels.

When you sign up for job alerts

Your email address, the towns, kinds of work and job types you picked, how often you want emails, and a record of your consent (the wording, the date and time, and the internet address it came from). We use these only to send you job alerts and to show that you asked for them.

When you report a job

The reason, any details you write, your email if you choose to give it (so we can follow up), and the internet address you sent the report from (so one person can’t report the same job over and over). We remove the internet address when we finish dealing with the report. The employer never learns who reported their job.

When you post jobs as an employer

Your sign-in email, your company’s details and contact email, the jobs you post, the notes, labels and messages you write in your applicant inbox, and your payment history. Card payments are handled by Stripe — we never see or store your full card number.

If you use “Write it for me” or upload a job description, the sentences you type or the file you upload are sent to OpenAI, the company that provides the writing assistant, in the United States. We don’t store them. Please don’t include anyone’s personal details in them.

When you visit the site

Like any website, our servers keep short-lived technical logs (such as your internet address, the page you asked for and whether it worked) to keep the site running and safe. Our forms use a bot check from Cloudflare, which looks at technical information such as your internet address and browser. We don’t use advertising trackers, and we don’t build profiles of visitors.

To count how many people use the site, each page you open adds one to that day’s total. This uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and keeps nothing about you — only the daily totals. If a page breaks, your browser sends us a short error report (the page’s address without anything you searched for or typed, the error, and the kind of browser) so we can fix it. It is kept with our server logs.

Who we share it with

• The employer you apply to — your application and resume, and nothing else about you. Employers agree to use applications only to hire for their job. Once they have your application they may keep their own copy, under their own privacy duties.
• Service providers who run Hirehood for us, under contracts that protect your information:
  • Amazon Web Services: hosting, storage, sign-in and email, in Canada;
  • Cloudflare: the “are you a person?” check on our forms, which may process your internet address and browser information outside Canada;
  • Stripe: employer payments, which may be processed outside Canada, including in the United States;
  • OpenAI: the optional job-description writing assistant for employers, in the United States.
• When the law requires it — for example, a valid court order, or to report fraud to the police or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Information processed outside Canada is subject to the laws of that country and may be accessed by its courts, law enforcement and national security authorities.

We never sell or rent personal information, and we never share job seekers’ details with other employers.

Where it’s stored

Applications, resumes, alert subscriptions, reports and employer accounts are stored on Amazon Web Services servers in Canada (the Canada Central region, in Montréal). Hirehood’s systems run in an Amazon Web Services account it shares with Valley Eats, a local business with the same owner.

How long we keep it

We delete information automatically on the schedule below. Automatic deletion can take a few days to run, and deleted information stays in our encrypted backups for up to 35 days before it is gone for good.

• Applications, resumes, and the employer’s notes, labels and messages about them: about 3 years after you apply, then deleted automatically.
• Resumes you upload but don’t send: deleted within 2 days.
• Interview reminders: 7 days after the interview.
• Job alert sign-ups you never confirm: the confirmation link stops working after 7 days, and the sign-up is deleted after 30 days.
• Job alert subscriptions: until you unsubscribe. Emails stop right away. 30 days later we delete the subscription and keep only a short record that your email address unsubscribed, so we never email you alerts again by mistake.
• Records of your consent to job alerts (your email, the wording you agreed to, when, and the internet address): while you’re subscribed and for 3 years after you unsubscribe, so we can show the emails we sent were wanted, as Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) expects. Your agreement to share an application is kept with the application and deleted with it.
• Reports about a job: 2 years after we finish dealing with the report, as our record of what we did. The internet address is removed when we finish dealing with it, and you can ask us to remove your email sooner.
• Server logs: 30 days.
• Employer accounts: while the account is open. To close an account, email hello@hirehood.ca. Payment records are kept for at least 6 years after the end of the tax year they belong to, as Canadian tax law requires.
• Our record of actions taken by our team and by employer accounts (such as approving or removing a job, or issuing a refund), with who did it and when: kept for as long as we run Hirehood, so we can answer for decisions we made. It refers to applications by number, never by the applicant’s name.

Emails we send (CASL)

We follow Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. Job alerts are only sent after you ask for them and confirm by clicking a link we email you. Every alert says who sent it, gives our mailing address, and has a one-click unsubscribe link that works right away, without signing in. We also send messages you need to use the service, such as your application receipt and messages from the employer you applied to. Applying for a job doesn’t sign you up for any mailing list.

Your choices and rights

You can, at any time:

• ask what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy;
• ask us to correct it;
• ask us to delete it — including an application you sent (the employer may already have read or saved it);
• withdraw your consent, for example by unsubscribing from alerts.

Email hello@hirehood.ca from the address you used with us, or write to our privacy officer at the mailing address above. We may ask you to confirm it’s really you. We’ll answer within 30 days; if we need more time, we’ll tell you why within those 30 days and answer within another 30 at most. If you ask us to delete everything, we keep only what we need to show we followed the law: the record of your consent to job alerts (until its 3 years are up), and any report you made, without your email.

If you’re not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Keeping it safe

Information is encrypted when it travels to us and when it’s stored. Resumes are kept in private storage and employers download them through links that expire after 5 minutes. Our back office doesn’t show applications or alert subscribers at all, and our team’s accounts use two-step sign-in.

If a breach of our safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we’ll tell you as soon as we can and report it to the Privacy Commissioner, as the law requires. We keep a record of every breach for at least 2 years.

Age

Hirehood is for people who are old enough to work in Ontario. Most jobs need you to be at least 14, and some need you to be 15, 16 or 18. Please don’t apply if you’re younger than 14.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll update the date on this page and, where the change affects how we use information you already gave us, we’ll ask for your consent again. We keep every version we have published, and you can ask us for an earlier one.