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Privacy Notice for recruitment

Exscientia plc, The Schrödinger Building, Oxford Science Park, Oxford OX4 4GE (registered in England 13483814) (“We”, “Us”, and "Our" means relating to Us) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Notice (together with any other documents referred to herein) sets out the basis on which the personal data collected from you, or that you provide to Us, will be processed by Us in connection with Our recruitment processes. Please read the following carefully to understand Our views and practices regarding your personal data and how We will treat it.

For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the GDPR as it forms part of the laws of the United Kingdom by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK GDPR"), the Exscientia plc is the organisation that is the controller of your personal data.

We may change or add terms to this Privacy Notice. If We make any substantial changes in the way We use your personal data, We will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on the careers section of Our website.

Our Appointed Representative in The European Economic Area (EEA)

As We are based in Great Britain, we have appointed Sophie Asamer to be Our representative within the EEA. Their contact details are sasamer@exscientia.co.uk.

We use Workable, an online application provided by Workable Software Limited, to assist with Our recruitment process. We use Workable to process personal data as a processor on Our behalf. Workable is only entitled to process your personal data in accordance with Our instructions.

Where you apply for a job opening posted by Us, these Privacy Notice provisions will apply to Our processing of your personal data in addition to Our other Privacy Notice which has been provided to you separately or is available on Our Website.

Where you apply for a job opening via the application function on a job site or similar online service provider (“Partner”), you should note that the relevant Partner may retain your personal data and may also collect data from Us in respect of the progress of your application. Any use by the Partner of your data will be in accordance with the Partner’s Privacy Notice.

Your Personal Data

The table below provides details of the purposes for which We process your personal data, along with the types of data processed for those purposes and the legal grounds that We rely on to support such processing.

Purpose of processing
Personal data processed
Legal Grounds for processing
  • To consider and process any application that you make for any particular job with Us including to identify and contact you
  • To determine whether you have the professional skills, expertise and experience for positions with Us
  • To communicate with you about the recruitment process and/or your application and/or roles that you might be suitable for
  • To determine the terms on which you may work for Us (where applicable)
  • To assist in the administration of Our recruitment programme and compliance with related internal policies (such as our equal opportunity, modern slavery and human trafficking policies)
  • For statistical purposes
  • To provide you with information about other job vacancies if you would like Us to send you such notifications

In the event that the recruitment process is successful:

  • For the purposes of onboarding you prior to the commencement of your employment with Us
  • To communicate with You following the completion of the recruitment process prior to commencing employment with Us
  • For the purposes of facilitating Our "Buddy Scheme" for new joiners.
  • To assist in the administration of Our recruitment programme and compliance with related internal policies (such as Our equal opportunity policies)
  • For statistical purposes to track Our equality, diversity and inclusion efforts and in order to understand the talent landscape
  • To identify employment opportunities that may be suitable for you or which you may be interested in
  • To provide you with information about other job vacancies if you would like Us to send you such notifications
  • To help US and Our service providers and Partners (such as Workable and its processors and data providers) improve their services
  • To comply with our contractual obligations with Our service providers
  • Your name, address, email address, telephone number
  • Your date of birth
  • Other information you provide when you apply for a role (including information provided through an online job site, via email, in person at interviews and/or by any other method)
  • Other information about you that is publicly available or made available by a third party
  • Your qualifications, skills and experience and information relating to your employment history, skills and experience
  • Records of correspondence with Us
  • Information and opinions obtained throughout the course of the recruitment process, including the results of assessments, referee reports and interview notes 
  • Your name, address, email address, telephone number
  • Other information you provide when you apply for a role (including information provided through an online job site, via email, in person at interviews and/or by any other method)
  • Your qualifications, skills and experience and information relating to your employment history, skills and experience
  • Your name, address, email address, telephone number
  • Your date of birth
  • Other information You provide when you apply for a role (including information provided through an online job site, via email, in person at interviews and/or by any other method)
  • Your qualifications, skills and experience and information relating to your employment history, skills and experience
  • Information and opinions obtained throughout the course of the recruitment process, including the results of assessments, referee reports and interview notes
  • Medical or health information including disability information and information concerning your racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religious or philosophical beliefs ("Diversity Data")
  • Other information provided in response to any candidate surveys that you complete
  • Details of your visits to Workable’s Website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, the site that referred you to Workable’s Website and the resources that you access
  • Information about your progress through Our hiring process for the applicable job opening
  • Other Disposition Data (as that term is defined below)
  • The processing is necessary to perform an agreement we have with you or to take steps to enter into an agreement with you (e.g. a contract of employment)
  • For Our legitimate business interests, being the recruitment of appropriately qualified staff who are capable of meeting the applicable role requirements
  • To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes or governmental requests – these may include minimum age labour laws, local content or employment requirements
  • For Our legitimate business interests, being the recruitment of appropriately qualified staff who are capable of meeting the applicable role requirements
  • With your consent – where the above legal basis does not apply, We will process your personal data based on your consent. If so, We will provide you with full details of the information that We require and the reason We need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent
  • The processing is necessary to perform an agreement we have with you or to take steps to enter into an agreement with you (e.g. a contract of employment)
  • For Our legitimate business interests, being the successful onboarding of staff who have been offered a position with Us
  • To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes or governmental requests, including applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws
  • For Our legitimate business interests, being the promotion of a diverse and inclusive workplace
  • In relation to Diversity Data only: for reasons of substantial public interest (including for equality of opportunity or treatment or to promote racial and ethnic diversity at senior levels) or to the extent processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employments and social security and social protection law
  • With your explicit consent – where the above legal bases do not apply, We may process your personal data based on your explicit written consent. If we seek to do so, We will provide you with full details of the information that We require and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent
  • For Our legitimate business interests, being the recruitment of appropriately qualified staff who are capable of meeting the applicable role requirements.
  • For our legitimate business interests, being the need to improve our processes and comply with Our obligations under arrangements with Our Service Providers and to ensure that Our service providers can improve services provided to Us

How we collect information from You

We collect and process information that you provide when you apply for a role. This includes information provided through an online job site (including Workable), via email, when you contact Us, in person at interviews and/or by any other method, including through the Video Interview feature and your visits to Workable’s Website.

Information we collect from other sources

Workable provides Us with the facility to link the data you provide to Us, with other publicly available information about you that you have published on the Internet – this may include sources such as LinkedIn and other social media profiles.  Please note that We may obtain your contact details from publicly available sources, including content that you have made public on social network sites or similar sites for professional purposes to make initial contact with you for recruitment purposes.  If We contact you in this way you will be given the opportunity to opt out of receiving any further information about career opportunities with Us and you can subsequently opt out at any time by contacting dataprivacy@exscientia.co.uk.

Workable’s technology allows Us to search various databases – some publicly available and others not, which may include your personal data (include your CV or Resumé), to find possible candidates to fill Our job openings. Where We find you in this way We will obtain your personal data from these sources.

We may receive your personal data from a third party who recommends you as a candidate for a specific job opening or for Our business more generally.  In considering Your application We may also obtain information from third party sources, including any referees that you specify, recruitment agencies, background check agencies and educational institutions.

Automated decision making/profiling

We may use Workable’s technology to select appropriate candidates for Us to consider, based on criteria expressly identified by us, or typical in relation to the role for which you have applied. The process of finding suitable candidates is automatic and based on standard criteria such as relevant qualifications, however any decision as to who We may contact or engage to fill the job opening will be made by Our staff.

Disclosure of Your Information

As set out above, We pass your information to Our third party service providers, including Workable, who use it only in accordance with Our instructions and as otherwise required by law.

Where you have applied for a job opening through the Indeed Apply functionality, and where you have consented to this disclosure, We will disclose to Indeed certain personal data that We hold, including but not limited to a unique identifier used by Indeed to identify you, and information about your progress through Our hiring process for the applicable job opening, as well as tangible, intangible, visual, electronic, present, or future information that We hold about you, such as your name, contact details and other information involving analysis of data relating to you as an applicant for employment (collectively “Disposition Data”). Indeed’s Privacy Notice in respect of Indeed’s use of the Disposition Data is available on Indeed’s website.

Where you have applied to a job opening through another service provider, We may disclose data similar to the Disposition Data defined above to such service provider. The service provider shall be the data controller of this data and shall therefore be responsible for complying with all applicable law in respect of the use of that data following its transfer by Us.

We may also provide personal data relating to you to third parties including background check applications or agencies or to referees indicated on your CV or during the recruitment process.

During the recruitment process we may issue you with a voluntary candidate survey via Culture Amp.  In this case, Culture Amp will need to process your personal data on Our behalf and in accordance with Our instructions.  The survey is completely voluntary, with results to be recorded anonymously.

If your application is successful, We may also share your contact details with team members as part of our onboarding process.  

We may share your personal data with:

  • law enforcement agencies, other governmental agencies or third parties if We are required by law to do so; and
  • other business entities should We plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity, or if We undergo a re-organisation with that entity.

How We Store Your Personal Data

Security

We take appropriate measures to ensure that all personal data is kept secure including security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information 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 any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where We are legally required to do so.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although We will do Our best to protect your personal data, We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted through any online means, therefore any transmission remains at your own risk.

Where We store your personal data

Where We store your personal data in Our own systems, it is stored in the UK and/or the EEA.

The data that We collect from you and process using Workable’s Services may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the EEA or UK. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK or EEA who work for Us or for one of Our suppliers.  Where necessary We may also share your data with our other Exscientia offices in different jurisdictions.  Data protection laws and practices are likely to be different across different jurisdictions and may be less stringent than those within the jurisdiction in which you are resident.  In such cases, We will ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal data that comply with our legal obligations.

In particular, your data may be accessible to i) Workable’s staff in the USA or ii) may be stored by Workable’s hosting service provider on servers in the USA as well as in the EU or the UK. The USA does not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. A Data Processor Agreement has been signed between Workable Software Limited and its overseas group companies, and between Workable Software Limited and each of its processors. These data processor agreements are based on the current version of the European Standard Contractual Clauses and International Data Transfer Agreement / International Data Transfer Addendum (as applicable), and are designed to help safeguard your privacy rights and give you remedies in the unlikely event of a misuse of your personal data.

If you would like further information please contact Us (see ‘Contact’ below). We will not otherwise transfer your personal data outside of the UK or EEA or to any organisation (or subordinate bodies) governed by public international law or which is set up under any agreement between two or more countries.

How long We keep your personal data

If your application for employment is unsuccessful then We may continue to hold your personal data for a further 24 months, in case We need to consult it in the future if you make another application or become an employee, or if a dispute arises about an application that you have made or in order to contact you if potentially suitable job opportunities become available in the future (provided that you have indicated to Us that you wish to be considered for future roles).  Your personal data will not be retained for longer than is reasonably required for the relevant purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have the right to:

  • request access to and information about the processing of your personal data;
  • request Us to correct any mistakes in your information that We hold;
  • request the deletion of your personal data ;
  • receive the personal data concerning you which you have provided to Us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations;
  • object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you;
  • object to decisions being taken by automated means that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you;
  • request the withdrawal of any consent that you have given for the processing of your personal data unless there is another lawful basis for the continued processing of that data; and
  • request the restriction of Our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals' rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • contact Us using Our Contact details below,
  • let Us have enough information to identify you,
  • let Us have proof of your identity and address, and
  • let Us know the information to which your request relates.

How to complain

We hope that We can resolve any query or concern you raise about Our use of your information.

The GDPR and UK GDPR also give you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.  The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at http://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: +44303-123-1113.

Contact

All questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Notice should be addressed to dataprivacy@exscientia.co.uk.