Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
SpellJob (“we”, “us”) operates the job board at https://www.spelljob.com. For the purposes of UK data protection law – the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 – the controller of your personal information is:
| Legal entity | Spell Job Ltd |
|---|---|
| Registered office | 497 Great West Road, Hounslow, TW5 0TE, United Kingdom |
| Privacy contact | info@spelljob.com |
2. Summary
- Our accounts store only what we need to let you sign in: your email address, a securely hashed password, your account type and an optional first name.
- We do not store CVs or detailed candidate profiles on our website. When you upload a CV or send profile details, they are emailed to our team at info@spelljob.com and the uploaded file is deleted from our web server immediately afterwards.
- To send job alerts we must keep your email address and the alert criteria until you unsubscribe.
- Job listings come from third-party job sources and from employers. When you click “Apply”, you leave SpellJob and the destination's own privacy policy applies.
- We do not sell your personal information. We use optional analytics cookies only if you agree.
3. Information we collect and why
| Information | When | Why we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Email address, hashed password, account type (candidate or employer), optional first name, account timestamps (created, last sign-in, password changed) | When you register and use your account | To create and secure your account, sign you in, recover access and send essential service messages |
| Saved jobs and recently viewed jobs (job reference, title, company, location, date) | When you save or view a job while signed in as a candidate | To show your saved and recent jobs. Recently viewed jobs are limited to your 20 most recent |
| Job alert email address, keywords, country, location, category, job type, work arrangement, frequency, status and dates | When you create a job alert | To send the alert emails you asked for. A copy of each new alert set-up (with any first name you give) is also emailed to our team |
| CV and profile details: name, email, phone (optional), country, preferred location, desired job title, skills, experience summary, job preferences, and anything in your CV | When you use Upload CV or send a profile update from your dashboard | To consider you for suitable job opportunities. See section 4 |
| Application details: name, email, phone (optional), message, CV | When you apply for a job posted directly on SpellJob that accepts applications by email | To pass your application to that employer. We keep only a record that an application was sent, and when |
| Employer and company details: company name, website, industry, size, location, description, contact name and phone, and job listings | When an employer registers and posts jobs | To publish and manage the employer's listings and contact them about their account |
| Enquiry details: name, email, organisation, phone, message | When you contact us, contact sales or make a privacy request | To respond to you. Sales enquiries are also recorded in our admin system so we can follow them up |
| Technical information: IP address, browser type, pages requested | When you use the website | To keep the service secure and prevent abuse. Your IP address is used for rate limiting in the form of a keyed, irreversible hash that expires automatically. Our hosting provider may also keep short-term server logs for security and troubleshooting |
| Analytics information (pages visited, approximate location, device type) | Only if you accept analytics cookies | To understand how the site is used and improve it |
We do not ask for special category information (such as health, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation) or criminal-offence information. Please don't include it in your CV or messages unless it is genuinely relevant.
4. How CVs and profile details are handled
Because we prefer not to keep candidate files on our website, CV and profile submissions work like this:
- Your file is checked (type, size and content checks) and held briefly in a private, non-public folder on our server under a random name.
- Your details and file are sent by email to info@spelljob.com through our email service provider.
- The temporary file is deleted from our server straight away – whether or not the email succeeded. If sending fails, we tell you and nothing is kept.
- Our website keeps only a technical record that a submission happened: the date, file type, file size and whether it was delivered. This record contains no name, email address or CV content.
Important: once emailed, your details are held in SpellJob's mailbox and any internal systems our team uses to manage candidates. Those copies are subject to this policy and our Data Retention and Deletion Policy. If you delete your account or ask us to erase your data, we will also delete the copies held in our mailbox unless we have a legal reason to keep them. The full process is described in our CV and Personal Data Processing Notice.
Your account and your CV are separate. Deleting the account removes your sign-in record; it cannot be restored afterwards. Your CV is never part of your website account.
5. Lawful bases
| Purpose | Lawful basis (UK GDPR Article 6) |
|---|---|
| Providing your account, saved jobs and recently viewed jobs | Contract – necessary to provide the service you signed up for |
| Considering your CV or profile for opportunities, and forwarding direct applications to employers | Steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, and our legitimate interest in operating a recruitment service you have chosen to use. |
| Sending job alert emails | Consent – you can withdraw it at any time with the link in every alert |
| Responding to enquiries and sales requests | Legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us |
| Security, fraud and abuse prevention, rate limiting | Legitimate interests in keeping SpellJob and its users safe |
| Handling data protection requests and keeping records required by law | Legal obligation |
| Analytics cookies | Consent, as required by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) |
Submitting a CV, creating an account or applying for a job does not mean you agree to receive marketing. We will only send marketing if you separately opt in, and we do not currently send marketing emails.
6. Who we share information with
- Service providers who process data for us: our website hosting provider and our email delivery provider. They act on our instructions under data processing terms. You can ask us for their names and locations at any time.
- Employers – only when you apply for a SpellJob employer listing that accepts applications by email. Your application goes directly to that employer, who becomes responsible for it.
- Analytics provider – Google Analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies.
- Authorities – where we are legally required to, or to protect rights, property or safety.
We do not send your personal information to the third-party job sources whose listings we display (for example, job aggregators and job boards). When you click “Apply now” on one of their listings, you go to their website or the employer's, and their privacy policy applies to anything you submit there.
7. International transfers
SpellJob is based in the United Kingdom. Some of our service providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (see the ICO's guidance on international transfers). Contact us for details.
If you apply for a job outside the UK, your application goes to that employer or job source in that country under its own laws.
8. How long we keep information
We keep information only as long as necessary. Our Data Retention and Deletion Policy sets out each period. In summary: account records until you delete your account; job alerts until you unsubscribe; temporary CV files are deleted immediately after sending; submission and email delivery logs for 90 days; sales enquiries for 365 days.
9. Security
We protect your information with measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), password hashing with a modern algorithm, protection against cross-site request forgery, secure session cookies, rate limiting of sign-in and submission forms, strict checks on uploaded files, storage of uploads outside the public website with immediate deletion, logs that exclude personal details, and access controls on administrative areas. No system is completely secure; if a breach affects you, we will tell you where the law requires.
10. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- access a copy of your personal information;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have your information erased;
- restrict or object to how we use it (including objecting to processing based on legitimate interests);
- receive information you provided in a portable format; and
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
You can delete your account yourself from Account settings, manage alerts from any alert email, or use our privacy request form. We respond within one month (extendable by up to two further months for complex requests, in which case we'll tell you why). We may need to verify your identity.
You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concern first. The ICO also explains your data protection rights.
11. Cookies and analytics
We use a small number of essential cookies to run the site, and optional analytics cookies only with your consent. See our Cookie Policy.
12. Other information
- Automated decisions: we do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. Search filters are tools you control.
- Age: SpellJob is intended for people aged 16 and over.
- Changes: we will update this policy when our services or the law change, and tell registered users about significant changes.
- Other countries: this policy is written for UK law. If you use SpellJob from elsewhere, additional local rights may apply.