Privacy Policy

jobs4interns (jobs4interns.co.uk) is run by Trusty Hound Tech Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17519728. Our registered office is One Business Village, 1 Emily Street, Hull, HU9 1ND.

jobs4interns is a commercial service run for social good. We are not a registered charity or social enterprise, but the platform was set up with a social purpose: to make internships and placements open to every student, not just those with family or professional connections.

This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use jobs4interns, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are. It applies to students, employers and anyone else who visits the site.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Trusty Hound Tech Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZC295705.

Contacting us about your data

Our Data Protection Lead is responsible for how we handle personal information and for answering requests about it. You can contact them using the contact form on our website, or by post at the address above, marked for the attention of the Data Protection Lead.

If you are a student

• Account details: your name, email address, password (stored in encrypted form), date of birth and phone number if you give it.
• Your profile: your university or college, course, year of study, expected graduation date, location and the kinds of placement you are looking for.
• Documents you upload: your CV, personal statement and any other files you add to your profile.
• Your applications: which roles you apply for, when, and any status updates employers make.
• Right to work: whether you have the right to work in the UK, if you choose to tell us.
• Job alert settings and your email and marketing preferences.
• Payment records if you buy a paid upgrade or service. Your card details are handled by Stripe and never reach our systems. We only receive a record that the payment was made.

Extra information you can choose to give us

Some students tell us about a disability, neurodiversity (such as autism, ADHD or dyslexia) or a health condition so that employers can make reasonable adjustments. You can also choose to answer equality and social mobility questions, such as your ethnicity, gender, whether you received free school meals or whether you are the first in your family to go to university.

This information is optional. You do not have to give it to use jobs4interns, and leaving it out will not affect your applications. Some of it is special category data under UK law, so we only collect it with your explicit consent, and you can withdraw that consent at any time.

If you are an employer

• Your name, job title, work email address and phone number.
• Your organisation's name, address and details.
• The roles you post and the applications you manage.
• Payment and invoicing details for any paid services or voluntary contributions.

Everyone who uses the site

• Messages you send us and records of support requests.
• Technical information such as your IP address, browser, device type and the pages you visit. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics also collects information about how you use the site. Our Cookie Policy explains how we use cookies.

UK data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for each way we use your information. The table below sets out what we do and the basis we rely on.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising by other companies.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against your rights. You can object to this use at any time (see section 7).

Employers you apply to. When you apply for a role, the employer can see your full profile, CV, personal statement and anything else on your account. Once they have it, the employer is responsible for how they use it under their own privacy policy. Adjustment needs are only shared if you ask us to share them.

Employers searching for candidates. We do not currently let employers search or browse student profiles. If we add this in future, it will be off unless you choose to switch it on, and we will update this policy and tell you before it starts.

Universities and colleges. We do not share your information with your university or college. If we ever offer this, we will ask for your permission first.

Career coaches. If you book one-to-one career coaching, we share your name, email address and anything you choose to send for your sessions, such as your CV, with the independent coach who runs them. Coaches must keep your information confidential and use it only for your coaching.

CV shortlisting. Some employers ask our team to read the applications for a role and send them the strongest. If you apply for one of those roles, a member of our team will read your application before deciding whether to pass it to the employer. This is always done by a person, never by AI.

Our team. Staff and contractors of Trusty Hound Tech Ltd can access personal information where they need to run, support or maintain jobs4interns. They are bound by confidentiality.

Service providers. We use a small number of suppliers who handle data for us under contract and only on our instructions:

Authorities. We will share information with the police, courts, regulators or other public bodies where the law requires us to.

If the business changes hands. If jobs4interns is sold or transferred to another organisation, your information would pass to them, and they would have to keep using it in line with this policy.

Where your information is stored

All jobs4interns data, including CVs and profiles, is stored on servers in London. Google Analytics data, which does not include your profile or CV, may be stored by Google in the United States under the UK government's data bridge with the US. Two other things can involve access from outside the UK:

• Stripe may process payment information in the United States. Stripe relies on the UK government's data bridge with the US and on approved contract terms to protect it.
• Some of the contractors who maintain jobs4interns work outside the UK and may access data remotely to fix problems or develop the site. When this happens, we use the International Data Transfer Agreement approved by the ICO, which requires them to protect your information to the same standard as UK law.

Minimum age

You must be 18 or over to use jobs4interns. We ask for your date of birth when you register to check this. If we find that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it and delete their information.

How we match you to roles

We use the preferences in your profile, such as location, subject and type of placement, to decide which roles to show you and which job alerts to send. This only affects what you see. You can still search and view every role on the site, and you can change your preferences at any time.

We do not make any decision about you, such as rejecting an application, by automated means. Decisions about applications are made by people: by the employer, or by our team where the employer uses our CV shortlisting service.

Keeping your information secure

We protect your information with encrypted connections across the site, encrypted storage of passwords, access limited to people who need it, and regular security updates to our servers. No system is completely secure, so if we ever have a data breach that is likely to put you at risk, we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.

Please keep your password private and tell us straight away through our contact form if you think someone else has used your account.

We keep your information while your account is open. When you close your account, we delete your CV, profile, personal statement and uploaded documents within 30 days. The 30 days lets us deal with any complaint or reopen an account closed by mistake.

Anonymised figures, such as how many students from under-represented backgrounds found placements, cannot identify you and may be kept for longer.

Applications already sent to employers

When you apply for a role, the employer receives a copy of your application. Deleting your jobs4interns account removes our copy but cannot remove the employer's. If you want an employer to delete your details, you will need to ask them directly. We are happy to give you their contact details.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Get a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Have anything inaccurate or incomplete corrected.
• Have your information deleted where there is no good reason for us to keep it.
• Ask us to limit how we use your information while a concern is looked into.
• Object to us using your information on the basis of legitimate interests, or for marketing.
• Receive the information you gave us in a format you can take to another service.
• Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

You can update most of your details, change your preferences or close your account yourself in your account settings.

Making a request

All data requests are handled by our Data Protection Lead. Use the contact form on our website, or write to the Data Protection Lead, Trusty Hound Tech Ltd, One Business Village, 1 Emily Street, Hull, HU9 1ND. Please tell us your name, the email address on your account and what you are asking for.

We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act, so that we never give your information to the wrong person. We will reply within one month. If your request is complex, we may need up to two more months, and we will tell you within the first month if so. Requests are free, unless they are clearly unfounded or excessive.

Complaints about how we handle your data

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information or handled a request, please contact our Data Protection Lead first through our contact form. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it and give you a full response without undue delay.

If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office:

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone 0303 123 1113, or online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

We will update this policy when the way we use personal information changes, for example if we introduce profile search or university partnerships. We will post the new version here and email account holders about any significant change before it takes effect.