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IBM Digital Talent for Business
Talent Acquisition Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice supplements the IBM Privacy Statement and describes data privacy information related to IBM Digital Talent for Business's recruitment and hiring process.

IBM Digital Talent for Business takes your personal information protection seriously and respects local data protection laws.

This Privacy Notice explains how IBM Digital Talent for Business processes your personal information during the recruitment and hiring process in order to progress your application, which may culminate in the entering into a contract with you.

This privacy notice applies to IBM Digital Talent for Business except where a subsidiary presents its own statement without reference to IBM’s.

We request that you read this Privacy Notice.

1. What personal information will IBM Digital Talent for Business process about you?

Personal information you provide, although it will vary by the country and nature of the role for which you will be considered, which may include:

  • Your first name and last name, address, email address, phone number(s), education history, work experience, CV, resume, information about your primary country of residence and citizenship, additional countries of interest, country you are applying to and the eligibility to work there, areas and communities of interest;

  • Whether you have ever worked for IBM Digital Talent for Business or an IBM Business Partner whether you have any government experience and if you signed any or accepted any agreement or are otherwise subject to any restriction with your current or former employers;

  • Depending on the country, criminal records information, observing the applicable laws and where an offer of employment has been made to you;

  • Depending on the country you are applying your disability, ethnicity, gender, race and religion.

  • Whether you require any accommodations/adjustments

You will receive more information about the nature of the pre-employment verification checks before they begin.


Personal information processed during the recruitment process, although it will vary by the country and nature of the role for which you will be considered, which may include:

  • Any cover letter or personal statement you provide;

  • Any references you provide, or IBM Digital Talent for Business takes up to validate the information you’ve provided;

  • Any interviewer or recruiter notes from their interactions with you or with the IBM Digital Talent for Business employee that recommended you;

  • If during the recruitment process you complete a video enabled assessment, we may store the video recordings of the assessment;

  • If during the recruitment process you complete a coding assessment, we will record and store any code created in response to the given exercises. Additionally, we will store one or more webcam photos of you completing the exercises and;

  • Any other information you give us.

Personal information processed if you receive and accept an IBM Digital Talent for Business offer of employment, such as your email address, first name, middle name, last name and IBM Digital Talent for Business employee Talent ID may be used from the date of offer acceptance.

2. For what purposes IBM Digital Talent for Business will process your personal information?

In response to your application or your interest about job positions, your information will be used by IBM Digital Talent for Business as necessary to:

  • Verify your information and conduct relevant and appropriate legally permitted pre-employment and eligibility verification checks, as well as to assess your skills, qualifications and experience;

  • Comply with local, national or international laws, obligations and legal requirements;

  • Communicate with you about IBM Digital Talent for Business events, careers opportunities and the recruitment process including any interviews;

  • Contact you for other, future roles which may be of interest to you and aligned to your skillset.

  • Complete the selection process;

  • Conduct surveys and research activities with the objective of improving IBM Digital Talent for Business’s recruiting process;

  • Perform analysis of our applicant pool to better understand who is applying to positions at IBM Digital Talent for Business and how to attract top talent;

  • Where legally permissible, we may ask you to voluntarily disclose your disability, ethnicity, gender and nationality, to help IBM Digital Talent for Business with its Diversity and Inclusion programs (such as to assess the workforce, promote benefits and inclusive policies for the related population);

By submitting your application, you authorize IBM Digital Talent for Business to store your personal information in IBM Digital Talent for Business’s Recruitment tools for the secure storage of your data whilst your application is assessed and otherwise as set out above.

3. For how long will we retain your personal information?

If you are given and accept an offer of employment by IBM Digital Talent for Business, the personal information collected during your pre-employment period may become part of your employment record on IBM Digital Talent for Business’s personnel records Employment Data System, to be retained throughout and for a period of time after your employment with IBM Digital Talent for Business.


If IBM Digital Talent for Business does not employ you, IBM Digital Talent for Business will retain your personal information according to the document retention policy after which your personal information will be erased from the Recruitment system.

4. With whom and why we share your personal information?

Your information may be accessed by and shared with IBM Digital Talent for Business recruiters, IBM Digital Talent for Business Recruitment Process Outsourcing, IBM Digital Talent for Business Talent Acquisition focals, hiring managers of IBM Digital Talent for Business in the relevant IBM subsidiaries, who are involved in the recruitment process on a need-to-know basis, as relevant and necessary for your application for the role you are being considered for. This includes IBM subsidiaries publishing job advertisements on a non-IBM Digital Talent for Business website or on the subsidiary’s website. Where an advertisement is posted on a non-IBM website or on the subsidiary’s website, please refer to the Privacy Notice published on such website for further details regarding the processing of your personal information.

In some cases, IBM Digital Talent for Business shares your personal information with third parties if legally required or allowed, to achieve the purposes informed above. Depending on the geography, these third parties are suppliers of Human Resource Information Systems, used by IBM Digital Talent for Business, as well as suppliers related to occupational health and safety management services systems.

Your information may be accessed by government officials where legal reporting requirements may exist, or law enforcement agencies or private litigants in response to valid law enforcement process (warrant, subpoena, or court order).

If your prospective management line is out of the country, we may transfer your personal information from the country to which you applied to other people within the same function in one or more IBM subsidiaries in other countries as applicable for the purpose of processing your application, ensuring that your data is processed according to local laws and IBM requirements.

5. Legal Basis

In some jurisdictions, the lawful handling of personal information is subject to a justification, sometimes referred to as legal basis. The legal bases that we rely on for the lawful handling of your personal information vary depending on the purpose and applicable law.

The different legal bases that we may use are:

- Necessary for the performance of a contract with you

We rely on this legal basis to process your personal information for the purposes of preparing to conclude or concluding an employment contract with you.

- Necessary for the purposes of IBM Digital Talent for Business’s legitimate interest

We rely on our legitimate interests when processing your personal information for the purposes of sourcing suitable talent for IBM Digital Talent for Business’s workforce.

- Consent

The processing of your personal information is based on your consent where we request this.

- Legal obligation

We rely on this legal basis to process your personal information due to obligations stemming from, for example, local labor or tax laws.

6. General

More information on how IBM Digital Talent for Business handles your privacy and the identity of the Controller of your personal information, can be found at https://www.ibm.com/privacy.

7. Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, delete, and restrict the processing of your personal data, as well as the right to data portability and objection. For more detailed information on how to exercise these rights, please visit our Data Subject Rights Policy page.

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