Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") is published by Hirance Private Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, with its registered office at 8/4, Sector-4, Jankipuram, Lucknow – 226021, Uttar Pradesh, India ("Hirance","we", "us", or "our"). This Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, storage, processing, disclosure, and protection of Personal Data submitted by candidates and job seekers ("you", "your", or "User") who access or use our Platform and Services.

This Privacy Policy is issued in compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act"), the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"), the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 ("SPDI Rules"), and all other applicable Indian laws and regulations governing data privacy and protection.

By registering on the Platform, creating a candidate profile, or otherwise using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and unconditionally agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any provision of this Privacy Policy, you must immediately discontinue use of the Platform.

This Privacy Policy must be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions, Intellectual Property Policy, Cookie Policy, and any other policies published on the Platform. In the event of any conflict between this Privacy Policy and any other policy with respect to data protection matters, this Privacy Policy shall prevail.

Legal Basis

This Privacy Policy is compliant with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India), the Information Technology Act, 2000, the IT (SPDI) Rules 2011, and applicable provisions of international data protection standards including principles aligned with the GDPR where relevant to cross-border data flows involving Indian citizens.

Contact Information

Hirance Private Limited

8/4, Sector-4, Jankipuram, Lucknow – 226021, Uttar Pradesh, India

Email: hello@hirance.com

Phone: +91 7309510718, +91 9151410718

Consent Declaration

BY ACCESSING OR USING THE PLATFORM AND SERVICES, YOU EXPRESSLY AND FREELY CONSENT TO HIRANCE PRIVATE LIMITED'S COLLECTION, RETENTION, ANALYSIS, PROCESSING, USE, AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY. CONSENT OBTAINED UNDER THIS POLICY IS SPECIFIC, INFORMED, UNCONDITIONAL, AND UNAMBIGUOUS AS REQUIRED UNDER THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT, 2023.

1. Definitions and Interpretation

The following terms shall have the meanings set out below and shall apply throughout this Privacy Policy and all related policies of Hirance.

Term	Definition
"Personal Data"	Any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data, as defined under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. This includes name, contact information, professional history, biometric data, financial information, and any other data that can identify you directly or indirectly.
"Sensitive Personal Data"	Personal Data pertaining to passwords, financial information (bank accounts, credit/debit cards, UPI IDs), health data, official identifier information (Aadhaar, PAN, Passport), biometric data (selfie/photo for verification), and any other data classified as sensitive under applicable Indian law.
"Processing"	Any operation or set of operations performed on Personal Data, including collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination, alignment, combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction.
"Data Fiduciary"	Hirance Private Limited, in its capacity as the entity that determines the purpose and means of processing your Personal Data, as defined under the DPDP Act, 2023.
"Data Principal"	You, the candidate or job seeker whose Personal Data is being processed by Hirance.
"Consent Manager"	An entity registered with the Data Protection Board of India enabling you to give, manage, review, and withdraw your consent, as applicable under the DPDP Act, 2023.
"Data Processor"	Any third party engaged by Hirance to process Personal Data on Hirance's behalf, including cloud infrastructure providers, payment gateways, KYC verification vendors, and analytics partners.
"Platform"	The website, mobile application, APIs, and all digital services operated by Hirance Private Limited.
"Services"	All services offered by Hirance to candidates through the Platform, including job matching, profile management, employer communication, identity verification, and related features.
"Cookies"	Small text files placed on your device by the Platform to enable functionality, analytics, and personalization, as further described in Section 11 of this Privacy Policy.
"Anonymization"	The irreversible process of altering Personal Data in such a manner that you cannot be identified directly or indirectly, resulting in data that is no longer Personal Data under applicable law.
"Pseudonymization"	The processing of Personal Data in such a manner that it can no longer be attributed to a specific individual without the use of additional information, which is kept separately and subject to technical and organizational safeguards.

2. Objective and Scope of This Policy

Hirance is committed to maintaining the highest standards of data privacy and security for all candidates using its Platform. The objective of this Privacy Policy is to:

Provide you with a clear, transparent, and comprehensive understanding of how your Personal Data is collected, used, stored, and shared by Hirance;
Ensure full compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the IT Act, 2000, and all other applicable Indian data protection legislation;
Establish your rights as a Data Principal and Hirance's obligations as a Data Fiduciary;
Describe the technical and organizational safeguards implemented by Hirance to protect your Personal Data against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction;
Set out the legal bases upon which Hirance processes each category of your Personal Data.

This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Data collected through the Platform, whether submitted during registration, profile creation, job applications, identity verification, payment processing, or any other interaction with the Platform or its features. It applies to candidates accessing the Platform from within India and, where applicable, to candidates accessing the Platform from outside India in connection with job opportunities in India.

3. Categories of Personal Data We Collect

Hirance collects Personal Data that is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is strictly necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (the principle of data minimization). The categories of Personal Data we collect, and the specific details of how we collect, use, process, and retain each category, are set out below.

A. Personal Information

Category	Details
What we collect	Full legal name, personal or professional phone number, email address, current residential or professional location (city/state level), and profile photograph.
How we collect it	Directly from you during registration, profile creation, or subsequent updates to your account.
How we use it	To create, authenticate, and manage your candidate profile; to enable verified employers to identify and contact you; to personalize your experience on the Platform including job recommendations, notifications, and interface preferences; and to send transactional communications such as application updates, interview scheduling, and account alerts.
Why we process it	To perform the contract between you and Hirance for the provision of candidate services; to operate the candidate account; and to facilitate the job-seeking process. Phone and email are also used for two-factor authentication and account security.
Legal basis	Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) equivalent under DPDP Act, 2023); legitimate interests of Hirance in operating a secure and functional recruitment platform.
Retention Period	Retained for the full duration of your account lifecycle. Upon account deletion, personal identifiers are purged within 30 days, subject to backup retention schedules not exceeding 90 days. Residual anonymised data may be retained indefinitely for platform analytics.

B. Professional Information

Category	Details
What we collect	Resume or curriculum vitae (CV) including employment history, job titles, responsibilities, and tenure; professional skills and competencies; educational background including institutions, qualifications, and graduation dates; portfolio links, GitHub profiles, or work samples; professional certifications, licences, and accreditations; career objectives and salary expectations (where voluntarily provided).
How we collect it	Directly from you via document upload, manual profile entry, or import from LinkedIn or other integrated third-party professional networks (subject to your authorisation).
How we use it	To power Hirance's proprietary AI-assisted job matching and candidate ranking algorithms; to generate personalised job recommendations and recruiter-facing candidate summaries; to enable verified employers to search, filter, and evaluate candidate profiles; to improve the Platform's recommendation accuracy through behavioural feedback loops; and to provide candidates with career insights and job market analytics.
Why we process it	To fulfil the core purpose of the Platform — connecting suitable candidates with relevant employers. Processing is necessary for the performance of the candidate services agreement and constitutes a legitimate interest of the Platform.
Legal basis	Performance of a contract; legitimate interests of Hirance in providing an effective recruitment platform; your explicit consent where applicable.
Retention Period	Retained for the duration of the account lifecycle or until you delete specific content. Following account deletion, professional data is purged within 30 days subject to backup schedules. Aggregated, anonymised insights derived from professional data may be retained indefinitely.

C. Identity and Verification Data (if applicable)

Category	Details
What we collect	Government-issued identity documents including Aadhaar card, PAN card, Passport, Voter ID, or Driving Licence; a live selfie or facial photograph submitted for biometric liveness verification; background verification data including employment history verification, criminal record checks (where consented to), and educational credential authentication.
How we collect it	Directly from you when you opt into identity verification or when verification is required to access certain features. Identity document uploads and selfie/liveness checks are processed through Hirance's authorised KYC verification partner.
How we use it	To verify that you are who you claim to be, preventing the creation of fraudulent or impersonation profiles; to maintain platform integrity and trust; to comply with applicable regulatory obligations; and to enable features that require verified status, such as premium job applications or salary disclosure.
Why we process it	Fraud prevention and platform security constitute legitimate interests of Hirance. Processing of government-issued ID and biometric data for identity verification purposes is subject to your explicit prior consent, which may be withdrawn at any time (with the consequence that verified status will be revoked).
Legal basis	Explicit consent of the Data Principal for Sensitive Personal Data; legitimate interests (fraud prevention); compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
Retention Period	Identity documents and selfie data are retained for the duration of account activity and for a further period of up to 5 (five) years as required by KYC regulations and applicable financial crime prevention obligations. Background verification reports are retained for up to 3 years.

Sensitive Data Notice

Identity documents (Aadhaar, PAN, Passport) and biometric data (selfie/liveness photos) constitute Sensitive Personal Data under the IT (SPDI) Rules, 2011, and Sensitive Data under the DPDP Act, 2023. This data is processed only with your explicit, freely given, informed, and specific consent. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting hello@hirance.com, which will result in the revocation of your verified status on the Platform.

D. Payment Information (if applicable)

Category	Details
What we collect	UPI ID or VPA (Virtual Payment Address); transaction reference numbers and transaction history for premium subscriptions or paid services; billing name, billing address, and GST number (if applicable); bank account details where required for candidate payouts or refunds. Hirance does NOT store full debit/credit card numbers, CVV/CVC codes, or net banking passwords.
How we collect it	Collected at the time of initiating a payment transaction through the Platform's integrated payment interface. Full card details are transmitted directly to Hirance's PCI-DSS compliant third-party payment gateway and are never stored on Hirance's servers.
How we use it	To process payments for premium subscriptions, job application boosts, or other paid features; to generate transaction receipts and invoices; to manage subscription renewals and cancellations; to process refunds in accordance with Hirance's Refund Policy; and to comply with financial and tax record-keeping obligations.
Why we process it	Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract for paid services. Tax and financial record-keeping processing is required by law under the Income Tax Act, 1961, and GST law.
Legal basis	Performance of a contract; compliance with financial, taxation, and accounting legal obligations.
Retention Period	Transaction records and billing details are retained for a minimum of 8 (eight) years as required under the Companies Act, 2013, the Income Tax Act, 1961, and GST legislation. Payment instrument details (UPI ID, bank account) are retained only for as long as needed for the purpose of the transaction and refund window.

E. Device and Usage Data

Category	Details
What we collect	IP address, approximate geolocation derived from IP (city/region level), device type (mobile/desktop/tablet), operating system, browser type and version, device identifiers (where applicable and consented to); platform behavioural data including pages visited, job listings viewed, searches conducted, swipe actions, application submissions, session duration, click-through patterns, and feature interactions.
How we collect it	Automatically collected through server logs, cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, software development kits (SDKs), and similar tracking technologies when you access and use the Platform.
How we use it	To ensure the technical operation, stability, and performance of the Platform; to diagnose bugs, errors, and security incidents; to analyse aggregate usage patterns for product improvement; to deliver personalised content including job recommendations and UI preferences; to detect anomalous behaviour indicative of fraud, account compromise, or bot activity; and to measure the performance of marketing and recruitment campaigns.
Why we process it	Legitimate interests of Hirance in operating a secure, functional, and optimised digital platform. Where processing involves targeted analytics or profiling, Hirance relies on your consent obtained via the Cookie Consent mechanism.
Legal basis	Legitimate interests; consent (for non-essential cookies and profiling analytics).
Retention Period	Raw server logs are retained for 90 days. Aggregated, anonymised usage analytics are retained indefinitely. Cookie-derived data is retained in accordance with individual cookie lifespans disclosed in the Cookie Policy.

F. Communications Data

Category	Details
What we collect	Messages sent between candidates and employers through the Platform's in-app messaging system; emails and support tickets submitted to Hirance's customer support team; feedback, ratings, or reviews submitted through the Platform; responses to surveys or research studies (where you voluntarily participate).
How we collect it	Directly from you when you initiate or respond to communications through the Platform's communication features.
How we use it	To facilitate communication between candidates and employers; to provide customer support and resolve disputes; to improve the quality and safety of the Platform; to detect and prevent abuse, harassment, or policy violations; and to conduct research to enhance Services.
Why we process it	Legitimate interests of Hirance in maintaining a safe, functional communication environment; performance of a support contract; legal obligations to retain records of certain communications.
Legal basis	Legitimate interests; performance of a contract; legal obligation.
Retention Period	In-app messages are retained for 2 (two) years or until account deletion. Support communications are retained for 3 (three) years. Survey responses are retained in anonymised form indefinitely.

4. Legal Bases for Processing Personal Data

Hirance processes your Personal Data only where a valid legal basis exists under applicable Indian law, including the DPDP Act, 2023. The primary legal bases relied upon by Hirance are:

Consent: Where you have given free, specific, informed, unconditional, and unambiguous consent to the processing of your Personal Data for a stated purpose. You may withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to withdrawal, but may limit your ability to use certain features of the Platform.
Performance of a Contract: Where processing is necessary to perform the candidate services agreement between you and Hirance, including account creation, job matching, profile management, and payment processing for premium services.
Legitimate Interests: Where processing is necessary for Hirance's legitimate business interests, provided such interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms. Legitimate interests relied upon include platform security, fraud prevention, product improvement, and analytics.
Legal Obligation: Where processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation under Indian law, including tax record retention, KYC compliance, compliance with court orders, and reporting obligations to regulatory authorities.
Vital Interests: In exceptional circumstances, Hirance may process Personal Data to protect the vital interests of you or another natural person, including in life-threatening situations or emergencies.

5. How We Use Your Personal Data

In addition to the specific uses described for each data category in Section 3, Hirance uses Personal Data collected from candidates for overarching purposes such as job matching, identity verification, account security, and service improvement.

Job Matching and Personalised Recommendations: Analyses your professional profile, skills, and experience to generate relevant job opportunities.
Identity Verification and Platform Integrity: Authenticates your identity and assigns verified status to your profile to maintain a trusted recruitment environment.
Employer Communication and Recruitment Facilitation: Facilitates communication between you and verified employers through in-platform messaging.
Payment and Subscription Management: Processes payments for premium features, issues invoices, and manages subscription renewals.
Platform Security and Fraud Prevention: Analyzes usage data to detect anomalous access patterns and prevent account takeover attempts.
Legal Compliance and Regulatory Reporting: Processes data to comply with obligations under the DPDP Act, IT Act, Income Tax Act, and GST laws.
Research, Analytics, and Service Improvement: Uses anonymised data to fix technical issues and develop new platform features.

6. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

Hirance uses automated processing, including machine-learning-based profiling, to facilitate job matching and candidate ranking. This involves creating a candidate 'match score' that determines the order in which your profile appears in employer search results and the job recommendations you receive.

Hirance provides safeguards such as the right to human review of significant automated decisions and the ability to opt out of algorithmic profiling for job matching.

7. Profile Visibility and Data Control

7.1 Visibility Settings

Hirance provides candidates with granular controls over the visibility of their profile. The default visibility settings and available options are as follows:

Profile Visibility: Default is 'Verified Employers Only'. You may set it to 'Private' or 'Public'.
Contact Information: Phone and email are masked by default and shared only with your consent or when you accept a contact request.
Salary Expectations: Visible only to employers you directly apply to by default.
Identity Verification Status: Your verified badge is visible to all, but underlying documents are never shared.

8. Payments, Financial Data, and Refunds

All payment transactions on the Platform are processed exclusively through Hirance's authorised third-party payment gateway partners. Hirance does not process, store, or have access to your full debit or credit card number, CVV/CVC code, net banking credentials, or UPI PIN.

9. Identity Verification and Document Security

Identity documents like Aadhaar, PAN, and Passports are treated as Sensitive Personal Data. They are encrypted in transit and at rest, stored on secure cloud infrastructure, and never shared with employers without explicit consent.

10. Sharing, Disclosure, and Transfer of Personal Data

We share data with verified employers (based on your visibility settings) and authorized data processors who assist in providing platform services. We primarily store data in India and ensure all cross-border transfers comply with the DPDP Act, 2023.

11. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies for session management, authentication, analytics, and functional preferences. You can manage your preferences through the Cookie Consent banner or your account settings.

12. Safety, Fraud Prevention, and Platform Integrity

Technical safeguards include AI-based anomaly detection, manual spot-checks on job postings, and a robust "Report and Block" system to maintain a safe environment for all candidates.

13. Data Retention and Erasure

We retain profile data for the duration of account activity. Financial records are kept for 8 years as required by law. Upon account deletion, identifiers are purged within 30 days.

14. Your Rights as a Data Principal under the DPDP Act, 2023

As a Data Principal, you have the following key rights:

Right of Access: Obtain a summary of your personal data and processor list.
Right to Correction and Erasure of inaccurate or unnecessary data.
Right to Grievance Redressal through our Grievance Officer.
Right to Nominate another individual to manage your data rights.
Right to Withdraw Consent for any processing basis.
Right to Data Portability in structured, machine-readable formats.

15. Technical and Organisational Security Measures

Security measures include TLS encryption in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, role-based access control, and annual mandatory data protection training for all employees.

16. Children's Data

The Platform is intended only for individuals aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect or process personal data from minors.

17. Updates to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update this policy. Material changes will be notified at least 14 days in advance through in-platform notifications or email.

18. Grievance Officer and Contact Information

Grievance Officer