Privacy Policy

Loop Recruit Limited (“Loop”, “we”, “us”) is registered in England and Wales, company number 16571067, with its registered office at Unit 13e, 92 Burton Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8BX. We operate the Loop Recruit website, mobile applications and related services (the “Service”).

How we handle personal data depends on how you use Loop.

Where Loop is the data controller. We decide why and how your data is used when you visit our website, contact us, or create an account directly with us (for example as a jobseeker or employer using Loop outside a council or funded programme).

Where Loop is a data processor. When a council, combined authority or funded programme provides Loop to its staff and the people it supports, that organisation is the data controller. We process personal data on its behalf and only on its documented instructions, under a data processing agreement. In that case the organisation's own privacy notice explains how your data is used, and you should contact that organisation first about your rights. If you contact us instead, we will pass your request to them promptly.

If you are not sure which applies to you, ask the person who gave you access to Loop, or contact us.

Participants and jobseekers: name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, address or postcode, work preferences (pay, hours, travel distance, availability, flexibility, sociability), skills, qualifications, declared certifications, employment and education history, an optional profile photograph and other files you choose to upload, right-to-work information where an employer requires it, and a record of the opportunities you view and apply for. We do not keep copies of identity documents, certificates or right-to-work documents.

Staff of councils, programmes and employers: name, work email address, role, organisation, job postings and vacancy details, and the activity of your account.

Everyone: login details, messages you send us, a device token if you turn on push notifications in the mobile app, and technical information such as device type, browser, IP address and how you use the Service. We also keep an audit log each time data is viewed or changed, recording the user, organisation, time, IP address and action.

How we collect it:

• From you, when you create an account or fill in your profile in the Loop app or website.
• From staff at the council or programme you work with, for example a support worker who sets up or updates your profile with you.
• From Google, if you choose to sign in with Google: your name, email address and, where you have shared it with Google, your date of birth.
• Automatically, when you use the Service: technical information, audit logs and, if you allow notifications, a device token.
• From our address lookup service, which suggests your full address in a standard format as you type it.

Loop does not ask for special category data, such as health information, in council and programme deployments. Information of that kind, and benefits and safeguarding case information, stays in the council's own systems and is not transferred to Loop.

We use personal data to provide and run the Service, match participants to opportunities, let support staff and employers contact participants, support applications, send service messages, keep the Service secure, prevent misuse, improve the Service, and meet our legal duties. We do not sell personal data and we do not use it for advertising.

• Contract: to provide the Service you have asked for.
• Legitimate interests: to operate, secure and improve the Service and to respond to enquiries, balanced against your rights.
• Consent: for optional communications and for any non-essential cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation: where UK law requires it.

Where we are a data processor, the controller's lawful basis applies. For councils this is usually public task under Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

Loop calculates a compatibility score between participants and vacancies using pay, distance, availability, flexibility and sociability. The score is a decision-support tool. It ranks and highlights opportunities, and it does not by itself decide whether a person is offered a job, a place on a programme or any service. A person always makes the final decision. In council and programme use, Participant Support and Employer Management staff can see why an opportunity was ranked as it was. See our page on the Responsible Use of Automated Matching, and contact us if you want to ask about how your own profile was matched.

• Employers, programmes and support workers involved in a placement or application you have started, or that a support worker has helped you to make.
• Our suppliers that host or support the Service, described below.
• Professional advisers, and public authorities, regulators or law enforcement where the law requires it.

We do not sell personal data.

Our suppliers fall into these groups:

• Hosting and storage providers, which hold all participant and organisational data in the United Kingdom.
• Email and push notification providers, which send service messages and app notifications.
• A mapping provider, which looks up addresses and works out travel distances.
• An error monitoring provider, which receives error reports with personal data removed.
• Optional artificial intelligence support, which runs in the United Kingdom with model training turned off.
• Providers that host and deliver this website.

A full list of our suppliers is available on request. Councils and programmes receive it as part of our data processing agreement.

We store participant and organisational data in the United Kingdom. Some of our suppliers process limited personal data in the United States, such as email addresses for service messages, device tokens for push notifications, and the addresses you search for. For these transfers we rely on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the supplier is certified under it. Where a supplier is not certified, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Union Standard Contractual Clauses, together with a transfer risk assessment.

• Participant accounts created directly with us: for up to two years after your last activity, unless you delete your account sooner.
• Employer and organisation records: up to six years, for legal, accounting and regulatory purposes.
• Council and programme data: for the period set by the council or programme in our data processing agreement, then returned or deleted as it instructs. Deletion is recorded.
• Audit logs: at least twelve months.

We may keep information for longer where the law requires it.

Data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Access is controlled by role, each organisation's data is separated from every other's, administrative access requires multi-factor authentication, and data access and changes are logged. Our Security and Data page gives more detail. No online service can be guaranteed completely secure. If a breach affects personal data that we process for a council, we tell the council within 24 hours of detecting it.

You have the right to be informed, and to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to the use of, and take a copy of your personal data, and rights relating to automated decisions. Some rights apply only in certain circumstances. To use them, contact us (where we are the controller) or the organisation that gave you access to Loop (where we are the processor).

See our Cookie Policy.

Participant accounts are for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe we have, please contact us and we will delete it.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first at [email protected] or by post at the address above, and we will respond within 30 days. Our Complaints page explains the process. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We will publish changes here and update the date above. If a change is significant we will tell registered users.

Loop Recruit Limited, Unit 13e, 92 Burton Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8BX

Data protection contact: [email protected]