Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

NearSkill (“the Platform,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a job discovery and recruitment technology platform. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal information when you access or use the Platform, submit a job application, create a candidate profile, upload a resume, or otherwise interact with our services.

By using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any part of this policy, please discontinue use of the Platform immediately. We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time. Material changes will be communicated by updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information Provided by Candidates

When you submit a job application or create a profile on NearSkill, we collect the following categories of personal information that you voluntarily provide:

• Identity Information: Full name, email address, phone number.
• Professional Information: Resume/CV, employment history, current and past job titles, current and past employers, years of professional experience, educational background, certifications, professional licenses, skills, technical proficiencies, portfolio links, LinkedIn profile URL.
• Compensation Information: Current compensation, expected compensation, salary preferences, currency preferences.
• Location & Availability: City, country, preferred work locations, notice period, willingness to relocate, openness to specific work arrangements (including six-day work weeks where applicable).
• Demographic & Preference Data: Any additional information you choose to include in your resume, cover letter, or application responses.
• Documents: Resume files (PDF, DOCX, or other formats), cover letters, portfolios, and any other documents you upload to the Platform.

2.2 Information Collected from Employers and Recruiters

When an employer, recruiter, or hiring manager interacts with the Platform (including posting jobs, reviewing candidates, or contacting us), we may collect:

• Company name, business registration details, and industry.
• Business contact information including name, email, phone number, and address.
• Job posting details including descriptions, requirements, and compensation ranges.
• Hiring preferences, review criteria, and communication history.
• Account credentials and billing information where applicable.

2.3 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit or interact with the Platform, we automatically collect certain technical and usage information through standard internet technologies:

• Usage Data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, scroll depth, click patterns, search queries, filters applied, jobs viewed, and application interactions.
• Device & Browser Data: Browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen resolution, language preferences, referring URL, exit URL.
• Network Data: IP address, approximate geographic location (derived from IP), internet service provider, connection type.
• Session Data: Session duration, timestamps, interaction events, error logs, and performance metrics.

2.4 Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies, local storage, and similar tracking technologies to operate the Platform, remember your preferences, analyze usage patterns, and improve the user experience. For detailed information about the types of cookies we use, their purposes, and how you can manage your cookie preferences, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following specific purposes:

3.1 Core Platform Functions

• Create, maintain, and manage candidate profiles.
• Process job applications and match candidates with relevant job opportunities.
• Share candidate application materials (including resumes and profile information) with the specific employer(s) associated with the position(s) you apply to.
• Enable employers to review, evaluate, and manage candidate applications.
• Communicate with you regarding your applications, profile status, job matches, and Platform updates.
• Generate and display curated job listings, salary insights, and career recommendations.

3.2 Platform Improvement & Analytics

• Analyze usage patterns to improve search relevance, job matching algorithms, and user experience.
• Monitor Platform performance, diagnose technical issues, and conduct debugging.
• Develop new features, services, and functionality based on aggregated usage trends.
• Generate anonymized, aggregated statistics and industry insights (which do not identify individual users).

3.3 Security, Compliance & Legal

• Detect, prevent, and investigate fraudulent activity, abuse, spam, and unauthorized access.
• Enforce our Terms of Service and other applicable policies.
• Comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and governmental requests.
• Protect the rights, property, and safety of NearSkill, our users, and the public.
• Respond to legal claims, disputes, or investigations.

4. Resume Processing & Automated Technologies

NearSkill uses automated systems, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, to process, analyze, and extract information from resumes and other application materials. This processing serves the following purposes:

• Data Extraction: Parsing resume content to identify and extract structured information such as work history, education, skills, certifications, and contact details.
• Profile Enrichment: Organizing extracted information into comprehensive candidate profiles to improve the accuracy and completeness of job matching.
• Skills Matching: Comparing candidate skills, experience, and qualifications against job requirements to identify potential matches and generate relevance scores.
• Application Review Assistance: Providing employers with structured candidate summaries, relevance assessments, and AI-generated insights to assist in the evaluation of applications (ATS scoring).

5. Third-Party Services & Data Sharing

5.1 Service Providers

We engage trusted third-party service providers to perform functions and process data on our behalf. These providers are contractually bound to use data only as instructed by us and in compliance with applicable data protection laws. Our service providers include:

• Supabase: Cloud database, authentication, and storage infrastructure for hosting candidate profiles, job listings, applications, and uploaded documents (including resumes).
• Cloud & Hosting Providers: Infrastructure and content delivery services (including Vercel) for hosting and serving the Platform.
• Analytics Providers: Services such as Google Analytics and Vercel Analytics that help us understand Platform usage, performance, and user behavior through anonymized data collection.
• Email & Communication Providers: Services for sending transactional emails, application confirmations, notifications, and Platform communications.
• AI & Processing Services: Third-party AI and machine learning APIs used for resume parsing, skills extraction, job matching, and content enrichment.

5.2 Data Sharing with Employers

When you submit a job application through NearSkill, we share your application materials — including your full name, email, phone number, resume, parsed profile data, skills, experience, education, location, compensation expectations, and any other information you provide in your application — with the employer or recruiter associated with the specific job posting you applied to. By submitting an application, you explicitly authorize this data transfer. Employers are contractually required to use candidate information solely for recruitment and hiring purposes and in compliance with applicable laws. However, NearSkill does not control how employers handle candidate data after it has been shared. We encourage candidates to review the privacy policies of prospective employers.

5.3 No Sale of Personal Information

We do not sell, rent, trade, or lease personal information to third parties for their marketing, advertising, or commercial purposes. We do not share candidate data with data brokers or lead-generation services. We do not monetize your personal information.

5.4 Legal Disclosures

We may disclose personal information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, or governmental requests; (b) enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements; (c) protect the rights, property, or safety of NearSkill, our users, or the public; or (d) detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specific retention practices include:

• Candidate Profiles & Applications:Retained for the duration of the candidate’s engagement with the Platform and for a reasonable period thereafter for operational, legal, security, and recordkeeping purposes. Candidates may request deletion of their data at any time (see Section 8: Your Rights).
• Resume Files: Uploaded resume documents are stored on Supabase storage infrastructure and retained in accordance with our operational and legal requirements. Resumes may be retained even after an individual application is processed or a profile is closed, for recordkeeping and compliance purposes.
• Employer Data: Job postings, company information, and hiring records are retained for the duration of the employer relationship and a reasonable period thereafter.
• Usage & Analytics Data: Anonymized and aggregated usage data may be retained indefinitely for analytical purposes, as it cannot be used to identify individual users.
• Legal Holds: Data that is subject to a legal hold, dispute, or investigation will be retained until the matter is resolved.

When personal information is no longer needed, we will either delete it or anonymize it so that it can no longer be associated with an identifiable individual.

7. Data Security

We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit (TLS/HTTPS) and at rest.
• Row-Level Security (RLS) policies on our Supabase database to enforce strict access controls at the database layer.
• Service-level authentication and authorization controls — the database is not publicly accessible.
• Regular review of access permissions and security configurations.
• Secure cloud infrastructure managed by trusted providers (Supabase, Vercel).

However, no method of electronic storage or transmission over the internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any account credentials and for ensuring that you use a secure connection when transmitting sensitive information.

8. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. NearSkill extends the following rights to all users regardless of location:

• Right to Access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, including your profile data, application history, and uploaded documents.
• Right to Correction: You may request that we correct, update, or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Deletion: You may request that we delete your personal information, including your candidate profile, resume, and application records, subject to certain legal and operational exceptions (e.g., ongoing legal obligations, fraud prevention, or security requirements).
• Right to Data Portability: Where technically feasible, you may request a structured, machine-readable copy of your personal data.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing conducted prior to withdrawal.
• Right to Object: You may object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing (which we do not engage in) and automated decision-making.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected] or through our Contact page. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

8.1 Additional Rights for Indian Users

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) of India, you have specific rights including the right to know what personal data is being processed, the right to correction and erasure, the right to grievance redressal, and the right to nominate another individual to exercise rights on your behalf in certain circumstances. To exercise these rights, contact us using the information in Section 11.

9. Children's Privacy

The Platform is intended for individuals who are of legal working age (typically 16 years or older, depending on jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or maintain personal information from individuals under the age of 16. If we become aware that a person under 16 has provided us with personal information without verifiable parental consent, we will take prompt steps to delete such information. If you believe a child under 16 has provided us with personal data, please contact us immediately.

10. International Data Transfers

NearSkill operates globally, and your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in countries other than your country of residence, including the United States and India. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from those in your jurisdiction. We take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection regardless of where it is processed, including contractual obligations on service providers and adherence to applicable data protection frameworks.

11. Contact Information

For questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal obligations, or for other operational reasons. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and may provide additional notice (such as a banner on the Platform or an email notification for registered users). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Platform after any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms.