MrCareerz ("we", "us", "our") is a recruitment and employment platform designed for job seekers and recruiters in South Africa. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, protect, and share your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

A note on terminology: throughout this policy, references to "recruiters" include hiring teams, internal recruiters at companies, and client representatives engaging MrCareerz to source candidates on their behalf. References to "jobseekers" or "candidates" mean individuals creating profiles to be matched with opportunities.

By creating an account or using MrCareerz, you consent to the collection and processing of your personal information as outlined in this Policy.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only the information necessary to provide our services. This includes data required for recruitment services, matchmaking, and safety functions.

1.1 Information Provided by Jobseekers

When you create an account or use MrCareerz, you may provide:

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number
• City and province
• CV/Resume and supporting documents
• Work history
• Skills and qualifications
• Education
• Salary expectations
• Job type preferences (onsite, remote, hybrid)
• Industries of interest
• Links to professional profiles (Portfolio, LinkedIn, etc)
• Messages exchanged with recruiters

1.2 Information Provided by Recruiters

Recruiters may provide:

• Name and surname
• Company name
• Company email
• Company website / LinkedIn
• Job posts and descriptions
• Role requirements
• Salary ranges
• Hiring process details
• Messages exchanged with candidates

1.3 Automatically Collected Information

We may collect:

• Device type (mobile/desktop)
• Browser version
• IP address
• Session logs
• UI interactions (swipes, clicks, saves)
• System usage patterns
• Notification events

This allows us to improve platform performance, detect abuse or spam, and tailor recommendations.

2. Purpose of Processing Personal Information

We process your personal information only when necessary and lawful under POPIA Section 13.

Users may withdraw consent at any time, but certain services may become unavailable as a result.

We use your information to:

• Create your MrCareerz profile and account
• Match jobseekers with relevant job opportunities
• Allow recruiters to review and respond to your applications
• Facilitate messaging and communication between parties
• Notify users of matches, messages, interviews, or activity
• Improve accuracy of recommendations and job listings
• Prevent fraud, scams, harassment, and misuse
• Provide customer support

We do not sell personal information.

We do not use your personal information for purposes beyond those listed above without obtaining your fresh consent.

3. Legal Basis for Processing Personal Information

MrCareerz processes personal information under the following lawful grounds as required by POPIA:

• Consent: When users create an account, upload their CV, submit a job application, or provide their details voluntarily.
• Contractual necessity: To provide recruitment and job matching services as intended by the Platform.
• Legitimate interest: For fraud prevention, platform safety, abuse detection, analytics, and improvement of service quality.
• Legal obligation: When required by South African authorities, courts, regulators, or safety investigations.

4. When We Share Information

MrCareerz will only share your information:

4.1 With Recruiters

Only when:

• You apply to a job, OR
• You match with a job based on your chosen preferences

Recruiters may receive: Your profile, CV, Skills, Job interests

Recruiters cannot:

• Browse random jobseekers
• Access jobseekers who didn't apply/match

4.2 With Service Providers

Such as: Payment processors, Cloud hosting providers, Email/notification services, Analytics

These vendors must comply with POPIA and act only as processors on our behalf.

4.3 Legal Requests

We may disclose information in response to:

• Court orders
• Regulatory requests
• Fraud or safety investigations
• South African law enforcement

We will not disclose more than legally required.

5. International Data Transfers

MrCareerz may store or process personal information using cloud services or third-party providers located outside South Africa.

Where cross-border transfers occur, we comply with POPIA Section 72 and ensure equivalent protection standards are applied to all data.

6. Storage & Protection of Data

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures as required by POPIA Section 19.

These may include:

• Encrypted storage of CVs & documents
• Always-on HTTPS/TLS when transmitting data
• Password hashing (bcrypt or Argon2)
• Role-based access control
• Access token expiration
• Recruiter verification

We also take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is complete, accurate, and updated, including easy edit access in your profile settings and prompts to refresh your details after extended periods of inactivity. You can review and update your profile information at any time by logging in.

7. Payments

MrCareerz operates on a flat-fee placement model: hiring teams pay a one-time fee per successful hire (currently $1,000 USD per placement). Job seekers are never charged any fees for using MrCareerz. We do not operate a subscription model.

When payment processing is enabled, it is handled by third-party gateways. MrCareerz does not store credit card or bank account information.

For placement transactions, we receive and store: payment result, customer reference ID, invoice history, and placement fee status.

Payment information is held by our payment provider in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.

8. Automated Matching and AI Recommendations

MrCareerz uses automated systems and machine learning to suggest jobs and match candidates based on skills, user preferences, job descriptions, and profile data.

These suggestions do not constitute hiring decisions.

Recruiters remain responsible for assessing candidates and making final employment decisions.

Users may edit their preferences at any time to influence matching results.

9. Messages, Interviews & Activity Logs

Metadata related to job interactions may be stored for platform safety and performance:

• Recruiter views
• Application events
• Shortlisting
• Rejection
• Interview scheduling
• Report/block actions

This is lawful under POPIA's "legitimate purpose" principle, Section 13(1).

10. Jobseeker Privacy & Safety

MrCareerz prioritises user protection.

Recruiters:

• Cannot see jobseekers they haven't interacted with
• Cannot see personal contact info until match or application
• Cannot see internal recruiter notes at any time

Jobseekers may:

• Block recruiters
• Report jobs
• Report abuse or fraud
• Delete or modify their data

Messages exchanged between recruiters and jobseekers are not monitored by MrCareerz, but may be reviewed if a safety concern, harassment, or abuse report is submitted.

11. Your Rights Under POPIA

You may request the following at any time:

• Access to personal information we hold
• Correction or update of incorrect data
• Deletion of your account
• Ceasing of direct communication
• Withdrawal of consent

To request any of the above, email: info@mrcareerz.com

We will respond within a reasonable period as required by POPIA Section 24.

12. Data Breach Notification

If a suspected or confirmed security breach occurs that compromises personal information, MrCareerz will:

• Notify affected users as soon as reasonably possible,
• Notify the Information Regulator of South Africa, and
• Take immediate steps to mitigate and prevent further unauthorized access.

This procedure follows POPIA Section 22.

13. Retention of Data

We retain personal information only as long as necessary to fulfil its purpose.

Examples:

• CVs may be stored while the profile is active
• Applications may be retained for audit and platform safety
• Some anonymized data may be retained for analytics

If you delete your account:

• Personal identifiers are removed
• CV files are deleted
• Matches and messaging history may be anonymized to protect other users

14. Children / Minors

MrCareerz is not intended for anyone under 18 years old.

We do not knowingly collect data from minors. Accounts suspected of belonging to minors will be terminated.

15. Cookies & Local Storage

We use cookies to:

• Maintain session login
• Improve platform functionality
• Remember preferences

You may disable cookies in your browser, but certain features will not function.

16. Third-Party Links

MrCareerz may display links to: Company websites, Recruiter portfolios, Job postings, External resources

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Updates will be posted in-app or via email. Your continued use of MrCareerz means you accept the updated policy.

18. Contact Details

If you have concerns or would like to exercise your POPIA rights:

Information Officer: Marco van der Merwe (Founder)

Email: info@mrcareerz.com

Location: South Africa

19. Information Regulator of South Africa

If you believe your POPIA rights have been violated, or if you are unsatisfied with our response, you may contact the Information Regulator of South Africa:

• Email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za
• Website: https://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/

20. Intro videos and other recorded media

When you upload an intro video as part of your candidate profile, the recording is personal information under POPIA and is treated with the same care as your other profile data. Specifically:

• Optional, never required. You can skip the intro video step during onboarding and complete or update your profile later. We do not block matching based on the absence of a video.
• Stored securely. Videos are stored on encrypted infrastructure provided by our platform partner (Base44) and are not publicly accessible. Each share link generated for a hiring team is a single-use, opaque token; links are not indexed by search engines.
• Processed by AI for matching only. Our AI systems analyze your profile (skills, experience, role preferences, salary expectation, timezone) to match you against incoming briefs. We do not analyze facial features, infer ethnicity, age, gender, or other protected characteristics, score appearance, perform emotion or personality detection, or use voice or accent scoring. Human sourcing agents review every match before any candidate is shared with a hiring team.
• Shared only with matched hiring teams. Your video is included in the candidate package shared with a specific hiring team only when MrCareerz has matched you to a role from that team. We do not include your video in any general directory, marketing material, or public listing.
• You control your video. You can re-record, replace, or delete your intro video at any time from your profile settings. Deletion removes the video from our systems and from any active share link within 30 days.
• Retention. Intro videos auto-expire after 12 months of profile inactivity (no logins, no consented matches, no profile edits) and are deleted from our systems. We will email you 30 days before expiry so you can renew or extend by logging in.

21. Anti-discrimination and AI fairness

We design our matching systems to evaluate candidates only on role-relevant criteria: skills, experience, seniority, salary alignment, and timezone overlap with the hiring team. Specifically:

• We do not score or rank candidates based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability status, accent, perceived attractiveness, or any other protected characteristic under South African Employment Equity legislation.
• We do not use facial recognition, facial analysis, emotion detection, voice analysis, or any biometric-derived scoring on intro videos. Videos are surfaced to hiring teams as-is so they can hear you describe your experience in your own words.
• A human sourcing agent reviews every shortlist before it is sent to a hiring team. Our AI is a matching aid, not a decision-maker.

If you believe you have been discriminated against in the matching process, you can raise this with us by emailing info@mrcareerz.com and we will investigate. You also retain all rights under POPIA to access, correct, or delete your personal information.

22. International transfers and EU candidates

We are based in South Africa and operate primarily under POPIA. When we share your candidate package with a hiring team based outside South Africa (most often the United States, United Kingdom, or European Union), the receiving organization becomes responsible for that data under their own jurisdiction's law.

If you are an EU resident or your data is otherwise subject to GDPR, you have additional rights under that regulation, including the right to object to automated decision-making, to data portability, and to lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority. Email info@mrcareerz.com to exercise any of these rights and we will respond within 30 days.