Privacy notice for job & volunteer applicants

Personal information we collect

The personal information we collect depends on the role you apply for and the stage your application reaches. It may include:

• your name
• your address
• your email address
• your telephone number
• your CV, application form, covering letter or supporting statement
• your employment, volunteering and education history
• qualifications, skills and experience
• answers to application or interview questions
• notes from interviews or recruitment discussions
• references and referee contact details
• information about your availability and right to work, where relevant
• information needed to assess your suitability for a particular role
• correspondence between you and us during the recruitment process

For some roles, we may also ask for information about your ability to carry out role-specific tasks. For example, some roles may involve travel, outdoor work, public speaking, physical activity or working in a tropical environment.

We will only ask for information that is relevant to the role and the recruitment process.

How we collect personal information

We may collect personal information directly from you when you:

• complete an application form
• send us a CV, covering letter or supporting statement
• contact us about a role
• attend an interview
• complete a task, assessment or exercise as part of the recruitment process
• provide information by email, telephone, video call, post or in person

We may also receive information from other sources where relevant, such as:

• referees
• recruitment platforms or job websites
• former employers, organisations or volunteering contacts, where you have provided them as referees
• publicly available professional information, such as LinkedIn, where this is relevant to the recruitment process

We will not normally contact referees until a later stage in the recruitment process and, where possible, we will tell you before doing so.

How we use your personal information

We use applicant information for the following purposes.

Managing applications

We use your name, contact details, application form, CV, covering letter, supporting statement and correspondence to receive, review and manage your application.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

Assessing suitability for a role

We use information about your skills, experience, qualifications, employment history, volunteering history, application answers, interview responses and any role-related tasks or assessments to decide whether you are suitable for the role.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

Communicating with you

We use your contact details and correspondence to contact you about your application, arrange interviews, ask follow-up questions, provide updates and tell you the outcome of the recruitment process.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

Checking references

Where relevant, we use referee details and reference information to help assess your suitability for a role.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

Checking right to work

Where the role is employment rather than volunteering, we may use right to work information to check whether you are legally able to work in the UK.

Our lawful basis is legal obligation.

Making reasonable adjustments

If you tell us about a disability, health condition or other need so that we can make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, we will use that information to make the recruitment process accessible and fair.

Our lawful bases are legal obligation and legitimate interests. Where this involves special category data, our additional condition is that the processing is necessary for employment, social security and social protection law obligations.

Assessing role-specific requirements

For some roles, we may need to consider whether you are able to meet specific requirements of the role, such as travel, working overseas, working in a physically active environment or carrying out duties safely.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests. Where this involves health information, we will only use it where necessary and where an additional condition for special category data applies.

Meeting legal and regulatory requirements

We may use relevant application, recruitment and correspondence records to meet legal, regulatory, accounting or governance requirements.

Our lawful bases are legal obligation and legitimate interests.

Managing complaints or disputes

We may use relevant application, interview, correspondence and decision-making records to respond to complaints, queries, legal claims or data protection complaints.

Our lawful bases are legal obligation and legitimate interests.

Legitimate interests

Where we rely on legitimate interests, this means we use your personal information in a way that is necessary for the recruitment and administration of the charity, provided your rights and interests do not override our interests.

Our legitimate interests include:

• managing a fair and effective recruitment process
• assessing applicants’ suitability for roles
• communicating with applicants
• keeping appropriate recruitment records
• protecting the charity, our staff, volunteers, applicants and partners
• responding to complaints, queries or legal issues

Special category information

Special category information is more sensitive personal information, such as information about health or disability. We do not collect this type of information unless it is relevant and necessary.

For example, we may process health or disability information if you ask us to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, or if the information is relevant to assessing whether a role can be carried out safely.

If you do not provide personal information

You are not required to provide information to us. However, if you do not provide information that is needed for the recruitment process, we may not be able to consider your application properly or progress it further.

For example, we may not be able to assess your suitability for a role without your application details, contact information, interview responses or relevant reference information.

Who we share personal information with

We do not sell applicant personal information. We do not share applicant personal information with other organisations for their own marketing purposes.

We may share applicant information with trusted service providers where this is necessary to manage recruitment or operate the charity. These may include providers who help us with:

• email and IT systems
• website forms
• cloud storage
• recruitment administration
• video interviews
• professional advice, such as legal, insurance or HR advice

Where a role is connected with our work in Borneo, we may need to share relevant applicant information with appropriate people involved in assessing or supporting that role. We will only share information that is necessary for that purpose.

We may also share personal information where required by law or regulation, for example with HMRC, the Charity Commission, the Information Commissioner’s Office, law enforcement agencies or other public authorities.

International transfers

Some service providers we use may process personal information outside the UK. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will take steps to make sure it is protected in line with UK data protection law. This may include using service providers based in countries that have been recognised as providing adequate protection, or using approved contractual safeguards.

Where an application relates to a role connected with our work in Borneo, relevant information may need to be shared outside the UK where this is necessary for the recruitment process or the administration of the role.

How long we keep applicant information

We keep applicant information only for as long as necessary for the recruitment process and for appropriate record keeping afterwards.

If your application is unsuccessful, we will normally keep your recruitment information for up to 6 months after the recruitment process has ended, unless there is a clear reason to keep it for longer, such as a complaint, dispute or legal requirement.

If you agree that we may keep your details on file for future opportunities, we may keep your information for up to 6 months from the date of your consent, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.

If your application is successful, relevant information collected during recruitment will become part of your staff or volunteer record. We will provide further information about how we use and retain staff or volunteer records.

We may keep limited records for longer where necessary to demonstrate that we have carried out a fair recruitment process, responded to a complaint or met a legal obligation.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information
• ask us to delete your personal information
• ask us to restrict how we use your personal information
• object to how we use your personal information
• ask us to transfer your personal information to another organisation or to you
• withdraw consent where we rely on consent

These rights do not apply in every situation. For example, we may need to keep certain information to meet legal obligations or to deal with a complaint, dispute or legal claim.

To exercise your rights, please contact us at info@orangutan-appeal.org.uk or write to us at the address above.

We may need to ask for information to confirm your identity before responding to a request.

Data protection complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, you can make a data protection complaint to us.

Please contact us by email at info@orangutan-appeal.org.uk or by post at:
Orangutan Appeal UK
New Forest Estate Offices
Lyndhurst Road
Brockenhurst
SO42 7RL
United Kingdom

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 30 days. We will look into your complaint without undue delay, keep you informed where appropriate and tell you the outcome once we have completed our review.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information.

The ICO’s contact details are:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Website: www.ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Automated decision-making

We do not use your personal information to make recruitment decisions based solely on automated processing.

Changes to this notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and will place any updates on this web page. This privacy notice was last updated on 3 June 2026.

This notice is separate from our general privacy notice, which covers supporters, donors, adopters, customers, fundraisers, enquirers, newsletter subscribers and website users. You can read our general privacy notice for more information.