Legal

Worker & Applicant Privacy Notice

Effective date: 1 January 2026 · For specialists and applicants engaging with TheDifference

This Notice explains how TheDifference ("we", "us") handles personal data about individuals who apply to work with us as independent specialists ("applicants") and those who perform engagements through us ("specialists"). It supplements our general Privacy Policy, which also applies. If anything in this Notice conflicts with the general Policy regarding applicant or specialist data, this Notice prevails.

1. Who We Are

TheDifference introduces vetted independent professionals to client companies, formalises engagements through documented orders and processes engagement fees through a third-party payment processor. For applicant and specialist data described here, TheDifference is the data controller. You can reach us at hello@thedifference.work.

2. Data We Collect About Applicants

Application details: full name, email address, telephone number, role title, and your own summary of core skills, tools and certifications.
Resume document: the file you upload (PDF or Word), stored under a randomised filename in private storage that is reachable only through authenticated internal endpoints.
Review notes: our engagement desk's evaluation records against current and upcoming engagements.
Correspondence: messages exchanged during the review process.

We ask that you do not submit sensitive personal data (for example health information, government identifiers, or data revealing ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation) unless it is genuinely required for an engagement. If such data is included voluntarily, we will handle it under stricter internal access rules and delete it where it proves unnecessary.

3. Data We Collect About Specialists During Engagements

Engagement records: the orders you are matched to, including titles, descriptions, hours, rates, totals and status.
Payment records: payout details processed through our payment provider, transaction references, and official receipts generated for completed engagements.
Performance communications: scope clarifications, delivery milestones and feedback exchanged with our engagement desk.

4. Why We Process This Data, and Our Legal Bases

To assess applications — to evaluate qualifications against current and upcoming engagements. Legal basis: taking steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, and consent (you choose to apply).
To contact candidates who qualify for the next step of a specific opportunity. Legal basis: contractual necessity once you engage with us about a specific engagement; otherwise consent.
To operate engagements — matching, scoping, ordering, receipting and payouts. Legal basis: performance of a contract.
To keep business records — orders and receipts form part of each engagement's chain of custody. Legal basis: legitimate interests and compliance with tax, accounting and commercial record-keeping laws.
To protect people and systems — fraud prevention, abuse detection and security logging. Legal basis: legitimate interests and legal obligation.

We do not use application data for automated profiling that produces legal effects. Review decisions are made by people on our engagement desk.

5. Sharing

We share applicant and specialist personal data only as follows:

Payment providers, strictly for processing payouts related to engagements;
Infrastructure providers hosting our systems, under contract and on documented instructions;
Professional advisers (accountants, auditors, lawyers) bound by confidentiality;
Authorities where required by law, regulation, court order, or to protect rights, property or safety.

We do not sell applicant or specialist data. We do not publish resumes, names or contact details to clients without your prior agreement for a specific introduction.

6. Retention

Applications and resumes: up to eighteen (18) months from submission so you can be considered for later engagements, then deleted, unless you ask us sooner or law requires retention.
Engagement, order and receipt records: up to seven (7) years after completion of the engagement; these records evidence commissioned and paid work and are intentionally durable.
Payout and transaction data: as required by financial and tax regulations, typically seven (7) years.
Security logs: up to twelve (12) months.

7. Your Rights

Subject to applicable law you may request access to your data, correction of inaccuracies, deletion where no overriding basis applies, restriction of processing, portability of data you provided, and withdrawal of any consent at any time. To exercise these rights, write to hello@thedifference.work; we will verify identity where needed and respond within thirty (30) days. Where local law entitles you to complain to a supervisory authority, we encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve the matter directly.

8. Security Measures Specific to This Notice

Resume files are stored outside public web paths under randomised filenames with execution disabled, and are served only to authorised staff through an authenticated download endpoint. Access is limited to engagement desk personnel whose duties require it. Application forms are protected against forged submissions, and all traffic is encrypted in transit.

9. International Transfers

Where data crosses borders, we apply recognised safeguards such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses, together with supplementary measures proportionate to the risk.

10. Changes to This Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time. The effective date above identifies the current version, and material changes affecting applicants or active specialists will be communicated directly by email where we hold your address.

11. Contact

Data protection questions and requests: hello@thedifference.work. Postal enquiries may be addressed to our registered office care of thedifference.work.