Candidate Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice applies to the collection and processing of your personal information by Volkswagen Financial Services DS (UK) Limited (“VWFS DS”, “we”) when you submit job applications to us. For this purpose, VWFS DS is the data controller. 

What information do we collect?

When you apply for one of our jobs, we may collect, store, and use personal information about you, which includes some, or all, of the following:

  • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses

  • If you have the right to work in the UK

  • Identification documentation, such as copy of driving licence

  • Employment records relating to your employment history, including salary details, working hours, training records and your reason for leaving

  • Photographs and video recordings

  • CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means such as swipe card records, if/when visiting VWFS DS premises

  • Any information within correspondence you send to us

We will, during the course of our recruitment process, also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of personal information:

  • Data relating to race, ethnicity, or nationality - this information will only be collected during the appointment process.

  • Health data, including any medical condition or disability, and health and sickness records, which may include a workstation risk assessment, the results of which will be stored by us electronically, such as any interview requirements / reasonable adjustments.

How do we collect your personal information?

We typically collect personal information about employees, workers, and contractors through the application, recruitment, and onboarding process, either directly from candidates or from an employment agency.

How do we use your personal information? 

We will only process information that is necessary for the purpose for which it has been collected. There are various ways in which we may use or process your personal information, including:

  • Assess your suitability and eligibility for the prospective role(s)

  • Verify your identity and right to work in the UK

  • Confirm your references and professional qualifications

  • Comply with legislative and regulatory requirements

  • Provide you with information about your prospective employment 

  • Review and improve our recruitment process

  • Deal with potential legal disputes involving you 

  • Maintain up-to-date and accurate internal records

Our lawful basis for processing your personal information for these purposes is our legitimate interests. We may also use and process your personal information where this is necessary to enter into an employment contract with you.  

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

In addition, we may use your personal information for the following more general purposes:

  • to analyse trends and candidate experience across multiple locations;

  • to process and administer your user account;

  • to administer the Website;

  • for internal record keeping;

  • to contact you by e-mail or phone for any of the above reasons, including as part of “information only” communications in which to communicate with you to inform you about the particular job roles which you have enquired about or have signed up to obtain through the Website;

  • subject to your prior consent, to carry out direct marketing including to send you marketing communications (further information below);

  • to notify you of changes in information about and updates concerning the Website;

  • where necessary as part of any restructuring or sale of our respective businesses or assets; and

  • for compliance with our legal, regulatory, and other good governance obligations.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you, and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. 

How might we use special category personal information?

"Special categories" of personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing, and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

  • In limited circumstances, with your explicit consent;

  • Where we need to carry out our legal obligations;

  • Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring; or

  • Where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else's interests), and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.  

Why might we share your personal information with third parties?

We may share your personal information with third parties where required by law or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. "Third parties" includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group, including our HR team. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: recruitment by external agencies; processing your application or scheduling your interviews via recruitment software service providers; organising office building access for interviews; data processing via cloud computing software and storage providers; and electronic document signatures.

How secure is your information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When might we share your personal information with other entities in the group?

We will share your personal information with other entities in our group as part of our regular reporting activities on company performance, in the context of a business re-organisation or group restructuring exercise, for system maintenance support and hosting of data.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may share your personal information with our insurers if you have to make a work-related injury/accident claim. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law – potential recipients include HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions, District Councils, the Child Support Agency and Child Maintenance Service.

Will your personal information be transferred abroad?

We have described above how your personal information may be disclosed outside of VWFS DS. We use a third-party recruitment platform to support the management and administration of our recruitment process. Where your personal information is processed through this platform, it may be transferred to, stored in, or accessed from countries outside the UK and/or European Economic Area (EEA). Where this happens, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection laws. This may include the use of appropriate contractual protections, such as standard contractual clauses or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

What choices do we offer you with regard to direct marketing communications?

We may wish to provide you with information about new job roles that may be of interest to you.  This may occur by e-mail, telephone, or other methods which are made clear to you from time to time. We will obtain your prior consent and advise you of how to opt out of receiving such communications in accordance with applicable data protection law. You may opt out of direct marketing communications at any time by sending an email to privacy@drive.co.uk.

Please note that marketing communications are separate and distinct from “information only” communications and that consents are not usually required in order for us to communicate with you to inform you about a particular job which you have enquired about.

How do we keep your information secure?

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long do we retain your information for? 

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, after which we shall destroy your personal information in accordance with our Record Retention policy. In the case of prospective employees who are not offered employment with VWFS DS, this means that, in most circumstances, we will retain their personal data while the recruitment process is ongoing and for 180 days after it ends.

In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. 

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your dealings with us. 

What rights do you have in respect of your personal information?

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Withdraw consent to the collection, processing, and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact privacy@drive.co.uk. Upon receipt, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legal basis for doing so in law.

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.

  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).

  • Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party. 

If you wish to enquire about or exercise any of these rights, please contact privacy@drive.co.uk.

If you have concerns

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about how we use it.  If you have any concerns about how your personal information is used, you have the right to raise a complaint with us. You can do so in several ways:

  • By email: privacy@drive.co.uk

  • By post: Drive, LABS House, 15-19 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH

If you choose to contact us, please assist us by providing full details of your concern, together with any supporting documentation and contact details (including daytime telephone number). This information will help us to deal with your query promptly.

Following receipt of your complaint, we will acknowledge it within 30 days of receipt, and we will keep you informed throughout our investigation. Our aim is to resolve all complaints in a timely manner, and we will issue you a final response detailing the outcome. In the event we are not able to resolve your complaint within a timely manner, a holding letter will be issued to you.

If you have previously submitted a data protection complaint and are not satisfied with the response you received from VWFS DS, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator. Their contact details are as follows:

  • By post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

  • By telephone:  03031 231 113

  • Online form: If you wish to raise a complaint to the ICO, you can do so via their website under 'Make a complaint' at the following link: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

We will also provide details of the ICO within our complaint response letter.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact privacy@drive.co.uk.

If you are not eligible to work in the UK or require a Company sponsor to work in the UK, we will be unable to progress your online application for employment; this is an automated process. You have rights in relation to automated decision making; if you want to know more, please contact us.