Privacy & Cookies
Effective Date: July, 2024
This Privacy Statement applies to Booking.com International B.V., Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, NetherlandsHerengracht 597, 1017 CE Amsterdam, the Netherlands, (“Booking.com”) and describes how Booking.com collects and uses the information. This may include the personal data you provided on our career website https://careers.booking.com (“Site”) and/or data that is otherwise collected as part of our recruitment processes for specific job openings.
As part of our recruitment process, Booking.com processes your information, which may include personal data. For instance, we may process your personal data when you apply for a job, attend an event at Booking.com, when you provide us with feedback or answer surveys about our recruitment process, when we use cookies and similar technologies, or when we receive your personal data from professional online networking platforms or from our colleagues who referred you. We want to make sure that you understand what kind of information we are collecting throughout our recruitment processes and how your personal data can be used.
Data Collection
As part of our recruitment process, Booking.com will request you provide the following information (or some of this information depending on the precise role, country of practice or the event you are applying for) or obtain such information from other sources:
- Contact information, such as your first name, last name, address (city, state, country, post codezip), email and phone number;
- Your resume or CV, cover letter, photo, date of birth, gender, nationality, language skills, areas of interest, previous and/or relevant work experience or other experience (eg. employer, job role, salary details), education, transcripts, information on your driver’s licence, professional licence (where applicable), example of work / developed application (IT – HR), LinkedIn link or other information you provide us in support of an application and/or the recruitment process;
- ID document details (eg. passport information and copy of passport, copy of Hukou, ID Card);
- Information processed in relation to face-to-face interviews, video-calls and/or phone-screenings you may have had with us, and if you are requested to provide a video-recording of yourself as permitted by applicable law;
- Information on your attendance to our recruitment events, such as event registration information;
- Details of the type of employment you are or may be looking for, motivation, your notice period in relation to your current employment, current and/or desired salary and other terms relating to compensation and benefits packages, willingness to relocate or travel, and/or other job preferences;
- Details of how you heard about the position or event you registered for, feedback or survey responses about our recruitment process and your experience with our team;
- Any sensitive and/or demographic information obtained in accordance with applicable law during the application or recruitment process such as gender, information about your citizenship and/or nationality and/or right to work or reside in a specific country, medical or health information and/or your racial or ethnic origin;
- Reference information and/or information received from Booking.com employees as part of the recruitment process;
- Pre-employment screening information, where applicable and in compliance with applicable law(s). Depending on the role you are applying for, such pre-employment screening may, amongst others, consist of employment history verification, education verification, drivers licence verification, sanction lists screening, professional licence verification, adverse media search and/or a criminal background check, and in case of an adverse report, the analysis and decision of Booking.com (hire/reject);
- Information relating to any previous applications you may have made to Booking.com and/or any previous employment history with Booking.com insofar as we have retained this information;
- Assessment results (where applicable);
- Travel information (including travel and meal preferences) if travelling is part of the recruitment process;
- Payment details such as your bank account number as may be necessary for reimbursing you for permitted expenses as part of the recruitment process;
- Work permit details.
Demographic Data
We may also ask you to provide the following additional information during the application or recruitment process:
- Sensitive and/or demographic information which may include gender identity and pronouns, religion and belief, disability information, health information, race, racial or ethnic origin, nationality and/or sexual orientation. (For job applicants in China and the applicable sensitive data processed, see Appendix I for more details).
Providing this information, however, is completely voluntary and based on your explicit consent. We do not make hiring decisions based on this information and if you choose not to disclose it, there will be no adverse impact on your application. If you do choose to disclose this information, we will take measures to ensure that this data is aggregated in such a way that the identity of individuals cannot be inferred and will only be used to improve and promote equal opportunities for all candidates.
Data we collect automatically
When using our career website, Booking.com also collects information automatically, some of which may be personal data. This includes data such as language settings, IP address, location, device settings, device OS, time of usage, URL requested, status report, user agent (information about the browser version), operating system, result (viewer or applicant), browsing history, and type of data viewed. Booking.com may also collect data automatically through cookies. We use these cookies to recognize you as an applicant, to recognize if you are entering the Site through a referral link, to customise our services to your settings (such as your preferred language) and to improve the Site.
For information on how we use cookies, please see below: Cookie Statement Applicants.
Other sources from which we can receive your information
The personal data listed in “data collection” may be collected directly from you, or we might receive it from below listed sources:
Recruitment agencies: Booking.com may receive information relating to you from recruitment agencies.
Pre-employment screening service providers: Booking.com may receive information relating to you from third parties that perform pre-employment screening, upon instruction of Booking.com and as permitted by applicable law.
Third party websites: Booking.com may collect information about you from third party business online platforms, such as LinkedIn, Hire-Ez, HackerRank and Harver, among others. You may link your profile on these platforms as part of your application process, or we collect information about existing and potential candidates through public profiles to determine if an individual meets requirements for a specific job opening.
Employee Referrals: We may receive some of your information from our colleagues who referred you for a position.
Processing Purposes
We use your information, some of which may be personal data, for the following purposes:
A. Assessing your skills, qualifications, interests and suitability against our career opportunities;
B. Communications with you about the recruitment process and/or your application(s);
C. Reimbursement of costs made by you for which you are eligible to receive reimbursement;
D. To register you for Booking.com recruitment events;
E. Assisting you with obtaining an immigration visa or work permit and/or assisting you with relocation where required;
F. As permitted by applicable law, verifying your information and carrying out reference checks and/or conducting pre-employment screening (where applicable) if you are offered a job. This is to verify the accuracy of the information as provided or implied by you, in order for Booking.com to only employ people with proven records and sufficient level of integrity and trustworthiness;
G. To add you to our talent network, match you to open positions or send you job alerts informing you of other potential career opportunities at Booking.com, newsletters and information regarding upcoming recruitment events that may be of interest to you;
H. For analytical purposes, including making improvements to Booking.com’s application and/or recruitment process including improving diversity in recruitment practices. This may also include conducting opinion surveys or asking for your feedback on our recruitment process;
I. Complying with applicable laws, regulations and legal processes (e.g. administrative or court proceedings); and/or
J. For security purposes, including fraud detection and prevention, and related investigations.
K. We will use special category data, such as the Demographic Data we may collect from you, for the purposes of monitoring and promotion of equal opportunities including the review of gender breakdown and recruitment; improving diversity and inclusion within the workforce, analysis of demographic data and to track and monitor success rates related to gender and/or ethnic representation.
The Demographic Data will only be accessible on a need-to-know basis for a small group of authorised Booking.com employees in the People Systems team. Such authorised personnel are trained on and are required to act in compliance with data protection requirements and this Notice. This data will not be available in an identifiable form to anyone else within Booking.com, and will only report and use in an anonymised aggregated form. This means that your identity cannot be discovered or inferred from the data.
Legal bases
In view of purpose A to E, Booking.com relies on the legal basis that the processing of your personal data is necessary in the context of the intention to enter into a contract with you. If you do not provide the requested information, Booking.com cannot properly assess your application or enter into a contract with you. In view of purposes F to J, Booking.com relies on its legitimate business interest to assess you during the recruitment procedure, to provide its recruitment services to you, to improve its recruitment process, and to prevent fraud and maintain security. When using personal data to serve its legitimate interest, Booking.com will always balance your rights and interests in the protection of your information against Booking.com’s rights and interests. For purpose I Booking.com relies also, where applicable, on compliance with legal obligations. Where needed under applicable law, Booking.com will obtain your consent prior to processing your personal data, such as for example when sending newsletters, to add you to our talent network or offering job matching functionalities.
If you wish to object to the processing set out under F to H and J and no opt-out mechanism is available to you directly (for example in the email we sent you), to the extent applicable, please contact dataprotectionoffice@booking.com.
In view of purpose K, where Booking.com processes special category data, including sensitive and/or demographic information, we will only do so with your explicit consent. You can choose to share this special category data with Booking.com on a voluntary basis and therefore the extent of information you share is up to you. If you decide not to share some or all of it, this will have no bearing on any employment-related decisions made in respect of you and you will not be subject to any detriment.
Sharing this information will help Booking.com with its strategy of improving diversity and inclusion within its workforce. Any special category data you provide will only be used for this purpose, will only be accessible by a small group of authorised personnel in Booking.com and will not be used on an identifiable basis.
You may inquire about the personal data we maintain about you and enforce your rights of access to, correction or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing, or to object to processing as well as to enforce your right to data portability by contacting dataprotectionoffice@booking.com. Booking.com will address requests to delete, rectify or block inaccurate personal data or to cease processing personal data in accordance with applicable policies and procedures.
Automated job matching functionality
To make it easier for you to find the right job opening, we may offer you a job matching functionality. As part of the job matching functionality, you may be asked to provide information, such as your CV. An automated process will match your information against the available job postings on our careers platform. The uploaded information will remain available for the job matching functionality and to complete a subsequent job application. We will retain the uploaded information for a certain period of time to facilitate your use of our Site, after which it will automatically be deleted unless you apply for a job or add your information to our Talent Network. If you would like to remove the uploaded information before it is deleted automatically, please go to the ‘Edit Your Info’ button to remove your data (CV/resume).
Talent Network
We offer prospective applicants the option to register through the Site with our Talent Network to keep them updated on new opportunities at Booking.com, adding them to our talent pool of potential candidates, etc. If you want to unsubscribe or remove your profile from the Talent Network after registration you can do so at any time by visiting the Talent Network site.
Online Assessment
Depending on the vacancy, you may be requested to perform an online assessment to establish whether you meet certain job requirements (e.g. language tests, availability to work at given times, job preview and competency test). A decision could be taken by automated means (i.e. algorithms) which you will receive via an automatically generated notification. Your assessment results shall be automatically transferred to Booking.com and will be part of your application file. Your assessment results may be used to provide specific training and/or coaching during your employment with Booking.com and your assessment results may be shared with managers and/or coaches for this purpose.
If you do not meet the assessment requirements, your job application will be rejected. Consequently, you may be blocked from applying for the same position within Booking.com through the Site for 6 months. This is to prevent applicants from undertaking several assessments in too short time periods. After 6 months, you may apply again for the same position within Booking.com, though you will be subject again to an online assessment.
If you are unhappy that an automated decision has been taken, please contact us within 21 days after the automated decision has been made to ask us to reconsider the decision or to take a new decision on a different basis. There is no guarantee that a different decision will be taken but we will consider the application and its grounds.You can reach out to dataprotectionoffice@booking.com with regards to the aforementioned, or other questions in relation to this automated decision-making process used by Booking.com.
Screening
If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a specific third party service provider as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include verification of skill proficiency (including professional licence and drivers’ licence), employment history, education, criminal history, financial history and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the open position at Booking.com, such as education and employment verification. You will be informed about the screening process beforehand specific personal information will be requested for this pre-employment screening purpose.
Data sharing
Sharing with the Booking.com group of companies, including Booking.com Transport Limited (“Booking.com Affiliate”): Booking.com International B.V. is operating the recruitment process for positions across the Booking.com corporate family. Therefore, in order to assess whether your profile fits with the vacancy, your information which may include personal data may be shared with Booking.com Affiliates. Where permitted by law, your information may also be shared for analytical purposes. If Booking.com employs you, your relevant personal data will be shared with the employing Booking.com Affiliate. To find out more about Booking.com’s Affiliates, visit About Booking.com or About Rentalcars.com.
Booking Holdings Inc.: Booking.com, a member of the Booking Holdings Inc. group of companies, may need to share some parts of your information which may include personal data with other members of Booking Holdings Inc., for compliance purposes as permitted by applicable law and strictly necessary to protect Booking Holdings Inc. and it’s members, including Booking.com, from fraudulent activities and investigating and handling data security breaches. For certain positions, your application may need to be shared with other Booking Holdings Inc. group members as part of the recruitment review process.
Sharing With Third-Parties: we share your information, which may include personal data, with third parties (You may find The Third Party Recipients List in Appendix II for more details.) as permitted by applicable law and as described below:
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Service Providers (including suppliers): we share your information with third party service providers to provide our recruitment services, for example to store and process recruitment data and/or maintain the Site on our behalf.
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Payment Providers and other Financial Institutions: to process payments between you and Booking.com your information, as relevant, is shared with payment providers and other financial institutions.
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Travel agencies: if you have to travel as part of the recruitment or event process, we may share your information, such as your name, contact details and passport number, with travel agencies for making travel arrangements.
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Pre-employment screening: we may share your information with third parties to conduct pre-employment screening as permitted by applicable law.
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Compelled Disclosure: when legally required, strictly necessary for the performance of the recruitment services, or to protect or defend our rights or property, or the rights or property of Booking Holdings Inc. group of companies, we disclose your information to governmental authorities including law enforcement (subject to a lawful request), any of the Affiliates part of Booking Holdings Inc. or in legal proceedings.
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Sharing and Disclosure of Aggregate Data: we may share information in aggregate form and/or in a form which does not enable the recipient of such information to identify you, with third parties, for example for industry analysis and demographic profiling.
International Data Transfers
The transmission of personal data as described in this Privacy Statement may include transfers of personal data to countries whose data protection laws are not as comprehensive as those of the countries within the European Union or the United Kingdom. Where required by European law, or, where applicable, the United Kingdom Law, we’ll only transfer personal data to recipients that offer an adequate level of data protection. In these situations, as may be required, we make contractual arrangements to ensure that your personal data is still protected in line with European standards, or where applicable to the United Kingdom regulation. You can ask for more information about this by contacting us at dataprotectionoffice@booking.com.
In addition, if you are a job applicant applying from within China, please note that your personal data will also be transferred from Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan Area) to the third party recipients outside of Mainland China for the relevant purposes under the appendix II: The Third Party Recipients List. Where required under applicable law, Booking.com will obtain your consent prior to conducting international data transfers.
Security
We have procedures in place to prevent unauthorised access to, and the misuse of, personal data.
We use appropriate business systems and procedures to protect and safeguard the personal data you give us. We also use security procedures and technical and physical restrictions for accessing and using the personal data on our servers. Only authorised personnel are permitted to access personal data in the course of their work.
Data Retention
Your personal data will be retained on the basis of applicable law, including through the following considerations:
When a Booking.com Affiliate employs you: if a Booking.com Affiliate employs you, Booking.com International B.V. shall share your relevant personal data with the employing member of the Booking.com group of companies, including Booking.com Transport Limited entities. Your information collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your personnel file. All personal data we retain as part of your personnel file will be subject to our internal retention policy for employees. You will be further informed via our employee privacy statement.
When we do not employ you: if Booking.com or any other Booking.com Affiliate does not employ you, Booking.com will nevertheless continue to retain and use your information which may include personal data. Booking.com may refer back to an earlier application in case you submit a new application in the future. Booking.com may also retain your information in case you want to be part of our talent pool. In this respect Booking.com will retain your personal data collected as part of the application for a specific job opening as long as we have your consent or a legitimate interest to do so.
In case you register with our Talent Network: Unless you delete your registration yourself, we retain profiles and information in our Talent Network for at least one year. Thereafter, we shall delete your account if you have not logged into your account for more than one year.
Your Choices and Rights
We want you to be in control of how your personal data is used by us. You can do this in the following ways:
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You can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
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You can inform us of any changes to your personal data, or if you want us to correct any of the personal data we hold about you;
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In certain situations, you can ask us to erase, block or restrict the personal data we hold about you, or object to particular ways in which we are using your personal data; and
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In certain situations, you can also ask us to send the personal data you have given us to a third party.
Where we are using your personal data on the basis of your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time. Moreover, where we process your personal data based on legitimate interest or the public interest, you have the right to object at any time to that use of your personal data subject to applicable law. Please contact dataprotectionoffice@booking.com or unsubscribe via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email we may send automatically to you.
We rely on you to ensure that your personal data is complete, accurate and current. Please inform us promptly of any changes to or inaccuracies of your personal data by contacting recruitment@booking.com or updating your profile in the Talent Network as applicable.
Questions or Complaints
If you have questions or concerns about our processing of your personal data you are welcome to contact us via recruitment@booking.com.
If you want to exercise any of the rights you have under this Privacy Statement, please contact us via dataprotectionoffice@booking.com. You may also contact your local data protection authority.
Changes to the Privacy Statement
Just as our business changes constantly, this Privacy Statement may also change from time to time. If we make material changes or changes that will have an impact on you (e.g. when we start processing your personal data for other purposes than set out above), we will inform you prior to commencing that processing.
Country-specific provisions
Depending on the law that applies to you, we may be required to provide some additional info. The additional info below may be relevant or not to your specific situation.
Additional Information for California Applicants
These disclosures describe the categories of personal information (the term used under California law) that Booking.com collects about you, and the purposes for collecting that information.
Booking.com collects the following categories of personal information in relation to your consideration for employment with Booking.com:
- Identifiers
- Financial, medical, or health insurance information
- Demographics – characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law (e.g. your gender or religion if you provide these)
- Professional or employment-related information
- Internet or other electronic network activity information. For more information please see the section Data We Collect Automatically above.
- Geolocation information – based on your IP address we determine the general geography of where your device is located.
- Audio, visual, or other similar information – When we conduct a telephone or video meeting during the interview process or in the event there are CCTVs in a location you visit as part of the interview process.
- Inferences drawn from information in other categories
For more detail about the types of personal information we collect, please refer to the “Data Collection” and “Assessment” sections.
For information about the purposes for which we use your personal information, please refer to the “Processing Purposes” section above.
We may share certain data elements of your personal information with third parties, which under California law can be treated as a “sale” of information. This may include information related to Identifiers, Geolocation data, Internet activity and Inferences described above.
California law provides you with certain rights, including the right to access specific data elements of personal information we have collected about you, learn about how we process personal information, including sharing or selling personal information, the right to correct your personal information, request deletion of personal information, opt out of ‘sales’, and opt out of ‘sharing’.
You may exercise all of your rights under California law, including the right to opt out of the sharing or selling of your personal information by sending us an email to dataprotectionoffice@booking.com with the subject line: “California Job Applicant Privacy Rights – Request”.
You may also contact us with questions and concerns about this Privacy Statement and our practices, by sending an email to dataprotectionoffice@booking.com with the subject line: “California Job Applicant Privacy Rights – Request”.
If you are an authorized agent wishing to exercise rights on behalf of a California applicant, please contact us at the email address above, attaching a copy of the applicant’s written authorization, designating you as their agent. We may need to verify your identity before completing your rights request.
For information about our security or data retention practices please see the respective sections above.
Cookie Statement Applicants
Effective Date: July 2024
This Cookie Statement applies to Booking.com International B.V., Oosterdokskade 163, 1011 DL, Amsterdam, Netherlands, (“Booking.com“) and describes how Booking.com uses personal data collected through cookies and other techniques including pixels (“Cookies”) on our website https://careers.booking.com (“Site”).
Data Collection
When entering the Site, Booking.com automatically collects data using Cookies.
The types of information that we collect through Cookies include IP address; device ID; viewed pages; browsing information; browser type; operating system; internet service provider; timestamp; the referring URL; features used or activities engaged within our services; and location data depending on the device you use.
More information on cookies: cookies are small bits of electronic information that a website sends to a visitor’s browser and are stored on the visitor’s hard drive. If you are concerned about having cookies on your device, you can set your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being set, allowing you to decide whether to accept it. You can also delete cookies from your device. However, if you choose to block or delete cookies, certain features of the websites you visit may not operate correctly.
More information on pixel tags: pixels (also known as “web beacons” or “clear gifs”) are electronic files that usually consist of a single-pixel image and can be embedded in a web page or in an email to send information, such as a newsletter. Booking.com may use pixels to place or recognize a Cookie on your device if you use our Site.
More information on Application Software Development Kits (SDKs): an application SDK is a set of code that can be embedded directly within an application on a mobile phone, computer, or other device. We may collect information through an SDK that is embedded in our services. If it is not feasible or practical to integrate an SDK into an application, we may send and receive information using a third-party or our own first party Application Programming Interface “API”.
Third party Cookies: Booking.com allows certain third parties to place Cookies. If you have questions about which Cookies are used and which parties place such Cookies, please contact us using the contact details set out below.
Processing Purposes
We use your information, including personal data, collected through the Cookies for the following purposes:
A.Provide our Site: we use information that we collect through Cookies to allow you to use the Site. It is our legitimate business interest to use Cookies for this purpose.
B.Perform analytics as to the use of our Site: we use information that we collect through Cookies to analyze how our Site is used and to prepare reports on the use of our Site. We also use Cookies to keep track of our interactions with you, including but not limited to your use of the Site, and to improve your user experience and the quality of the Site. It is our legitimate business interest to use Cookies for these purposes.
C.Market research: we use information that we collect through Cookies to pursue Booking.com’s legitimate interests to engage in market research (such as the analysis of market segmentation or trend, and preferences and behaviors).
If you wish to opt-out of the use of Cookies described in this section and no opt-out mechanism is available to you directly (for instance in your browser settings), please contact dataprotectionoffice@booking.com.
Data Sharing
Sharing With Affiliates: as permitted by law, your information may also be shared for analytical purposes. To find out everything you need to know about the Booking.com corporate family, visit About Booking.com.
Sharing With Third-Parties: we share your personal data with third parties as permitted by law and as described below, such as service providers acting on our behalf. We do not sell or rent your personal data.
Sharing and Disclosure of Aggregate Data: we share data in aggregate form and/or in a form which does not enable the recipient of such data to identify you, with third parties, for example for industry analysis and demographic profiling.
Data Retention
There is a difference between session cookies and permanent cookies. Session cookies only exist until you close your browser. Permanent cookies have a longer lifespan and are not automatically deleted once you close your browser. We strive to serve Cookies or allow the serving of Cookies with a maximum lifespan of 5 years. Only in exceptional circumstances, such as for security purposes (such as fraud detection) and where absolutely necessary, will a Cookie have a longer lifespan. If you have questions about specific retention periods, please contact us via the contact details included below.
Questions or Complaints
If you have questions or concerns about our use of Cookies, you may contact us via dataprotectionoffice@booking.com.
All questions and complaints reported to Booking.com will be investigated. Booking.com will attempt to resolve complaints and questions in line with internal policies. You may also contact your local data protection authority.
Changes to the Statement
Just as our business changes constantly, this Cookie Statement may also change from time to time. If you want to see changes made to this Cookie Statement from time to time, we invite you to access this Cookie Statement to see the changes.
If we make material changes or changes that will have an impact on you (e.g. when we start processing your personal data for other purposes than set out above), we will inform you prior to commencing that processing.
Appendix I: The Sensitive Data List for Job Applicants in China
Processed Sensitive Data
Purpose of Processing
Way of Processing
Appendix II: The Third Party Recipients List
iCIMS
Purpose of Sharing: Managing the recruitment of new employees and processing job applications
Method of Sharing: Direct integration via API.
Processed Personal Data: Name, Email, Phone number, Address, Gender, ID Document details, CV/Resume, Past employment history, Education history, Qualifications, Employer, Job Role, Salary details, Additional detail provided by applicant in the course of the application
Hire Right
Purpose of Sharing: https://www.hireright.com/ Background checks required to be considered for a role at Booking.com or its affiliates.
Method of Sharing: Direct sharing by Booking.com and job applicant
Processed Personal Data: Name, Gender, Date of birth, Place of birth, Address, Address history, Affiliations history, Email, Phone number, Past employment history, Education history, Qualifications, Criminal conduct data, Reference details, ID Document details, ID Document Copy, Passport details, Nationality, Ethnicity, Passport copy, Marital status, Family details, Next of Kin, CV/Resume
Purpose of Sharing: Marketing and advertising
Method of Sharing: Cookie
Processed Personal Data: Cookie, Identifier, Browsing session, Browsing activity
Purpose of Sharing: Marketing and advertising
Method of Sharing: Cookie
Processed Personal Data: Cookie, Identifier, Browsing session, Browsing activity
YouTube
Purpose of Sharing: Marketing and advertising
Method of Sharing: Cookie
Processed Personal Data: Cookie, Identifier, Browsing session, Browsing activity