This Privacy Policy describes how HireMadSkills, Inc. (DBA: Instant Teams) (“Instant Teams,” “we,” or “us”) handles personal information that we collect through our website, application, and any other sites or services that link to this Privacy Policy, or when you apply for a position with us or otherwise interact with our marketing materials or business representatives (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect in our capacity as a current or former employer.

Instant Teams is a talent marketplace that uses innovative technology, career development, and a focus on skills-based hiring to create employment solutions for companies and remote careers for military spouses and remote professionals. This Policy applies to all website visitors and users of the Services, including representatives of companies looking for talent (“Employers”), individuals seeking remote employment opportunities (“Career Seekers”), or individuals exploring Instant Teams as a community member (“Community”).

Personal information we collect

Information users submit to us:

  • Contact and account information, such as your first and last name, email address, username, and password. Some of this information may be part of users’ profile pages and may be publicly visible.
  • Applicant information, such as your educational and employment history, credentials, skills, biographical information, and any information you provide for us or Employers to evaluate your candidacy for career opportunities.
  • Feedback or correspondence, such as information you provide when you contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise correspond with us online.
  • Usage information, such as information about how you use the Services and interact with us and other users, including any content you upload to the Services or otherwise submit, communications with other users, and information you provide when you use any interactive features of the Services.
  • Marketing information, such as your preferences for receiving communications about our Services, and details about how you engage with our communications.

Additional information Employers provide to us:

  • Company information, such as business name, contact information, and information regarding career opportunities.
  • Payment information, such as bank account or payment card information to transmit payments for services.

Information we obtain from third parties:

  • Social media information. We may maintain pages on social media platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other third-party platforms. When you visit or interact with our pages on those platforms, the platform provider’s privacy policy will apply to your interactions and their collection, use and processing of your personal information.
  • Third-party login information. When you link, connect, or login to the Services with a third party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, or Apple), you direct the service to send us information such as your registration, friends list, and profile information as controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
  • Background checks. We may require a background check or reference check for employment for certain positions, which may consist of prior employment verification, reference checks, education confirmation, criminal background, credit history, or other information, as permitted by law. In such cases, we may receive information from your references and prior employers as well as from background check service providers, in accordance with applicable laws. 
  • Other sources. We may obtain your personal information from other third parties, such as marketing partners, publicly-available sources and data providers.

Automatic data collection. We, our service providers and advertising partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interactions over time with our Services, our communications and other online services, such as:

  • Device data, such as your computer’s or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., WiFi, LTE, 4G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area.
  • Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, browsing history, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, duration of access, and whether you have opened our marketing emails or clicked links within them.

We use the following tools for automatic data collection:

  • Cookies, which are text files that websites store on a visitor‘s device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser for the purpose of helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, enabling functionality, helping us understand user activity and patterns, facilitating online advertising, and measuring the effectiveness of our advertising and traffic to our website.
  • Local storage technologies, like HTML5, that provide cookie-equivalent functionality but can store larger amounts of data, including on your device outside of your browser in connection with specific applications.
  • Web beacons, also known as pixel tags or clear GIFs, and other similar tools and scripts, which are used to demonstrate that a webpage or email was accessed or opened, or that certain content was viewed or clicked.

How we use personal information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

Provision of the Services. We use personal information to provide our Services to you, including to:

  • Operate, maintain, and secure our website and Services;
  • Allow you to use features of our Services, such as to browse and apply for employment opportunities;
  • Evaluate your candidacy for open positions with us; and
  • To respond to your requests, questions, and feedback, and to otherwise communicate with you about the Services.

Business operations and Services improvement. We process personal information in our legitimate interests to monitor and analyze use of our Services to maintain and improve performance, reliability, and functionality. We also use personal information for our legitimate business activities, including for forecasting and planning, and to evaluate our hiring needs. As part of these activities, we may create aggregated, de-identified or other anonymous data from personal information we collect, and we may use and share such data for our lawful business purposes, including to identify business opportunities and promote our business.

Marketing and advertising, including for:

  • Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications, including email, as permitted by law, including, but not limited to, notifying you of special promotions, offers and events via email and in-app notifications. Unless where consent is required, we do so where it is in our legitimate interests to market to you. You may opt out of our marketing communications as described in the “Opt out of marketing communications” section below.
  • Interest-based advertising. We or our advertising partners, including third party advertising companies and social media companies, may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your interactions (including the data described in the “Automatic data collection” section above) over time across our Services, our communications and other online services, and use that information to serve online ads that they think will interest you. We may also share information about our users with these companies to facilitate interest-based advertising to them or similar users on other online platforms. Unless where consent is required, we do so where it is in our legitimate interests to market to you.

Compliance and protection, including to:

  • Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities; and
  • In our legitimate interests to protect our, your, or others’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including by making and defending legal claims); audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies; enforce the terms and conditions that govern our Services; and prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activity, including cyber attacks and identity theft.

How we share your personal information

Service providers. We may share your personal information with third party companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate our Services (such as customer support, hosting, analytics, email delivery, marketing, and database management). We may also engage third-party AI service providers to assist us in providing our Services in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Advertising partners. When you visit our website, third party advertising companies may use automated technologies to collect information for interest-based advertising purposes described above.

Professional advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.

Authorities and others. We may disclose your personal information to law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the compliance and protection purposes described above.

Business transfers. We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our business or assets, including your personal information, in connection with a business transaction (or potential business transaction) such as a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy or dissolution. In such a case, we will make reasonable efforts to require the recipient to honor this Privacy Policy.

How users share their personal information

If you use our talent marketplace solutions, you may, through use of the Services, direct us to share your information with other parties, including Employers.  For example, you may use our Services to apply for employment with Employers other than Instant Teams. You are responsible for the information you make available or direct us to provide to such parties through your use of the Services.  

Your rights and choices

Access or update your information. Users may themselves update their personal information in their accounts by logging in and editing their information or deleting their account.

Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.

Privacy rights. Depending where you reside and the nature of your interactions with our Services, you may have the right to submit requests about your personal information, including:

  • Access. Request that we provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give the individual access to their personal information. Where applicable, you can request your information in a machine-readable and portable form;
  • Deletion. Request that we delete the personal information that we maintain about you that we no longer need for a lawful purpose;
  • Correction. Request that we update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information;
  • Additional rights. Request to restrict or object to our use of personal information; and
  • Opt out of certain interest-based advertising. Our use of third-party advertising cookies and sharing of personal information with third-party advertising partners may qualify as “selling” or “sharing” personal information, or “targeted advertising,” and where applicable, you may have the ability to opt out, including by submitting a request here. For more options, you can also follow the instructions in the “Online tracking opt-out” section below.

To process your request, we will need to confirm your identity and place of residence. Where these rights apply, your rights may be limited, such as where complying with the request will impact the privacy rights of others or affect our ability to comply with other applicable laws. If you are unhappy with how we handled your request, you may have the right to appeal by contacting us as provided below or you may lodge a complaint with the privacy or data protection regulator where you live, work, or feel a violation occurred. You are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination. California residents can empower an “authorized agent” to submit requests on their behalf. We will require the authorized agent to have a written authorization confirming that authority.

Online tracking opt-out. There are a number of ways to limit online tracking, which we have summarized below:

  • Blocking cookies in your browser. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies, including cookies used for interest-based advertising. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
  • Blocking advertising ID use in your mobile settings. Your mobile device settings may provide functionality to limit use of the advertising ID associated with your mobile device for interest-based advertising purposes.
  • Using privacy plug-ins or browsers. You can block our Services from setting cookies by using a browser with privacy  features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, DuckDuckGo, Ghostery or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third party cookies/trackers.
  • Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics to collect and summarize information about how individuals engage with the Services. For more information on Google Analytics, click here. For more information about Google’s privacy practices, click here. You can opt out of Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
  • Platform opt outs. Many advertising partners offer opt out features that let you opt out of use of your information for interest-based advertising, including:
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
  • Advertising industry opt out tools. You can also use these opt out options to limit use of your information for interest-based advertising by participating companies:

Note that because these opt-out mechanisms are specific to the device or browser on which they are exercised, you will need to opt out on every browser and device that you use.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Third-Party Services

Our Services may include links to, or integrations with, websites, applications, and other online services operated by third parties. The inclusion of any such links or integrations does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with those third parties. We do not own, operate, or control any third-party websites or services, and we are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, or security measures.

Your interactions with third-party websites or services are governed solely by the terms and privacy policies of those third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy and security practices before engaging with them, as we disclaim all liability arising from your access to or use of such external sites or services.

Information Security

We employ a number of technical, organizational, and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, no security measures are failsafe and we cannot guarantee the security of personal information.

Children’s Privacy

Our Services are not intended for use by children under 16 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through our services from a child under 16 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.

Retention

We retain personal information for as long as appropriate to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal information, the purposes for which we process personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Cross-Border Processing of Personal Information

If you provide us with your personal information when using the Services, then please note that we are headquartered in the United States. To provide and operate our Services, it is necessary for us to process personal information in the United States.

If we transfer personal information across borders such that we are required to apply appropriate safeguards to personal information under applicable data protection laws, we will do so. Please contact us for further information about any such transfers or the specific safeguards applied.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you, for example through posting the Privacy Policy on our Services. Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any Personal Data to us. This privacy policy was last updated on the date indicated at the top of this document. We have no liability or responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of our Hosts or other actions of any Integrated Service that may be enabled within the Service.

How to Contact Us

You can reach us by email at marketing@instantteams.com or at the following mailing address:
HireMadSkills, Inc. (DBA: Instant Teams) 164 NW Broad St. Suite 7 Southern Pines, NC 28387