Privacy Policy

At Top Employers Institute, including its affiliates around the globe, we understand that your personal data and a careful handling of your organisation’s confidential data is important to you. Top Employers Institute therefor ensures that your personal data will be handled with care and compliance.

This privacy statement explains what data we gather about you, what we use that data for and to whom we give that data. It also sets out your rights in relation to your data and who you can contact for more information or queries.

We take data privacy very seriously, and we ensure that the data privacy of individual employees is protected. Therefore, we only accept anonymized information and never request documents that contain data that can be linked to an individual person. If we encounter personal data in uploaded files, we immediately delete those documents.

By using the (mobile) website www.top-employers.com, the Top Employers Portal and/or other products and services from Top Employers Institute, you consent to the content of this Privacy Statement. This Privacy Statement applies throughout the organisation globally, as we at Top Employers Institute have implemented an aligned approach and compliance to privacy rules and regulations.

The Top Employers Institute reserves the right to change this Privacy Statement from time to time without notice. You can always find the applicable version on the website of the Top Employers Institute at www.top-employers.com.

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DISCLAIMER (APPLICABLE TO THE TOP EMPLOYERS CERTIFICATION PROCESS)

In the course of the Top Employers certification process, participants to the Top Employers certification programmes will be requested to provide supporting documentation in order to substantiate their answers. To guarantee the data privacy of individual employees, Top Employers Institute does only accept anonymised information. Under no circumstances will Top Employers Institute request documents containing personal data (i.e. data that can be linked to an individual person). As soon as we encounter such data, the document containing this data will be destroyed by Top Employers Institute without consulting the participant. All liability relating to the sharing of such document and its consequences lay with the participant.

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We collect the following data

The following data can be collected and processed by the Top Employers Institute in various ways:

Identification and contact information: last name, first name, (work/private) address, country, (work/private) e-mail address, (work/private) telephone or mobile phone number, date of birth, gender ...;
Log-in data related to a user account: (user) name, e-mail address, password, security question and answer, connection times, ...;

Information concerning the products and/or services you wish to order, interests, preferences you pass on via our (mobile) websites, Top Employers Portal, ...;
Financial information (in case of web orders): bank account number, BIC code, name of the account holder, ...;
Other data and content that you exchange, communicate and share through the Top Employers Institute’s products, (mobile) websites, apps, portal, ... such as text, images, sound recordings…

In case you provide Top Employers Institute personal data that we did not request from you nor need from you, we will make sure to delete this personal data as soon as possible.

Personal Data created by Top Employers Institute

By attending a Top Employers Certification Dinner (celebration of the certified participants) or an event organised or hosted by Top Employers Institute, you allow Top Employers Institute to share pictures taken during these events on Top Employers Institute’s website www.top-employers.com and/or other sources, only if these pictures are being used as promotion/marketing material in the course of Top Employers Institute’s service.

Information you provide by using the (mobile) website and Top Employers Portal

When you use the (mobile) website www.top-employers.com or Top Employers portal of the Top Employers Institute, the following information can be processed: visited pages, websites and searches by means of cookies (https://www.top-employers.com/en/cookie-policy/), data you fill in yourself on our website www.top-employers.com, our Top Employers Portal and other data you have granted the Top Employers Institute access to (such as location data, ...).

To provide our users the best user experience and to be able to understand their needs Top Employers Institute’s website www.top-employers.com is running Hotjar tracking (https://www.hotjar.com/). Hotjar is a service that uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour (e.g. page visits, time on page, link clicks, mouse clicks etc.) and their devices (device's IP address (captured and stored in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor Top Employers Institute will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s Privacy Policy by clicking on the following link (https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy).

You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link (https://www.hotjar.com/legal/compliance/opt-out).

Data from other sources

The Top Employers Institute can also collect and process data through other sources, such as the purchase or rental of data collected by suppliers who specialize in this, the Top Employers Institute’s partners, public sources, social media, etc. The rules and preferences of these providers will apply to the use of social media channels, both on you and on the Top Employers Institute.

On the Top Employers Institute website, you can find links to other websites. These websites may not be managed by the Top Employers Institute and may have their own privacy statement or policy. The Top Employers Institute strongly advises you to read these and cannot take responsibility for these third-party websites.

We process the following personal data

We collect your personal data and other information when you make a purchase, use or register into our services, take part in campaigns or otherwise interact with us.

Personal data is being processed by the Top Employers Institute for the following purposes:

The creation and execution of an agreement with you (such as closing subscriptions, ordering products and / or services, creating a user account, ...), as well as invoicing and monitoring and collection of these invoices, whether or not via third parties;
Making it possible to exchange, create and delete certain information and/or contact other users on (mobile) websites, apps, ...;
The continuous improvement, maintenance and optimization of our products, services, (mobile) website www.top-employers.com, Top Employers Portal, and their security, as well as the optimization of general, commercial and marketing strategies of the Top Employers Institute;
Personalising the products and/or services to be delivered to you and the associated support services, user information, service messages or other related (electronic) messages;
The targeted and optimally tailored sending of advertisements, newsletters and information. For this the Top Employers Institute can bundle your preferences and interests in a profile;
Compliance with the regulations applicable to the Top Employers Institute in the broadest sense;
Other specific purposes for which separate permission can be requested.

Sharing of your personal data

Most importantly: we at the Top Employers Institute do not sell, lease, rent or otherwise disclose your personal data to third parties unless otherwise stated below.

We use cookies on our website www.top-employers.com. Cookies are small pieces of information sent by a website to a Visitor’s hard disk. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. By continuing to visit the website www.top-employers.com, you agree to the placement of cookies on your device. If you choose not to accept our cookies, Top Employers Institute cannot guarantee that your experience will be as fulfilling as it would otherwise be. Top Employers Institute may also place cookies from third parties for functional and marketing purposes. The use of cookies is widespread and benefits the surfer. For further information, see Top Employers Institute’s Cookie Policy.

The Top Employers Institute can exchange the personal data processed with its affiliates around the globe.

Furthermore, personal data may also be shared with partners, suppliers or other employees of the Top Employers Institute when the processing by these third parties is necessary for the creation, the execution, the use, the collection, the access or the processing with regard to products, services, (mobile) website, Top Employers Portal. With these partners, suppliers or other appointees, the necessary agreements have always been concluded that restrict the use and processing of your personal data and which guarantees sufficient protection of your personal data.

Our partners, suppliers or other appointees may only use your personal data to send you offers, newsletters and other commercial information, if you have given separate permission for this. If you no longer wish to receive this, you can always contact these third parties to stop this use of the personal data.

Your personal data will only be released in accordance with this Privacy Statement and/or if this is legally required. In rare cases, the Top Employers Institute may have to disclose your personal data pursuant to a court order or to comply with other mandatory laws or regulations. The Top Employers Institute will make reasonable efforts to inform you in advance of this unless this is subject to legal restrictions.

If your consent is legally required or we believe that your consent is appropriate depending on the circumstances, we will always ask for this permission before we share your personal data or forward it to a country outside the European Economic Area.

You are not obliged to provide your data to the Top Employers Institute or agree with the processing. Nevertheless, in certain cases it will be necessary to communicate personal data to the Top Employers Institute (such as name, address, e-mail address, etc.), so that proper service can be provided, and the applicable legislation can be complied with.

Finally, personal data can always be anonymised and shared with third parties. In this case you will never be identified on the basis of this anonymised data.

Your rights

When using our website and submitting personal data to us, you may have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other laws. Depending on the legal basis for processing your personal data, you may have some or all of the following rights:

The right to be informed
You have the right to be informed about the personal data we collect from you, and how we process it
The right of access
You have the right to get confirmation that your personal data is being processed and have the ability to access your personal data
The right to rectification
You have the right to have your personal data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
The right to erasure (right to be forgotten)
You have the right to request the removal or deletion of your personal data if there is no compelling reason for us to continue processing it

The right to restrict processing
You have the right to ‘block’ or restrict the processing of your personal data. When your personal data is restricted, we are permitted to store your data, but not to process it further
The right to data portability
You have the right to request and get your personal data that you provided to us and use it for your own purposes. We will provide your data to you within 30 days of your request. To request your personal data, please contact us using the information at the top of this Privacy Statement
The right to object
You have the right to object to us processing your personal data for the following reasons:

Processing was based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling);
Direct marketing (including profiling);

Processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics, and;
Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
You will have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you

Rights to file a complaint
Finally, you have the right to file a complaint with supervisory authorities if your information has not been processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. If the supervisory authorities fail to address your complaint properly, you may have the right to a judicial remedy.

Information Security

In order to protect your personal data in the best possible way, the Top Employers Institute takes all reasonable measures and applies best practices to prevent loss, misuse, disclosure, unauthorized access or modification of this personal data. Both at technical and organisational level, the necessary measures are taken to provide a sufficient level of security.

Payment details are always protected according to the standard encryption that is customary to protect sensitive financial information.

Recruitment applications

In case applicant’s job-application turns out to be unsuccessful, Top Employers Institute holds the right to keep the data that applicant shared during the application process for a period of 12 months, commencing on the end date of the application process. After the 12-month period, or in case applicant withdraws its consent earlier, applicant’s data will be destroyed.

Storage of data
We retain personal data that we collect from you only for as long as we require the data for legal, marketing and/or business purposes. Your data may be retained in electronic form, paper form, or a combination of both. Once your data is no longer required, we will destroy the data as soon as possible.

Should you have any more questions about the subject of Information Security, please reach out and we will happily provide you with the specifics.

Our contact details
Top Employers Institute
Amstelplein 36
Mondriaan Tower, 17th floor
1096 BC AMSTERDAM
The Netherlands
E: gdpr@top-employers.com
T: +31 (0)20 262 99 15

You can contact us at any time to:

Request access to information that the Top Employers Institute has about you.
Correct any information that the Top Employers Institute has about you.

Delete information that the Top Employers Institute has about you.

If you have any additional questions about the Top Employers Institute’s collection and storage of data, please reach out.

This policy was updated 20 May 2020