This policy explains:
- The purpose of this document and the key legal principles;
- What information we collect during our application and recruitment process and why we collect it;
- How we use that information; and
- How to access, delete, and correct that information.
What is the purpose of this document?
This policy covers the information you share with us and/or which may be acquired or produced by Waymo LLC and its subsidiaries, Waymo Auto LLC and Waymo Holding Inc. (“Waymo” or “we” or “us”) during the application or recruitment process. We are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. You are viewing or being sent a copy of this privacy notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor). It makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and how long it will usually be retained for.
Types of information we collect
In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal data about you:
- Your name, address, email address, telephone number and other contact information;
- Your resume or CV, cover letter, previous and/or relevant work experience or other experience, education, transcripts, or other information you provide to us in support of an application and/or the application and recruitment process;
- Information from interviews and phone-screenings you may have, if any;
- Details of the type of employment you are or may be looking for, current and/or desired salary and other terms relating to compensation and benefits packages, willingness to relocate, or other job preferences;
- Details of how you heard about the position you are applying for;
- Reference information and/or information received from background checks (where applicable), including information provided by third parties;
- Information relating to any previous applications you may have made to Waymo and/or any previous employment history with Waymo;
- Information about your educational and professional background from publicly available sources, including online, that we believe is relevant to your application or a potential future application (e.g. your LinkedIn profile); and
- Information related to any assessment you may take as part of the interview screening process.
We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal data:
- Any sensitive personal information processed during the application or recruitment process such as information about your, medical or health information (such as disability status), veteran status, sexual orientation, your racial or ethnic origin, and government-issued ID numbers (such as Social Security number).
How is your personal data collected?
We collect personal data about candidates from you, the candidate. We also receive information such as your education and work experience, contact information, and demographics, from third party data providers who have the rights to provide us with your information. These third parties include recruitment agencies, background check providers, publicly accessible sources, and other third parties. These partners may collect your information from publicly available sources, or through third parties they work with.
How we use information we collect
Your information will be used by Waymo for the purposes of carrying out its application and recruitment process which includes:
- Assessing your skills, qualifications and interests against our career opportunities;
Verifying your information and carrying out reference checks and/or conducting background checks (where applicable) if you are offered a job;
- Communications with you about the recruitment process and/or your application(s), including, in appropriate cases, informing you of other potential career opportunities at Waymo;
- Where requested by you, assisting you with obtaining an immigration visa or work permit where required;
- Making improvements to Waymo’s application and/or recruitment process including improving diversity in recruitment practices; and/or
- Complying with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes or enforceable governmental requests;
- Proactively conducting research about your educational and professional background and skills and contacting you if we think you would be suitable for a role with us; and
- As part of our commitment to equal opportunity employment, we may process information regarding your membership in various organizations to support our diversity and inclusion efforts. This may include associating participant membership with sensitive and/or demographic information.
We will also use your information to protect the rights and property of Waymo, our users, applicants, candidates, employees or the public as required or permitted by law.
If you are offered and accept employment with Waymo, the information collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your employment record.
If certain U.S. state laws like the the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), EU data protection, UK data protection law or data protection law in the People’s Republic of China applies to the processing of your information, our legal basis for processing your information
If you are based in certain U.S. states (including California and Virginia) the UK or the People’s Republic of China, this policy provides you with certain information that must be provided under the CCPA, VCDPA, General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) and the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China. We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited to those purposes;
- Accurate and kept up to date;
- Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about; and
- Protected in accordance with requirements under applicable law.
Given the benefit to our business to appoint qualified people to the roles we advertise and to safeguard and control access to our valuable trade secret and confidential information, it is in our legitimate interest to evaluate an applicant's suitability for employment and decide who to appoint to specific positions. We collect and process your information to evaluate your eligibility for employment and where it is necessary in order to decide whether or not to offer you work.
If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we may not be able to process your application successfully. For example, if we require references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we may not be able to take your application further.
We may also seek your consent to process your personal information in specific circumstances, or process it where necessary to comply with a legal obligation or for purposes connected to legal claims. If we use your information to improve our application or recruitment process, we do so on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to ensure we recruit the best possible candidates. Waymo operates globally, which means your information may be stored and processed outside of the country or region where it was originally collected including in the United States. In some of these countries, you may have fewer rights in respect of your information than you do in your country of residence. Regardless of where your information is processed, we apply the same protections described in this policy. We comply with certain legal frameworks relating to the transfer of data, such as the frameworks described below.
Adequacy Decisions: The European Commission has determined that certain countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) adequately protect personal data, which means that data can be transferred from the European Union (EU) and Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland to those countries. The United Kingdom (UK) and Switzerland have adopted similar adequacy mechanisms. We rely on the following adequacy mechanisms:
Data Privacy Frameworks. Waymo (including Waymo LLC and its subsidiaries, Waymo Auto LLC and Waymo Holding Inc.) complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Waymo has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union and the United Kingdom in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) Program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/. Waymo is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the US Federal Trade Commission. Waymo remains responsible for any of your personal information that is shared under the Onward Transfer Principle with third parties for external processing on our behalf.
If you have an inquiry regarding our privacy practices in relation to our DPF certification, we encourage you to contact waymo-hr@google.com. You may also refer a complaint to your local data protection authority and we will work with them to resolve your concern. In certain circumstances, the DPF provides the right to invoke binding arbitration to resolve complaints not resolved by other means, as described in Annex I to the DPF Principles. In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, Waymo commits to cooperate and comply respectively with the advice of the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPAs) and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with regard to unresolved complaints concerning our handling of human resources data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF in the context of the employment relationship.
Standard contractual clauses. The European Commission has approved the use of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) as a means of ensuring adequate protection when transferring data outside of the EEA. Such clauses have also been approved for transfers of data to countries outside the UK and Switzerland. By incorporating SCCs into a contract established between the parties transferring data, personal data is considered protected when transferred outside the EEA, Switzerland or the UK to countries which are not covered by an adequacy decision. We rely on SCCs for our data transfers where required and in instances where they are not covered by an adequacy decision. If you want to obtain a copy of the SCCs, you can contact waymo-hr@google.com.
How we use particularly sensitive personal data
We will use your sensitive personal data in the following ways:
- We will use information about your health and disability status to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview; and
- We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin and gender, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting. Data that Waymo uses for these purposes will be collected on an anonymised basis. Candidates are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such information and your application will not be affected either way.
Automated decision-making
You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.
Who may have access to your information
- Your information may be shared with other companies owned by Alphabet Inc, such as Google, as well as, Waymo affiliates, subsidiaries or joint ventures in the US and in other jurisdictions, in relation to the purposes described above. If you have been referred for a job at Waymo by a current Waymo employee, we may inform that employee about the progress of your application and let the Waymo employee know the outcome of the process. In some cases, if it is identified that you have attended the same university/school or shared the same previous employer during the same period as a current Waymo employee we may consult with that employee for feedback on you.
- Waymo may also use service providers acting on Waymo’s behalf to perform some of the services described above including for the purposes of the verification/background checks. These service providers may be located outside the country in which you live or the country where the position you have applied for is located.
- Waymo may sometimes be required to disclose your information to external third parties such as to local labor authorities, courts and tribunals, regulatory bodies and/or law enforcement agencies for the purpose of complying with applicable laws and regulations, or in response to legal process.
- We will also share your personal information with other third parties if we have your consent (for example if you have given us permission to contact your references), or to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or to protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Waymo, our users, applicants, candidates, employees or the public or as otherwise required by law.
- It is your responsibility to obtain consent from references before providing their personal information to Waymo.
- Your information may be stored and processed outside of the country or region where it was originally collected including in the United States. Whenever we share information of EU or UK data subjects outside the EU or UK, we make sure an adequate transfer mechanism is in place. For internal transfers, we rely on Model Contractual Clauses. If you have an inquiry regarding our privacy practices, we encourage you to contact us at privacy@waymo.com. You may also refer a complaint to your local data protection authority and we will work with them to resolve your concern.
Waymo protects information about you that is collected, processed, and stored as part of the application and recruitment process in accordance with requirements under applicable law.
Your rights in respect of your information
In certain countries and U.S. states, you may have certain rights under data protection laws. This may include the right to request access or to update your information, request that it be deleted, or transferred, or object to Waymo using it for certain purposes.
If you wish to exercise these rights please visit this help page. We will respond to any requests in accordance with applicable law, and so there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request. If you are in the EU, the UK or the People’s Republic of China and if you can’t find the answer to your question in this policy, you can contact the Waymo data controller responsible for your information at: privacy@waymo.com. Depending on your country of residence, you may also raise any questions or concerns you have regarding your personal information with your local data protection authority.
Additional Information for California Residents
The California Consumer Privacy Act or “CCPA”, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, affords individuals residing in California certain rights with respect to their personal information. If you are a California resident, this section applies to you.
We collect, use and disclose your personal information in the following ways:
