Introduction and scope of candidate privacy notice

Couchbase, Inc. and our affiliated companies (collectively, “Couchbase” or “us” or “we”) care about your privacy and are committed to processing your Personal Information (as defined below) in accordance with fair information practices and applicable data privacy laws. This candidate privacy notice explains the type of Personal Information we process during the application or recruitment process, why we are processing it and how that processing may affect you.

Your use of our website, products and services are governed by any applicable terms and our general Privacy Policy.

 

What do we mean by "Personal Information" and "Processing"?

“Personal Information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person or a household; an identifiable natural person is someone who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

"Processing" means doing anything with the information. For example, it includes collecting it, holding it, disclosing it or deleting it.

Personal Information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, sexual orientation, sex life, trade union membership and genetic and biometric data are subject to special protection and considered in some jurisdictions, such as European Union Member States, to be “sensitive Personal Information.”

Your Personal Information


We process your Personal Information for the purposes of fulfilling our application and recruitment practices, conducting our businesses, and complying with legal obligations. This includes processing your Personal Information:


  • To review and respond to your application;
  • To verify any information provided (including checking references you may provide);
  • To facilitate the interview and application processes, including background verification;
  • To inform you (and any relevant referrer) the status and outcome of your application, as well as to prepare any offer letter, if your application is successful;
  • To suggest other opportunities for which we think you may be a successful candidate;
  • To improve our recruitment and hiring processes; and
  • To comply with our obligations under applicable laws and regulations.

Some of the Personal Information that we process about you comes from you. For example, you tell us your contact details and may provide us a copy of your resume, which includes professional and education information. Other Personal Information about you is generated from references and third-party companies such as recruitment agencies.

The categories of Personal Information and the grounds on which we process data are in the table below (some or all may apply to you). Note that while we try to keep this table comprehensive, we may collect Personal Information that is not covered below. If this is the case, we will inform you of the Personal Information and the purpose for which we process it at the time of collection.

We do not knowingly collect or process personal information of minors under sixteen (16) years of age under this notice.

Purpose
 Examples of Personal Information that may be processed

Grounds for processing (EEA and UK candidates only)

Recruitment

• Identifiers such as a legal name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.;
• CV/resume information (e.g. educational history, qualifications, certifications, skills, references);
• Identity, citizenship or immigration information (e.g. copies of identity documents, right to work permits or visas);
• Professional or employment-related information (e.g. current or past job history, references and any checks we may make to verify information provided);
• Education Information, (e.g. information about a candidate’s or an employee’s educational background, such as education records, report cards, and transcripts);
• Application documents generated by the company (e.g. test results, feedback, and notes from interviews or other selection processes);
• If relevant, information concerning your health, any disability and in connection with any adjustments to working arrangements; and
• Any inferences drawn from the above to create a profile about you in our recruitment or application systems.

Legal obligation

Legitimate interests

Contacting you or others on your behalf

Your email address, postal address, phone number and emergency contact information.

Legitimate interests

Monitoring of diversity and equal opportunities

Information that may qualify as characteristics of protected classifications under applicable law, such as information on your nationality, racial and ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability and age but only to the extent required or permitted by applicable laws.

Legitimate interests
Who sees your information?

Your Personal Information may be disclosed to Couchbase employees, managers, and administrators for employment, administrative and management purposes as mentioned in this notice. We may also disclose this to other members of our group and to our service providers, to the extent it is necessary for them to provide us with their services, including for the purpose of providing our applicant tracking system, verification or background checks. If you have provided references, we may provide certain Personal Information with those individuals (please remember that it is your responsibility to obtain consent from references before you provide their Personal Information to us). If we ever experience a change of ownership or control, we may share your Personal Information with new owners. In addition, we will share your Personal Information when it is required by law and/or in connection with criminal or regulatory investigations or when we have your consent to do so.

Couchbase does not sell your Personal Information in the commonly understood sense. We let advertising and analytics providers collect IP addresses, cookie IDs, and mobile IDs through our publicly accessible website in order to collect useful information about traffic to our websites. In some cases, making that information available to our advertising and analytics partners could be a “sale” or “sharing” under California law. For more information, including how to opt-out or update your preferences, please see our publicly available Couchbase Cookie Policy.

 

How long do we keep your Personal Information?

We will retain your Personal Information as long as required to fulfill the purpose(s) for which this information was collected, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our contractual agreements, or as necessary for our legitimate interests, such as to consider you for other current and future employment opportunities and to help us improve our recruitment processes. If you do not want us to retain your Personal Information for consideration for other roles, or want us to update it, please contact us at privacy@couchbase.com. Note that if you are successful in your application, your Personal Information will be kept in your personnel file. Irrelevant data may be deleted after a short period.

 

Access to your Personal Information and other rights

We try to be as open as we reasonably can about Personal Information that we process. If you would like specific information, just ask us.

Depending on your country of residence, you may have certain rights regarding your Personal Information, including a legal right to make an access request. If you exercise this right and we hold Personal Information about you, we are required to provide you with information on it, including a description and copy of the Personal Information and an explanation of why we are processing it.

Depending on where you live, as well as your subject access right, you may have a legal right to have your Personal Information corrected or erased, to object to its processing, or to have its processing restricted. You may also have the right to object to Processing, opt-out of certain sharing of your personal information, or be given your Personal Information in a machine-readable format for transmitting to another data controller, though this right is unlikely to be relevant to you in the context of our application and recruitment processes. Finally, you may have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing (that is, without human intervention), if those decisions produce legal effects or significantly affect you. Couchbase does not discriminate based on whether you choose to exercise your rights with respect to your information.

If you make a request regarding your Personal Information and there is any question about who you are, we may require you to provide information from which we can satisfy ourselves as to your identity. Depending on your country of residence, you may have a right to submit your requests through an authorized agent. We may require additional information to confirm any agent is authorized to act on your behalf. We will respond to requests in accordance with applicable law, so there may be circumstances where we are unable to accommodate your request.

We are unlikely to rely on consent as a ground for processing. However, if we do and you are a resident of the EEA or the UK, you may withdraw consent at any time, although if you do so that will not affect the lawfulness of what we have done before you withdraw consent. To withdraw your consent, please contact us at privacy@couchbase.com. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, 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.

 

Security

We have implemented generally accepted standards of technical and operational security designed to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Only authorized personnel of Couchbase and of our third-party service providers are provided access to Personal Information, and we take steps to require these employees and third-party service providers to treat this information as confidential. Despite these precautions, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will not obtain access to your Personal Information.

 

International Transfers of Personal Information

We are headquartered in the United States and we have offices in other countries such as India and the United Kingdom. Therefore, note that if you are located in the EEA, we may transfer your Personal Information outside the EEA to members of our group. We may also transfer it to service providers (processors) in other countries. We will ensure that the transfer is lawful and that there are appropriate security arrangements.

We have entered into agreements ensuring appropriate and suitable safeguards with our group members and third-party service providers. If you have questions about these safeguards, please email privacy@couchbase.com.

 

Legal grounds for processing Personal Information (For EEA and UK candidates only)

Under data protection law in the European Union and UK, there are various grounds on which we can rely when processing your Personal Information. In some contexts, more than one ground applies. Two of those grounds can be summarized as Legal Obligation and Legitimate Interests. We outline what those terms mean below:

Term
 Ground for Processing Explanation

Legal obligation

Processing necessary to comply with our legal obligations

Ensuring we perform our legal and regulatory obligations. For example, providing a safe place of work and avoiding unlawful discrimination.

Legitimate Interests

Processing necessary for our or a third party's legitimate interests

We or a third party have legitimate interests in carrying on, managing and administering our respective businesses effectively and properly and in connection with those interests processing your data (e.g. hiring new talents, maintaining the security of our buildings etc.). Your information will not be processed on this basis if our or a third party's interests are overridden by your own interests, rights and freedoms.
Processing sensitive Personal Information

We may process sensitive Personal Information (as defined under applicable law) for any of the purposes mentioned above. If we process sensitive Personal Information about you, as well as ensuring that one of the grounds for processing mentioned above applies, we will make sure that one of the grounds for processing sensitive Personal Information applies, including (for example) that the processing is for equality and diversity purposes to the extent permitted by law.

 

Contact details

In processing your information, we and in some cases our group companies, may act as a data controller (under European privacy law) or as a business (under the California Consumer Privacy Act/California Privacy Rights Act).

 

If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your Personal Information has been used, please contact us at privacy@couchbase.com or by mail at:
  Couchbase, Inc.
  Attn: Legal Department
  3250 Olcott St.
  Santa Clara, CA 95054
  USA

 

Finally, you or your authorized agent may exercise your rights under the applicable data privacy laws by calling us at +1-855-925-1356.

We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you have the right to make a complaint to the data protection authority of your local jurisdiction.

 

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice if we make any material changes. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your Personal Information. This notice may also be supplemented by other statements as needed to comply with local requirements in the country where you live.

 

Last updated: March 7, 2023