Privacy Policy
Our privacy obligations
'Personal information' means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. Freelancer-Portal's Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected and/or held by Freelancer-Portal.
This Privacy Policy also explains how we process 'personal data' about people in the European Union (EU), as required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The types of personal information we collect and hold
We collect personal information about our users in order provide our products, services, and customer support. Our products, services, and customer support are provided through many platforms including but not limited to: websites, phone apps, email, and telephone. The specific platform and product, service, or support you interact with may affect the personal data we collect.
Not all information requested, collected, and processed by us is "Personal Information" as it does not identify you as a specific natural person. This will include majority of "User Generated Content" that you provide us with the intention of sharing with other users. Such "Non-Personal Information" is not covered by this privacy policy. However, as non-personal information may be used in aggregate or be linked with existing personal information; when in this form it will be treated as personal information. As such, this privacy policy will list both types of information for the sake of transparency.
In some situation users may provide us with personal information without us asking for it, or through means not intended for the collection of particular types of information. Whilst we may take reasonable steps to protect this data, the user will have bypassed our systems, processes, and control and thus the information provided will not be governed by this privacy policy.
In some situations users may provide us personal information over platforms that are outside our control; for example through social media or forums. Whilst any information collected by us is governed by this Privacy Policy, the platform by which it was communicated will be governed by its own Privacy Policy.
How we collect personal information
Information that you specifically give us
While you use our products and services you may be asked to provide certain types of personal information. This might happen through our website, applications, online chat systems, telephone, paper forms, or in-person meetings. We will give you a Collection Notice at the time, to explain how we will use the personal information we are asking for. The notice may be written or verbal.
Links to other sites
On our website, you will encounter links to third party websites. These links may be from us, or they may appear as content generated by other users. These linked sites are not under our control and thus we are not responsible for their actions. Before providing your personal information via any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that website and its privacy policy.
How we use personal information
The information we request, collect, and process is primarily used to provide users with the product or service they have requested. More specifically, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to provide the service or product you have requested;
- to facilitate the creation of a User Contract (see Terms of Service for more information);
- to provide technical or other support to you;
- to answer enquiries about our services, or to respond to a complaint;
- to promote our other programs, products or services which may be of interest to you (unless you have opted out from such communications);
- to allow for debugging, testing and otherwise operate our platforms;
- to conduct data analysis, research and otherwise build and improve our platforms;
- to comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
- if otherwise permitted or required by law; or
- for other purposes with your consent, unless you withdraw your consent for these purposes.
The 'lawful processing' grounds on which we will use personal information about our users are (but are not limited to):
- when a user has given consent;
- when necessary for the performance of a contract to which the user is party;
- processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations;
- processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of our users or of another natural person.
- processing is done in pursuing our legitimate interests, where these interests do not infringe on the rights of our users.
We use automated decision when helping matching users to jobs. The primary way this occurs is through how we rank users. These rankings are produced by analysing user generated content, user activity and the outcome of jobs; in this context, user generated content will include reviews that users receive when completing jobs. More information on these ranking guides can be found in our community articles. Automated decision making is also used to recommend potential jobs to our users and as a part of our marketplace security systems.
When we disclose personal information
Third party applications
Through the Freelancer-Portal API it is possible for users to grant third party applications access to their Freelancer-Portal.com account. Depending on the permissions that are granted, these applications may be able to access some personal information or do actions on the users' behalf. These third party applications are not controlled by us and will be governed by their own privacy policy. Users are able to remove third party applications from access their data through their settings.
Other disclosures and transfers
We may also disclose your personal information to third parties for the following purposes:
- if necessary to provide the service or product you have requested;
- we receive court orders, subpoenas or other requests for information by law enforcement;
- if otherwise permitted or required by law; or
- for other purposes with your consent.
Accessing, your personal information
You have the right to request the correction of the personal information we hold about you. All your personal information can be updated through the user settings pages. If you require assistance please contact our customer support.
Exercising your other rights
You have a number of other rights in relation to the personal data Freelancer-Portal.com holds about you, however, there may be restrictions on how you may exercise the rights. This is largely due to the nature of the products and services we provide. Much of the data we collect is in order to facilitate contracts between users, facilitate payments, and provide protection for the legitimate users of our marketplace - these data uses are protected against the below rights.
You have the right to:
- seek human review of automated decision-making or profiling
- erasure
- temporary restriction of processing.
Erasure - Most personal information and user generated content cannot be deleted as they are used to support contracts between users, document financial transactions, and are used in providing protecting other legitimate users of the marketplace. In the case of non-personal data that can be linked with personal data, it will either be erased or otherwise anonymised from the personal data.
While we endeavour to resolve complaints quickly and informally, if you wish to proceed to a formal privacy complaint, we request that you make your complaint in writing to our Privacy Officer, by mail or email as above. We will acknowledge your formal complaint within 10 working days of receipt.
If we do not resolve your privacy complaint to your satisfaction, you can choose to instead lodge a complaint with your local Data Protection Authority (DPA). The list of DPAs is at https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm.
