This privacy statement (the “Statement”) provides information on the collection and use of Personal Data by Harvard University and its associated entities (“Harvard,” the “University,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) on the careers.harvard.edu website, other websites that link to the Statement, and in the applicant tracking system available via those websites (collectively, the “Services”). Please note that Harvard Schools, Centers, and other Harvard units, affiliates, and websites have separate privacy policies.  

As used in this Statement, “Personal Data” means information relating to an identified or identifiable individual; an identifiable individual is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by use of any identifier or characteristic specific to that individual. 

We use the Personal Data that we collect to carry out various recruitment, hiring, and human resources activities as described in more detail below. The ways in which we collect and use your data vary depending on the relationship between you and us, and includes:

• Directly from you, when you provide information to us or interact with our Services:  
  • Contact information: for example, name, phone number, mailing address and email address and any other contact information you choose to include when you submit an employment application or communicate with us via e-mail, mail, phone, or other channels such as web forms, email list subscriptions, social media, in-person events, or other means.  
  • Education and personal history: for example, grades or prior educational experience when you apply for a position, as well as school activities, personal interests, charitable activities, and assessment data.
  • Employment history: for example, employer, job title, location, dates of employment, and work experience.
  • Application information: for example, employment references and responses to candidate questions.  
  • Voluntary self-identification responses: for example, information about your race and ethnicity, gender, veteran status, or disability status which you may choose to provide in connection with an employment application.  
  • Any additional information you choose to provide us, including questions and feedback.
• Automatically from you, when you utilize or interact with our Services:
  • Device information and online user activity when you utilize our technology platforms, as described in the next section.  
• From third parties:  
  • Education, employment, and personal history from schools you may have attended, referrers, prior employers, and others.
  • Information about your employment history and eligibility, from third party sources that provide such information, which we may use in connection with recruitment, applications, onboarding, and other contexts.
  • Responses to applicant questions from third-party services such as Indeed and LinkedIn, which you direct those services to provide to us.  
  • Any other information relevant to your application for employment which we may obtain from third parties, including but not limited to background check providers and government agencies, in each case with your prior consent.  

Some of this information may be collected by external parties on our behalf.

Some of the information we collect may constitute “sensitive” or “special categories” of Personal Data under applicable laws. 

Online user activity, cookies, and information collected by other automated means

When you interact with the Services, certain information about your use of our Services is automatically collected. This includes:

• Device information, including the IP address and other details of a device that you use to connect with our Services (such as device type and unique device identifier, operating system, and browser type);  
• Location information where you choose to provide the University with access to information about your device’s location;
• Site usage and session information. We collect information about your interaction with the Services, including the resources that you access, pages viewed, how much time you spent on a page, your favorited job listings, and how you reached the Services, all on a de-identified or aggregated basis.  

Much of this information is collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies, which may be operated by our partners who assist us in collecting information about usage of the Services or providing other services to you. For example, we use Google Analytics to collect usage details. You can learn more about privacy and Google Analytics by visiting https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245 and opt out of collection of your data by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.  

Our applicant portal is managed and provided by SmartRecruiters, a third-party service provider, and may include cookies set by SmartRecruiters or its service providers. You can learn more about SmartRecruiters’ use of cookies by visiting https://www.smartrecruiters.com/legal/cookie-policy/. We may also use cookies set by other third-party services.

Your browser or device may include “Do Not Track” functionality; please note that we do not respond to such signals.  

How we use your personal data

We use the Personal Data we collect from you for the following purposes:

• Conducting our operations, including in connection with staff recruitment activities;
• Processing and responding to your requests or inquiries;
• Providing you with newsletters, articles, service alerts, or announcements, event invitations, and other information that we believe may be of interest to you;
• Identifying you when you visit our websites;  
• Operating, maintaining, and improving our websites and mobile applications;
• Conducting research, surveys, and similar inquiries to help us understand trends and needs of our applicants and visitors;
• Evaluating candidates for employment and administering employment relationships;
• Verifying the accuracy and completeness of employment applications;  
• Maintaining a pool of candidates for potential future employment opportunities;  
• Managing subscriptions;
• Ensuring the rights, safety, and security of our students, faculty, fellows, employees, and others;  
• Preventing, investigating, taking action regarding, or providing notice of fraud, unlawful or criminal activity, other misconduct, security or technical issues, or unauthorized access to or use of Personal Data, our website, or data systems; or  
• Responding to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; fulfilling and enforcing our agreements and legal rights; protecting the health, safety, rights, or property of you, us, or others; and meeting legal obligations. 

We may use and share information in an aggregated or de-identified manner at our discretion, including for research, analysis, modeling, marketing, and improvement of our Services.

Our applicant tracking system may incorporate artificial intelligence functionality to aid in recruitment and for other legitimate Harvard business purposes. Results from such tools will not serve as the sole basis or most important factor in decisions and will not be used to overrule human evaluation of job applications.

How we share your personal data

• Other Harvard entities. We share your information internally with schools, centers, or other Havard units or Harvard-controlled entities to facilitate and manage the purposes above.  
• Service providers. We may share your information with service providers that we believe need the information to perform a technology, business, or other professional function for us such as processing employment applications and related verifications, event registration, IT services, maintenance and hosting of our Services and platforms, and other professional services.
• Application references and prior affiliations. We may share your information with any references you provide in connection with an employment application, as well as any other entities or individuals included in your application materials, such as former or current schools or employers, to assist with verifying and evaluating your application.  
• Analytics partners. We partner with analytics providers, who collect information via tracking technologies on our websites, to assist us with measuring visits and traffic on our websites so we can measure and improve the performance of the sites. These third parties may use tracking technologies to collect or receive information from the Services and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services. For additional information about the information collected by Analytics Partners, refer to “Online User Activity, Cookies, and Information Collected by Other Automated Means.”
• Social media platforms. If you interact with us on social media platforms, the platform may be able to collect information about you and your interaction with us. If you interact with social media objects on our Services (for example, by clicking on a LinkedIn “like” button), both the platform and your connections on the platform may be able to view that activity. To control this sharing of information, please review the privacy policy of the relevant social media platform.
• Corporate event. We reserve the right to transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. We cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Statement.
• Legal. We share information where necessary to comply with applicable law; to respond to requests from law enforcement agencies or other government authorities or third parties, as permitted by law and without your consent when it is necessary to protect our customers, employees, or property; in emergency situations; or to defend against legal claims and enforce our rights, including under our terms of service and policies.

You may have certain choices when it comes to how we collect and use your information.

• Email marketing. If at any time you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email.
• SMS messaging. Consent to receive communications via text messages is not a condition of submitting an application or any other transaction. You can opt-out of receiving text messages via by responding to any of our text messages with any of the following replies: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or QUIT. If you opt-out, we may still send you service-related communications. 

Occasionally we provide links to other websites, which you may need to visit as part of the application process, or for your convenience and information. These sites operate independently from our website and are not under our control. These sites may have their own privacy notices or terms of use, which you should review if you visit any sites linked through our website. We are not responsible for the content or use of these unrelated sites. 

We use a combination of physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the information we collect. While we use these precautions to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and databases we operate or that are operated on our behalf. 

We do not knowingly or intentionally gather Personal Data about children via our website.  If we have inadvertently collected the Personal Data of a child under 16, or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction, a parent or guardian of that child may contact us as set forth in the “Contact Us” section below to request that we delete the information from our records or otherwise cease the use of that information. 

If you are located in a country outside of the United States which has enacted a personal data protection law, please click here for additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you. 

We may update this Statement from time to time without prior notice by posting a revised Statement.  You can determine when this Statement was last revised by checking the Last Updated date at the bottom of this Statement. 

If you have any questions, comments, requests, or concerns about this Statement or other privacy-related matters, you may contact us at ithelp@harvard.edu.  

Last updated date: April 30, 2026