NIQ Global Applicant Privacy Notice

NielsenIQ is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary NielsenIQ data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years NielsenIQ has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the advertising, retail, and fast-moving consumer goods industries. NielsenIQ belongs to the group of companies listed here, which together form the “NIQ Group.” For more information, visit www.nielseniq.com. 

This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) describes how the NIQ Group handles the Personal Data we collect, and the rights you may have over this information. By submitting application information, you acknowledge the NIQ Group’s collection of Personal Data about you, including what we receive from others in connection with your application (“Applicant Data”). Our electronic data processing system for carrying out recruitment processes is used globally within the NIQ Group.  The controller for the processing operations in your application process is the NIQ entity to which you address your application, typically Nielsen Consumer LLC (“NielsenIQ,” “NIQ,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). This Notice does not apply to any other product or service owned by NielsenIQ. 

In this Notice, “Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual This includes details like your name, address, phone number, and employment information. The term also includes “Personal Information,” or similar terms as defined in applicable law.   When we refer to “Sensitive Personal Data,” it means Personal Data that, if disclosed, could lead to identity theft, fraud, or significant harm to the identified individual. This includes information revealing an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, financial details, or trade union membership. The term also includes “Special Category Personal Information,” or similar terms as defined in applicable law.

Notice at Collection of Personal Data 

This Notice at Collection provides some key information about our privacy practices: the categories of Personal Data we collect; how we obtain, share, and maintain Personal Data; and how you can exercise your Personal Data rights and choices. Submission of your application and related Applicant Data is entirely voluntary. By creating an account, you acknowledge NielsenIQ’s processing of your Applicant Data for the purposes described in this Notice.  

As part of the recruitment and application processes, NielsenIQ may collect the following Applicant Data about you: 

• Data you submit. Either initially or after we have made you an offer of employment, you may submit:  
• Identifiers, such as your name, address, phone number, email address, nationality and residency, date of birth, and government-issued identification number.  
• Professional or Employment-Related Data,like your current occupation and title, details about your education and work history, licenses, certifications, and other data included on employment related documents such as your resume or curriculum vitae (CV). 
• Sensitive Personal Data that may be revealed through your employment-related documentation, such as your race, ethnicity, or health information.  
• Protected Classification Characteristics, under State or Federal law, such as your age, race, gender, and sexual orientation. 
• Audio, Electronic, Visual, or Similar Data recorded when interacting with us in person, via phone or video. 
• Inferences and Assessment Data. As part of your application, we may ask you to participate in assessment activities (e.g., ability and aptitude test, virtual interviewing) for us to further evaluate your qualifications for the role.
• Data collected automatically. We may automatically collect information about your device through your use of our website including:  
• Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, time and date of and pages visited on our website, and the webpage you visited immediately prior to our site. 
• Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. We may use electronic tracking technology to facilitate your use of our website and the online employment application tools. These cookies are used solely to facilitate your online experience and are not used to make employment-related decisions. You may choose not to provide consent or to modify your settings to decline our cookies (refer to our Cookie Notice , SmartRecruiter’s Cookie Notice)and Spotted Zebra’s Cookie Notice Cookie Policy | How We Use Cookies to Enhance Your Experience I Spotted Zebra
• Data from third party sources. In certain countries, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may obtain Personal Data from third-party sources such as: 
• Additional data collected directly from you or from third parties (e.g., through background checks). In some countries, we may conduct pre-or post-employment background checks, only after providing notice and clearly disclosing the intention to perform a background check for employment purposes. We will perform the background check after receipt of your authorization and consent to do so, as applicable. 
• Education or degree verification and reference checks (with your consent for contacting previous employers). These checks are limited to educational and professional information. 
• Social media profiles that are publicly viewable to the extent relevant for the performance of the role. 

NIQ collects your Applicant Data for the purpose of making a decision on establishing an employment relationship with you. We may use Applicant Data to communicate with you in writing, by telephone or electronically to evaluate your application, analyze our staffing needs and practices, or otherwise as needed to efficiently and securely manage our recruitment and application processes and employee administration. We may combine Applicant Data with research tools and data from other sources. 

Furthermore, we may process Personal Data about you based on our legitimate interest for the purpose of defending of asserting legal claims against us arising from the recruitment and application processes (as needed to fulfill our burden of proof in any proceedings under locally applicable laws. 

NielsenIQ does not knowingly sell or share Applicant Data. 

Retention. We may store Applicant Data for as long as needed for the purposes indicated in this Notice (including for the purpose of considering whether your skills are suitable for other opportunities within the NIQ Group). In any event, we will not retain your Applicant Data longer than permitted by local law from the date of collection unless you provide your consent or become employed by NielsenIQ, in which case a different retention period may apply. Records not specifically designated as Applicant Data may have different retention periods (e.g., email server records of emails communications). 

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data 

Depending on your country of residence, local law may require us to provide a legal basis for processing the Personal Data we collect about you.  

• Consent. To the extent you provide consent, we process Personal Data about you based on your consent which you can withdraw at any time with effect for the future.   
• Contractual Necessity. If you haven’t provided consent, our legal basis is the necessity to establish a contractual employment relationship with you.  
• Legal Obligation. In some jurisdictions, we have a legal obligation to process Applicant Data during the application process.  
• Legitimate Interest. We may process Applicant Data: 
• To communicate with you, such as through bots, including to respond to your inquiries and to send you updates about your application. 
• To monitor, protect, and maintain the security of our recruitment and application processes.  
• For the effective and lawful operation of our application website and processes.  
• To defend or assert legal claims arising from the recruitment and application processes.  
• To comply with applicable laws and regulations and respond to lawful requests for data. 
• To carry out corporate restructures, sales, and business transactions in which information held by us is among the assets transferred or is otherwise relevant to the transaction. 
• To protect our rights, privacy, safety, property and/or those of others 

To the extent that we process any Sensitive Personal Data relating to you, we will do so because: (a) you have given us your explicit consent; (b) the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims; (d) processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights under employment and social protection laws, or (c) you have made the information manifestly public.  

We may have other legitimate interests and, if so, we will disclose those interests at the time of collection or other relevant point in time. By creating an account, you acknowledge NielsenIQ’s processing of your Applicant Data for the purposes described in this Notice.  

Disclosing Personal Data 

We may disclose your Applicant Data (in accordance with applicable law) to our affiliates, employees, service providers, and other third parties. 

• Our Corporate Affiliates. To achieve the objectives described above, and because we are part of a larger group of companies operating internationally, we may from time to time make Applicant Data available to other companies within the NIQ Group, listed here. 
• Our Employees or Recruiters. Applicant Data is controlled primarily (but not exclusively) by the NielsenIQ Human Resources Department staff and may be stored electronically or in hard copy. Other staff involved in hiring or information management also may have access to some or all Applicant Data, including senior management or external recruiting services providers. 
• Our Service Providers. We may disclose Applicant Data with third parties that provide services to us, such as recruiting software, ability testing, virtual video interviewing, website hosting, data analysis, infrastructure and IT services, consultants, customer service, email delivery, and auditing. 

In certain circumstances, we may disclose Applicant Data to: 

• Governmental, Regulatory, and Public Authorities to comply with legal or regulatory obligations or requests (such as labor and tax authorities). 
• Relevant Third Parties as Part of a Corporate Transaction. In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with a bankruptcy or similar proceeding), we may disclose or transfer your Applicant Data to certain third parties, such as the acquiring entity and its advisers. 

Other Third Parties. We may disclose your Applicant Data to other third parties at your direction or with your consent. Additionally, we will disclose Applicant Data as necessary or appropriate to: (a) comply with applicable law; (b) enforce our terms and conditions; (c) protect our operations; (d) protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or those of you or others; and (e) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit damages that we may sustain. 

Automated Decision Making and Artificial Intelligence 

As part of our recruitment process, NielsenIQ (NIQ) may use a trusted third-party AI-enabled technology provider, Spotted Zebra Solutions Ltd (registered in the UK), to support the assessment of candidates. These tools ingest categories of personal information including your CV/resume content, application data, responses to assessment questions and interview responses, and help us evaluate information relevant to the recruitment process, such as skills, competencies, interview responses, assessment results and role suitability. They may generate recommendations or summaries to support recruiters and hiring managers. In some cases, you may interact directly with an AI-enabled tool during the interview or assessment process. Where these tools involve the capture and analysis of your voice and/or video during an interview, or where you interact directly with an AI system, we will inform you accordingly and, where required by applicable law, obtain your consent before any such analysis takes place.

The purpose of these tools is to improve the consistency, efficiency and quality of our recruitment process. The outputs generated are reviewed by authorized NIQ recruiters and hiring managers and are used alongside other relevant information as part of the overall recruitment process.

Please note: NIQ does not make recruitment decisions solely by automated means. All AI-generated outputs, recommendations, and assessments are reviewed by authorised NIQ recruiters and hiring managers before any decision affecting your application is made.

If you would like to request an additional human review, share your point of view, or contest a decision, you can contact us at candidate.support@nielseniq.com. You may also request an alternative selection process or a disability-related accommodation in place of an AI-enabled assessment, and, where AI has been used to analyze a video or voice interview, request deletion of that recording; we will honor such requests within the timeframe required by applicable law.

We do not sell or share Applicant Data nor use it for targeted advertising purposes.   Our automated processes may include the use of your anonymised data to train our or that of our approved third parties artificial intelligence (AI) systems and large language models (LLMs). NIQ maintains a steadfast commitment to the responsible, ethical, and secure application of AI and machine learning to enhance and evolve our recruitment and application processes. This includes the integration of generative AI capabilities. Our deployment and use of AI is subject to applicable law and NIQ’s AI Safety Policies and Guiding Principles.   

Privacy Rights and Choices 

In accordance with applicable law (and subject to certain exceptions), you may have certain rights in relation to your Applicant Data, including the right to:  

• Access your Personal Data (including a copy in a portable format). You may have the right to request a privacy report detailing the Applicant Data we maintain about you and the purposes for doing so, unless your request proves impossible or would involve disproportionate effort to fulfill. Under certain conditions, you may request that we transfer your Personal Data to another organization, or directly to you, but we may not be required to respond to your requests “to know” or access specific pieces of Applicant Data more than twice in any 12-month period.   
• Request a List of Third Parties, though we will not sell or share Applicant Data collected from or about you, and we are not required to provide the names of NIQ Group customers or other trade secrets.  
• Correct or Rectify inaccurate Applicant Data that we maintain about you, subject to appropriate verification.  
• Delete or Erase the Applicant Data that we maintain about you, under certain conditions.  
• Restrict or Limit Processing of the Applicant Data that we maintain about you, under certain conditions. This includes a right to restrict the use or disclosure of your Sensitive Personal Data.   
• Object to Processing the Applicant Data that we maintain about you based on our legitimate interest, under certain conditions. We will no longer process your Applicant Data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.  
• Withdraw Consent at any time where we rely on consent as the legal basis, with effect for the future.   
• Appoint an Authorized Agent on your Behalf. Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may submit a request related to your Applicant Data. Agents may need to demonstrate via written, signed documentation that you’ve authorized them to act on your behalf.  
• Appeal or Lodge a Complaint in the event of a suspected infringement of applicable data protection laws, you may appeal our decision directly with us or lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.  

We empower and support the exercise of your rights. At any time, you may request or assert any of the rights listed above by selecting Your Privacy Rights, also available in the footer of our website, or by emailing us at connect.privacy@nielseniq.com. If you believe there has been a violation of your privacy rights, please contact us or the supervisory authority.  

We will not discriminate against you if you decide to exercise your privacy rights.  

Transfers of Personal Data 

Due to the international nature of our business, it may be necessary for us to transfer your Personal Data to other companies within the NIQ Group and to third parties outside the jurisdiction in which you reside that may not have the level of data protection that you enjoy under your jurisdiction (“Third Countries”). This can, for example, result in impeded enforcement of individuals’ rights, a lack of control over further processing, and access by state authorities.  

Within the NIQ Group, we have concluded an intra-group data transfer agreement with the relevant transfer mechanisms (standard contractual clauses of the European Commission) and additional safeguards to ensure an adequate level of protection for your Personal Data when it is transferred to Third Countries.  

Insofar as we transfer your Personal Data to other recipients in Third Countries, we ensure that your Personal Data is protected by adequate safeguards recognized by your jurisdiction (for example, by concluding standard contractual clauses of the European Commission or by means of binding corporate rules of our business partners) and supplementary measures, as necessary. You can email us under the contact details found below to obtain a copy of transfer mechanisms.  

External Links 

Our website may have links to third-party sites and services, which may have privacy policies that differ from our own. We are not responsible for the practices of these third-party sites and services. We encourage you to review their privacy information to learn more about their practices. For information about the privacy practices of NielsenIQ’s service providers who process Personal Data as a data controller, including SmartRecruiters, Spotted Zebra and other third parties, refer to their privacy policies, including SmartRecruiters’ Candidate Privacy Policy Spotted Zebra’s Privacy Policy

Children’s Data 

Our recruitment website and application process are not designed for nor intentionally directed toward individuals under the age of eighteen (18). If we offer participation opportunities to individuals under 18, those processes are not governed by this Notice. If we learn that we have collected or received Applicant Data from individuals under 18, we will delete the information or take other steps to comply with applicable law. We do not knowingly sell or share Applicant Data about individuals under the age of 18.

Data Security 

We maintain a comprehensive information security program with administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of your information. However, as no transmission of information over the internet is absolutely secure, we cannot guarantee the safety of your information. 

Revisions to This Notice  

We reserve the right to change, modify, add, remove, or otherwise revise portions of this Notice at any time, for example as our processes develop and evolve, to comply with legal requirements, or to address changes in our business practices. When we do, we will post the revised Notice to our website. Your continued engagement with our application process following the posting of changes to these terms means you acknowledge these changes. If we change the Notice in a material way, we will provide appropriate notice to you and update the date at the top of the Notice.  

Data Security and Transfers of Data

NielsenIQ maintains a global data security organization that uses appropriate organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect your data while under our control. We may store and process your data in your home country and/or we may transfer and export these data outside of the European Economic Area to any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers and processors, including the United States and India. The data protection laws of other countries may differ from those in your home country. When we transfer data, we ensure that we do so in compliance with applicable law for data transfer.

How to Contact Us 

If you have any questions or concerns about this Notice, our privacy practices and the protection of your Personal Data, or the privacy rights and choices available to you described in this Notice, you may contact us in the following ways: