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Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
Animate Search Ltd and Animate Search Spain SL
Effective 28/07/2026. Version 2.0. Replaces the version dated October 2017.
In short
We are an executive search firm working on senior commercial roles. To do that we hold information about experienced professionals and about people at the companies we work with. Some of those people have never contacted us.
If we approached you and you did not reply, we delete your details 30 days after we stop trying to reach you. We do not keep a database of people who never wanted to hear from us.
If you would rather we did not hold your details, email privacy@animatesearch.com and say so. We will delete your record. You do not need to give a reason.
1. Who we are
Two companies act as joint controllers of the information described here. That means we decide together why and how it is used, and you can exercise your rights against either of us.
Animate Search Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 9813141. 7 Christie Way, Christie Fields, Manchester, M21 7QY, United Kingdom
Animate Search Spain SL, registered in Spain, CIF B67897967, C/ Aragon 371, PRAL 2, Barcelona, 08009, Spain
One address for everything: privacy@animatesearch.com
You do not need to work out which company holds your information. Write to that address and we will handle it across both. Between ourselves, Animate Search Ltd takes primary responsibility for responding to requests, keeping records and dealing with regulators. That does not limit your right to deal with either company, or to complain to the supervisory authority in your own country.
We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not done so. Privacy matters are handled by the contact above.
2. Where we get your information
If you are a candidate
From you, when you send us your CV, reply to us, speak to us, or contact us through our website.
From your public professional profile. This is how we find most of the people we approach. Principally LinkedIn, alongside company websites, published articles, recorded talks and podcasts, professional body listings and trade press.
From our clients, where they refer you or mention you in connection with a role.
From referrals, where a contact suggests we speak to you. If someone put us in touch, we will normally tell you who.
From our software provider, where our recruitment system supplements a record with business contact details from its own sources. We only do this once you have engaged with us.
If you work at a company we do business with
From you, when we meet or correspond.
From your public professional profile and your employer’s website.
From public registers, including Companies House in the UK and the Companies Registration Office in Ireland.
From news sources and business press.
From referrals and introductions.
Telling you we hold your details
If we obtained your information from somewhere other than you, we tell you within one month, or in our first message to you if that comes sooner. That is normally what has brought you to this page.
3. What information we hold
Depending on how we came to know of you:
- Identity and contact: name, work email, work telephone, professional profile links
- Professional background: current and previous employers, job titles, dates, responsibilities, achievements, education and qualifications
- Market information: sector, function, seniority, languages, location, willingness to relocate, right to work
- Compensation: current and expected remuneration, where you have told us. We do not record this before you have engaged with us.
- Our records of dealing with you: correspondence, notes of conversations, interview notes, assessments, references
- Application information, where you are in a live process
What we deliberately do not collect
We do not seek, record or keep information about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, health, sex life or sexual orientation, or criminal record.
That applies even where the information is publicly available, and even if you mention it to us. If we come across it, we discard it rather than recording it.
We also do not record or assess your age, sex, marital status, family or caring responsibilities, or disability.
4. Why we use your information, and on what legal basis
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Hold a record of experienced professionals so we can match people to roles | Legitimate interests: running a search business, and the shared interest of professionals and employers in being connected to relevant opportunities |
| Contact you about a specific role | Legitimate interests, as above |
| Research and assess your suitability once you have engaged with us (section 5) | Legitimate interests, as above |
| Present you to a client as a candidate | Legitimate interests, and performance of a contract once you are in a process |
| Run a live process: interviews, references, offer | Performance of a contract, or steps at your request before one |
| Contact people at companies about our services, and keep a record of those relationships | Legitimate interests in business development. Spanish law (LOPDGDD Article 19) treats the use of professional contact details for dealing with someone’s employer as covered by legitimate interest. |
| Administer a placement, invoice and keep accounts | Legal obligation and legitimate interests |
| Keep a record of people who have asked not to be contacted | Legal obligation to respect your objection, and legitimate interests in not contacting you again |
| Answer your enquiries and rights requests | Legal obligation and legitimate interests |
| Run and improve our website | Consent, where cookies require it |
Where we rely on legitimate interests we have carried out an assessment weighing our interests against your rights, and we review it. Ask us and we will summarise it.
We do not ask for your consent to hold your professional details, because consent is not the basis we rely on. Instead you have an unconditional ability to tell us to stop, set out in section 9.
5. Research, assessment, and our use of AI
We profile candidates. Once you are being considered for a role, we research your professional background and produce an assessment of your suitability. It draws on the sources in section 2 and on our conversations with you.
We do this after you have engaged with us, not before. People we have simply approached are not assessed or researched in depth.
We use AI tools to help. We use large language model software to help analyse CVs, professional profiles and interview notes, and to help draft assessments and correspondence.
A person always decides. AI output is reviewed by one of our consultants before it is used or shared. No decision about you is made by automated means alone, and nothing producing legal or similarly significant effects happens without meaningful human involvement. You are not subject to automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22.
We record what we rely on. Every assessment records its sources, so any statement in it can be traced.
You can see it. An assessment we hold about you is your personal data and you can ask for a copy under section 9.
Interviews
Where we record or transcribe an interview we tell you before recording starts, and you can decline. We delete the recording and transcript once the assessment is written, and keep the assessment rather than the recording.
6. How long we keep your information
| Who | How long |
|---|---|
| Someone we approached who did not reply | Deleted 30 days after we stop trying to reach you |
| Someone who replied, including to say the role is not for them | 24 months from our last meaningful contact |
| A candidate we placed | 7 years from the placement, for tax, accounting and legal claim purposes |
| A client or prospective client contact | For the relationship, and 24 months after our last contact |
| Someone who asked not to be contacted | See below |
| Interview recordings and transcripts | Deleted once the assessment is written |
| Someone who applied for a job at Animate | 12 months from the outcome |
| Website analytics | As set out in our cookie notice |
If you get back in touch, the clock starts again.
Our do-not-contact list
If you ask us to delete your information, we delete your record. We keep one minimal entry, normally your name and your professional profile link, marked “do not contact”, together with the date.
We keep it for one reason: without it you would reappear the next time we search for people in your field, and we would approach you again. It is used only to prevent contact, never to contact you. We keep it indefinitely, because the point of it is that it does not expire.
If you would rather we did not keep even that, tell us and we will remove it, though we cannot then guarantee we will not approach you again in future.
7. Who we share your information with
Our clients. If we put you forward for a role we share your CV and our assessment with the hiring organisation. We tell you before we do. Once they receive it they hold it as an independent controller under their own privacy policy, and our contract requires them to use it only for that role.
Our service providers, who process data on our instructions under written contracts:
- Recruitment database and candidate management software
- Outreach and communication software
- Workflow automation software
- AI language model providers
- Email, file storage and collaboration software
- Website hosting and analytics
Professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, where necessary.
Authorities, where the law requires it.
We do not sell your information and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing.
Before we have spoken
If we are approaching you, your name and professional details sit in our outreach software for the duration of that attempt. If you do not reply they are deleted 30 days after it ends, as set out in section 6.
8. Where your information is held
In the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Transfers between the two are covered by adequacy decisions in both directions, so no additional safeguard is needed.
Some of our service providers are based in, or store data in, the United States. Where that happens we rely on the provider’s certification under the EU-US or UK-US Data Privacy Framework, on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, or on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. Ask us and we will tell you which applies to a particular provider.
9. Your rights
These are free to exercise. There is no charge, including for asking more than once.
Your right to object
Most of what we hold rests on legitimate interests, which means you can object at any time. If you do, we stop unless we can show compelling grounds that override your rights. In practice, if you tell us you do not want us holding your details, we delete them.
You do not need to give a reason, use particular wording, or fill in a form. Replying to one of our messages and saying so is enough.
Your other rights
Access. Ask for a copy of what we hold about you, including any assessment.
Rectification. Tell us if something is wrong or incomplete and we will correct it.
Erasure. Ask us to delete your information. This applies in most circumstances, but not where we must keep records to meet a legal obligation.
Restriction. Ask us to pause our use of your information while a dispute about its accuracy or our grounds is resolved.
Portability. Where we process information you gave us, by automated means, on the basis of consent or a contract, ask for it in a machine-readable format.
Withdraw consent. Where we rely on consent, withdraw it at any time. That does not affect anything done beforehand.
How to use them
Email privacy@animatesearch.com. We reply within one month. If a request is complex we may extend that by up to two further months and will tell you if so, and why. We may need to verify your identity first.
If we have already shared your information with a client and you then ask us to delete it, we will tell them as well, unless that proves impossible or disproportionate.
10. Complaints
Please tell us first at privacy@animatesearch.com so we can try to put it right.
You can also complain to a supervisory authority:
- United Kingdom: Information Commissioner’s Office, ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113
- Spain: Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, aepd.es
- Elsewhere in the EEA: the authority in your country of residence or work
11. Cookies and our website
You can browse our site without telling us who you are. We use cookies and analytics to understand how it is used. Non-essential cookies, including analytics, are only set if you agree through our cookie banner, and you can change your mind at any time.
IP addresses are personal data, so if you decline non-essential cookies we do not run analytics that would record yours.
Our site links to other websites. This notice does not cover them.
12. Security
We protect your information with measures appropriate to the risk: access controls and multi-factor authentication on our systems, device encryption, access limited to those who need it, and written confidentiality obligations on everyone who handles it. We review these regularly.
13. Changes
We may update this notice. The current version and its effective date are shown at the top. Where a change materially affects how we use your information we will take reasonable steps to tell you. Previous versions are available on request.
Animate Search Ltd, company number 9813141, 7 Christie Way, Christie Fields, Manchester, M21 7QY. Animate Search Spain SL, CIF B67897967, C/ Aragon 371, PRAL 2, Barcelona, 08009.