As the world’s #1 job site and a global leader in job matching and hiring, we manage a vast digital landscape. However, we never lose sight of the individuals behind the data that represents a person’s career history and their path forward. When someone uploads their resume to Indeed in hopes of finding their next opportunity, they are placing their trust in our hands, not just handing over their data.  We know behind every data point is someone working to provide for their family, build a career, or achieve their dream.  

Our responsibility is to protect this data with the care and security that people’s job opportunities deserve. At Indeed, privacy and data protection are at the core of how we build our products.

To help people find jobs and employers find the right talent, Indeed uses different types of data across our sites and services. The information we collect can vary based on how someone chooses to use Indeed and which features they engage with, but we only use information that helps better match people to opportunities. By balancing data-driven insights with rigorous privacy protections, we help ensure that the path to a new career is both personalized and secure.

Purpose-Driven Data: Connecting People  

We collect data with a clear purpose: to improve matching, drive more hires, and fulfill our mission of helping people get jobs.  Every data point, from the skills listed on a resume to the types of roles a job seeker clicks on, to the job preferences that do not often make it into a traditional resume, helps match job seekers to opportunities.

  • For Job Seekers: Data acts as a career advocate, streamlining the path to a new role by surfacing more relevant roles and fewer “mismatches.” This personalized approach helps people get hired faster, discover roles that match their specific skill sets, and gain better visibility with the right employers.
  • For Employers: Data helps transform hiring from manual searches to precision matching, helping organizations identify the right talent faster, minimizing the time a position stays vacant, while giving hiring teams more time to focus on human connection and the most compatible candidates.

Importantly, personal information is not a product for sale. Indeed shares data to help job seekers find jobs. Here’s how that breaks down:

  • Work History: Job seekers can upload their resumes. They control whether the resumes are visible only to companies they apply to or whether they want to appear when employers are searching for candidates.
  • Contact Details: Employers searching for resumes cannot see personal contact information for job seekers. They must first reach out through the site, so job seekers can decide whether to share more.
  • Activity Data: By understanding the skills someone searches for and the jobs they choose to view or apply for, our algorithms and partners can better anticipate their interests and display more relevant future opportunities.
  • Employer Data: When employers provide job descriptions and hiring preferences, we use that to prioritize the most relevant matches, ensuring that every interaction is meaningful and that both sides can focus their energy where it is most impactful.

How We Protect the Individual

To ensure our AI and matching engines can work effectively without compromising personal security, we utilize two primary techniques: de-identification and aggregation.

  • De-Identification: Our systems are designed to strip away Personally Identifiable Information (PII) whenever it isn’t strictly necessary for a specific task. Our AI doesn’t need to know a name or street address to understand that experience in “Python” and “Project Management” signal a great fit for a new opening. We focus on skills, not identity.
  • Aggregation: Often, we don’t look at individual data points at all. Instead, we look at “the crowd.” By aggregating data—grouping thousands of similar interactions together—we can identify broad hiring trends and improve our tools without ever needing to look at a single person’s individual activity.

Protecting the Marketplace

As a leading global two-sided talent marketplace, we protect employer data with the same rigor as job seeker data. This means internal hiring preferences and communication history are shielded by enterprise-grade infrastructure. We employ anti-scraping technology to prevent listings from being lifted by third parties, and we use secure communication relays to protect direct contact information.

We meet regional standards like GDPR and CCPA straightforwardly, by keeping a single high global standard for how we protect data and respect people’s data rights. We require the same level of commitment from all our partners.

Innovation without Compromising Security and Trust 

Ultimately, our philosophy means that we don’t have to choose between innovation and security.  By focusing on the patterns of success rather than personal identifiers, we allow our matching engines to focus on what truly matters: finding the next great hire or the next great opportunity.

We know that trust isn’t granted; it’s earned through action. AI creates new possibilities, but it also brings new challenges. We continue to proactively evolve our safeguards so that as AI grows more capable, your data remains secure.

Read more about our privacy policies here.