Applicant Privacy Policy

  

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. and Blizzard Entertainment International (collectively “Blizzard”, “Company”, or “We”) respect the privacy of its Applicants; and recognize the importance of providing a secure environment for the application process. This Applicant Privacy Policy (hereafter referred to as “Privacy Policy”) explains how Blizzard collects, uses, processes, transfers and/or discloses personal information (“Information”) provided by you when you apply for a position at Blizzard.

 

1. Who is processing your data?

 

Blizzard is the data controller for the processing of your personal data. The Company reserves the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time by posting a modified version online, so please review it frequently to ensure you are aware of any changes. If the Company makes a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will provide appropriate notice in accordance with legal requirements.

 

2. What is the Scope of this Policy?

 

This Privacy Policy applies only to personal information that you provide or that is collected about you, including personal information we collect from third parties, when you apply for a position with the Company or when the Company engages in recruiting purposes. When you use the Company’s products and services (“Blizzard Properties”), including this Website, your personal information is governed by the Blizzard Privacy Policy, located at: Blizzard North America Privacy Policy and Blizzard EMEA Privacy Policy and Blizzard SEA Privacy Policy (for Australia)

 

3. What personal information is collected and how do we use it?

 

To process your job application, we ask you to provide personal information. While providing personal information is voluntary, we may not be able to consider you as a candidate or complete an evaluation of your application if some such personal information is not provided.

 

Information collected from you. We collect information provided directly by you during the application and recruitment process. Information we get or is generated from your use of our application process. Blizzard may collect your IP Address, which it may use to infer your approximate location. Blizzard may also collect information such as interview test results which are generated as a result of completing our application process.

 

Information collected from third parties (vendors and affiliates). Blizzard may merge the personal information collected from the Website with data from third parties where such information is either (a) publicly available or (b) was lawfully shared with us by the 3rd party in order to update your overall information. These third parties may include employment agencies, references, former employers, credit reference agencies, screening services, or other sources that provide employment related information and services for recruiting or other purposes as described in this policy.

 

We may collect, store, use and process the following categories of information about you:

• Personal Identifiers: We collect your personal information such as name, mailing address, postal code, email address, telephone number, government identification number (such as passport number) and national identification or tax number. We also collect contact information for the references you provide; it is your responsibility to obtain consent from your references before providing their personal information to the Company.
• Protected Classifications: We may also collect your date of birth, gender, and some information that may be considered sensitive information in certain jurisdictions where permissible by local law, and if you choose to provide it.
• Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information: We collect information about your use of the Company’s websites, products, and services.
• Geolocation Data: We may collect geolocation data about you to the extent that your IP address reveals your general location.
• Professional or Employment-Related Information: We collect information about your professional and employment related background through the recruitment process (including copies of right to work documentation or other information that may be included in your resume, CV, cover letter, or related documents as part of your application to work at the Company). We also collect information that your references may provide to us about your past employment and job performance, as well as additional information from third parties who are lawfully entitled to share your information with us.
• Education Information: We collect information about the educational institutions that you have attended, your level of education, degrees obtained, honors received, subjects studied and the like. We also collect and maintain information about any professional licenses you hold, certifications you receive, or additional education or training you have undertaken during your professional career. We may also collect information from third parties who are lawfully entitled to share your information with us.
• Administrative Information: We collect information pertaining to the online interview test and its results that you may take as part of the application process along with any interview notes from the interviewer.

 

How We May Use Your Information.

We will use your information only as permitted by law and solely for the following purposes:

• Accepting and evaluating applicant submissions for job postings,
• Identifying potential applicants;
• Reviewing your qualifications and making hiring decisions;
• Conducting a background check, where permitted by and in accordance with the applicable law;
• Communicating with you (e.g., providing information regarding potential interview dates and notification with regards to the recruitment process);
• Where you have asked us to do so, contacting you about vacancies at the Company which arise and for which we think you may be suitable. You can stop receiving these emails at any time by logging into your account and changing your email notification settings;
• Keeping records related to our hiring practices for use in future recruitment activities and to ensure compliance with local laws;
• Preparing an applicant’s basic information materials for use in recruitment or hiring decisions after a decision to recruit the applicant has been made;
• Complying with legal and regulatory obligations;
• Responding to a warrant, subpoena, or other valid legal process;
• Complying with other legal obligations, including verifying that you are legally permitted to work in the country where you are applying; and
• Resolving disputes and/or as a part of a legal defense, if necessary.

 

4. With whom may your personal information be shared?

 

Access to your personal information will be restricted to the members of the Company’s staff involved in the recruiting process, hiring managers and designated agents who have a need to know the specific information in question, in order to carry out their responsibilities with regard to recruitment or applicable law.

 

We may share your personal information with our approved third parties that Blizzard engages to perform services for Blizzard (for example for the purpose of undertaking a background check). Such sharing will only take place where background checks are permitted or required under the law. We may share your personal information with service providers or data processors that we engage with to provide us with products or services to process information on our behalf. In these situations, a written contract between Blizzard and the vendor shall control such disclosure, the vendor must agree to reasonable levels of security regarding your data and the vendor will not be permitted to use your data except as required for the performance of those services for Blizzard.

 

We reserve the right to disclose your information if we are required to do so by law. Upon request or pursuant to our legal obligations, your personal information may also be disclosed to governmental entities in compliance with applicable laws, such as to those agencies authorized to review and enforce equal opportunity laws.

 

We do not disclose applicants’ personal information to job banks or to other companies without your prior consent.

 

5. What Rights do I have?

 

Depending on your local laws, you may have the right to request to access, update, or delete your personal information. If you are a resident of California, please see Section 8 for more information. If you are a resident of the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, please see Section 9 for more information. However, we may still retain some personal information to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and to resolve disputes; in which case, your personal information will not be used for any other purpose.

 

6. What level of security measures are applied to your personal information?

 

Blizzard takes a range of security measures (physical, administrative and technical) designed to protect your personal information and keep it confidential. We also take steps to ensure that the personal information collected is protected from misuse and alteration.

 

In addition, we request vendors who process personal information on our behalf to take a range of security measures designed to help protect your personal information.

 

7. What are our employment disclosures?

 

All open jobs offered by the Company are subject to specific job skill requirements. The job skill requirements, qualifications and preferred experience are determined by the office offering the position.

 

The Company is an equal opportunity employer, and all hiring decisions are subject to federal, provincial, state, and local employment laws and regulations, including immigration laws pertaining to work authorization requirements and any other applicable government permissions or compliance.

 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, medical condition, military status, veteran status, age, or any other ground of discrimination prohibited by applicable law.

 

8. Notice to Candidates Who Are Residents of California.

 

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents, referred to in the law as “consumers,” with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and sharing of personal information, as well as rights to access and control personal information. Certain information that we collect may be exempt from the CCPA because it is considered public information or covered by another federal privacy law, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

 

To the extent that we collect personal information about you that is subject to the CCPA, that information, our practices, and your rights are described in the disclosures below.

 

• Right to information regarding the categories of personal information collected, sold, shared, and disclosed: You have the right to obtain information regarding the categories of personal information we collect, sell, share, or disclose. We may collect the following categories of personal information. For information about the purposes for which we use and disclose information, please see Section 3 above.

  • Personal Identifiers (e.g., name, email address, phone number, IP Address), collected from you, your references, our vendors, our affiliates and business partners, and social media.
  • Protected Classifications (e.g., date of birth, gender) collected from you.
  • Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information (e.g., data about your use of our website) collected from you and your devices.
  • Geolocation Information (e.g., geolocation based on IP address), collected from you and your devices.
  • Professional or Employment-Related Information (e.g., contents of your resume, CV, cover letter, or application documents, content of your background check), collected from you, your references, our vendors, our affiliates and business partners, and social media.
  • Education Information (e.g., your level of education, degrees obtained, professional licenses), collected from you, your references, our vendors, our affiliates and business partners, and social media.
  • Inferences about you (e.g., interview notes, skill test results), collected from you or generated by us as you proceed through the application process.

 

We do not sell or share (for targeted advertising) personal information collected from or about applicants through the application process. For information about our processing of data from your interaction with our products and services, including this Website, please see the Blizzard Privacy Policy.

 

We determine the retention period for each of the categories of personal information listed above based on (1) the length of time we need to retain the information to achieve the business or commercial purpose for which it was obtained, (2) any legal or regulatory requirements applicable to such information, (3) internal operational needs, and (4) any need for the information based on any actual or anticipated investigation or litigation.

 

• Right to request access to your personal information: You have the right to request, up to two times in a 12-month period, access to the personal information we have collected about you and information regarding the source of that personal information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers to whom we sell, share, or disclose it. Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under law.
• Right to request correction of your personal information: You have the right to request that, in certain circumstances, we correct personal information that we have collected about you. Some information may be exempt from such requests under law.
• Right to request deletion of your personal information: You also have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from or about you. Some personal information may be exempt from such requests under law. For example, we need certain types of information to maintain our employment relationship with you.
• Limit use of your sensitive personal information: You have the right to limit our use of your sensitive personal information if we use such personal information to infer characteristics about you for purposes other than those exempted by statute. We do not currently use sensitive personal information for such purposes.
• Sale and sharing of personal information; targeted advertising: We do not sell or share (for targeted advertising) personal information collected from or about applicants through the application process.

 

For each of the rights described above, you can make a request by emailing hrdataprivacy@activisionblizzard.com or calling 1-877-566-3886.

 

9. Notice to Candidates in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and UK:

 

If you are applying from the UK the data controller for your personal information is Activision Blizzard UK Ltd. If you are applying from within the EEA the data controller for your personal information is Blizzard Entertainment Ireland Ltd.

• Legal basis for processing your personal information: When applying to a position at the Company, you submit your application on a voluntary basis and you consent to share your personal information with us for processing, storage and transfer for the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy. When we don’t collect personal information directly from you, we process this information based on our legitimate interest in evaluating your candidacy, processing your application, ensuring that our organization is properly and adequately staffed, and that we can meet our business needs. We also process your personal information for compliance with legal obligations that apply to us.
• Retaining your personal information: We will keep your personal information for as long as necessary for the hiring process from your last contact with Blizzard, including for the purpose of evaluating your candidacy, notifying you about job opportunities, and for satisfying any legal or reporting requirements.
• Data Protection Rights: Candidates who are residents in the EEA or the UK have a number of rights. If you are an Applicant who is a resident of the EEA or the UK, you may request to access or delete your Personal Information. You can also object to the processing of your personal information. We will examine your request and provide you with a decision.

 

As you are giving your consent by submitting your information in order to process your application and therefore your Personal Information related to this application, you have the right to withdraw such consent to further use of your Personal Information at any time. For each of the rights described above, you can make a request by emailing hrdataprivacy@activisionblizzard.com.

 

We hope that we can satisfy your queries about the way we process your personal information. However, if you have any questions or wish to file a complaint, you may contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to DPO@blizzard.com.

 

Each EU Member State shall provide one or more independent public authority(ides) to be responsible for monitoring the application of the GDPR in order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons in relation to processing and to facilitate the free flow of personal data within the Union (‘supervisory authority’). If you feel that Blizzard has violated your rights, or if you wish to raise a concern with the data protection authorities, please contact the supervisory authority in the country where you live, work, or where you believe a breach of data protection law has occurred.

 

10. Transfer of Personal Information to the United States of America.

 

You acknowledge that your Personal Information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, in a secure way, where many of our central databases operate, or other countries where the Company or its affiliates or vendors maintain facilities or business operations. We use European Commission approved contract clauses to protect your Personal Information.

 

Blizzard Entertainment Applicant Privacy Policy: Updated 12/31/2022