Privacy policy

1. Summary

Work Visa Sponsors helps people find UK employers that hold a licence to sponsor a work visa. This policy explains, in plain terms, what we collect, why, and what we never do.

In short:

• We collect the account details you give us, and a small amount of technical data needed to run the service.
• The browser extension reads employer names on the job board pages you choose to visit, so it can flag which of those employers are licensed sponsors.
• The extension records details of job listings you view on those boards, so the listings can appear in the job search on our website.
• We do not sell your data. We do not share it with data brokers or advertisers. We do not use it for advertising. We do not track your general browsing.
• You can delete your account at any time and we will delete the personal data tied to it.

2. Who we are

Work Visa Sponsors ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at workvisasponsors.co.uk and publishes the Work Visa Sponsors browser extension for Google Chrome.

We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. You can reach us at info@workvisasponsors.co.uk or by post at Lagos, Nigeria.

3. What the website collects

Account details. When you create an account we store your name, your email address and a hashed version of your password. We never store your password in a form we can read.

Sign-in records. We record the time of each sign-in, so you and we can see recent account activity.

Approximate location at sign-in. When you sign in, our server looks up the country associated with your internet (IP) address. We use this for one purpose only: choosing whether to show you the UK or the US sponsor list by default. See section 8 for the third party involved.

Messages you send us. If you use the contact or enquiry form, we receive your name, email address and message so we can reply.

Payment records. Extension licences were previously paid for. Where you made a payment we hold the transaction reference, amount, currency and date. We never see or store your card details; payments were handled by our payment provider (section 8).

Cookies and analytics. See section 9 and our cookie policy.

4. What the browser extension reads

The extension only runs on the job boards it supports: Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Totaljobs, plus our own website. It cannot read any other site. It does not run on your banking, email, social media or any other page, and it has no access to your browsing history, bookmarks, downloads or what you type elsewhere.

On a supported job board, the extension reads the parts of the page that describe the job and the employer: the employer name, job title, location, salary text, job type, posting date and the job description. It reads the employer name so it can compare it with the register of licensed sponsors and place a badge on the listing.

The comparison happens on your own device. The extension downloads the public register of licensed sponsors and matches employer names locally. We are not sent a list of every employer you look at in order to perform the match.

5. What the extension sends to us

We want to be exact about this, because it is the part people most want to understand.

a. Job listing details. When you open a job listing on a supported board, the extension sends the details of that listing to our servers: job title, employer name, location, salary text, job type, posting date, the listing web address, and the job description. These listings are then shown in the job search on our website so other users can find sponsored roles.

This is information published by the employer or the job board, not information about you. However, the request is made using your account, so in principle it tells us that your account encountered that listing. We use it only to build the public job listings on our site. We do not build a profile of you from it, we do not publish anything that identifies you alongside a listing, and we do not sell it.

b. Diagnostic counts. About every fifteen minutes, if you have used the extension, it sends a short technical report: the extension version, which board it was on, and counts such as how many job cards it saw, how many employer names it could read, how many it flagged as sponsors, and how many listings it captured. This tells us when a job board changes its layout and breaks the extension. It contains no job content and no page addresses beyond the board name.

c. Sign-in. Your email address and password are sent to our server when you sign in, over an encrypted connection, and exchanged for an access token.

d. Sponsor register downloads. The extension asks our server for the register of licensed sponsors. This sends nothing about you beyond your access token.

6. What the extension stores on your device

The following are kept in your browser's local extension storage. They stay on your device, and are removed when you sign out or uninstall the extension.

• Your access token and basic account details (name, email, licence status), so you are not asked to sign in repeatedly.
• The downloaded register of licensed sponsors, refreshed about once a day. This is the largest item and is why the extension asks for unlimited storage.
• Your settings: whether the extension is switched on, which sponsor list you selected, and your light or dark theme choice.
• Pending diagnostic counts waiting to be sent, and the most recent board status.

7. The permissions the extension asks for

Chrome shows a list of permissions at install. Here is what each one is for.

• Storage and unlimited storage so the sponsor register and your settings can be kept on your device. The register is large, which is why the standard quota is not enough.
• Alarms so the extension can refresh the sponsor register on a schedule and send diagnostics periodically, rather than constantly.
• Access to indeed.com, linkedin.com, glassdoor.com, glassdoor.co.uk and totaljobs.com so it can read employer names on those job boards and place badges. These are the only sites it can read.
• Access to workvisasponsors.co.uk and api.workvisasponsors.co.uk so it can sign you in, download the sponsor register and send the data described in section 5.

8. Who else is involved

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising. We use a small number of service providers to run the service:

• Our hosting provider stores the website, the database and email for the service.
• Google reCAPTCHA protects the contact and enquiry forms from automated abuse. Google receives your IP address and interaction signals when the check runs. See Google's privacy policy.
• Google Analytics tells us how the website is used in aggregate.
• geoPlugin receives your IP address at sign-in so we can determine the country and choose a default sponsor list. No other data is sent to them.
• Paystack processed payments for extension licences. They handled card details directly; we never received them.

We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

9. Cookies

The website uses cookies to keep you signed in, to remember preferences and to measure usage. Full detail is in our cookie policy. The browser extension does not use cookies; it uses the local extension storage described in section 6.

10. Why we are allowed to use your data

Where UK or EU data protection law applies, our lawful bases are:

• Contract for running your account, signing you in and providing the extension.
• Legitimate interests for keeping the service secure, diagnosing faults, preventing abuse and building the job listings that make the service useful. We have considered these against your interests and rights.
• Consent for non-essential cookies and any marketing email, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Legal obligation for records we must keep, such as payment records.

11. How long we keep it

We keep account details for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, we delete the personal data associated with it, except where we must keep records for legal or accounting reasons.

Diagnostic counts are kept for a short period, long enough to spot a broken job board, and are then of no further use to us. Job listing details are retained as part of the job search on our site; they describe public job adverts rather than you.

12. How we protect it

Traffic between your browser and our servers is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Access tokens expire and can be invalidated. Access to the database is restricted, and we review the service for security problems and fix what we find.

No service can promise perfect security, but if a breach affects your personal data we will tell you and the relevant regulator where the law requires it.

13. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• have your data deleted;
• object to or restrict how we use it;
• receive your data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where we relied on it.

Email info@workvisasponsors.co.uk and we will respond within one month. If you are in the UK you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. If you are in Nigeria you may complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

14. International transfers

We operate from Nigeria and serve users in the UK and elsewhere, and our providers may process data in other countries. Where personal data moves between countries we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses or a provider located in a country recognised as offering adequate protection.

15. Children

The service is intended for adults seeking work. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

16. What we never do

To state it plainly, and as required by the Chrome Web Store:

• We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone.
• We do not transfer your data to third parties except the providers listed in section 8, or where the law requires it.
• We do not use or transfer your data for purposes unrelated to the extension's single purpose, which is identifying licensed visa sponsors on job boards.
• We do not use your data to determine creditworthiness or for lending decisions.
• We do not show advertising in the extension, and we do not inject affiliate links or codes into the pages you visit.
• We do not read pages outside the supported job boards and our own website.

17. Removing your data

To remove the data held on your device, sign out in the extension or uninstall it; that clears the stored token, sponsor register and settings.

To delete your account and the personal data we hold, email info@workvisasponsors.co.uk from the address the account uses and ask us to delete it.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. If a change materially affects how we use your personal data, we will tell account holders by email.

19. Contact us

Questions about this policy or about your data: info@workvisasponsors.co.uk, Work Visa Sponsors, Lagos, Nigeria.

This policy covers both the Work Visa Sponsors website and the Work Visa Sponsors browser extension. If anything here is unclear, email info@workvisasponsors.co.uk and we will explain it.