Privacy Policy

Date of Last Revision: April 15, 2024

1. Introduction

Thank you for using Altera’s websites and services that link to this Privacy Policy, including https://alteraconsulting.com, https://alteraconnect.com and https://alterarecruiting.com (the “Sites”). Altera Consulting Co., Ltd. (“Altera,” “we,” “us,” and/or “our”) operates these Sites to provide our users (“you” and “your”) with tools and information about Altera and our services. Altera sources and matches freelancers (“Freelancers”) in a variety of fields with clients who need the Freelancer’s skills and expertise (“Clients”). Altera also operates tools across our Sites that support Freelancers and Clients. Our tools, sourcing and matching service, and other offerings, such as matching Clients with groups of Consultant or providing outcomes-based deliverables, are referred as the “Services” for this policy. Altera screens Freelancers with skills in areas such as IT consulting, project management, software engineering, product management, and design to curate a proprietary network of highly skilled Freelancers (the “Network”). We call Freelancers in the Network “Consultant”. Altera values your privacy rights, and we take our responsibilities and obligations about your privacy rights seriously. We want you to know that Altera is not in the business of selling your information. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains our data practices in depth, so that you know how and why we collect and use your information in compliance with applicable data regulations.

2. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, retain, and use information, including personal data (“Personal Data”), about Freelancers, Consultants, Clients, potential Clients, Site visitors, vendors, blog readers, and job applicants, and others in accordance with applicable data protection laws and regulations as described below.

3. Collection and Use of Personal Data

The information we receive and how we use it varies based on our relationship with you. The sections below explain our data practices based on our different relationships with users. Use these links to quickly navigate to the section relevant to you:

Freelancers;
Clients and Prospective Clients;
Job Applicants;
Site Visitors;
Software Users; and
Event Attendees.

a. Collection and Use of Personal Data

i. Information We Collect

1. Information That You Provide to Us

We collect information from applicants and during our screening process we need to evaluate your qualifications such as your language skills, personality, domain-specific knowledge, competence, professionalism, and technical skills. If we admit you as a Consultant, we may also collect this information throughout your time in the Network. We may ask you to provide information about yourself, which could include your:

Name;
Contact information;
Address;
Location;
Work experience;
Education;
References;
Photo;
Government-issued identification;
Qualified invoice issuer number;
Social network information; and
Billing information.

During the screening process or your time as a Consultant, we may also record your audio and video calls with us or with Clients to help document your skills or to be used for our quality assurance or training purposes. Altera provides Consultant and our internal team members the use of an alteraconsulting.com and/or alteraconnect.com email address. Altera stores and processes information sent to and from all these email addresses.

2. Background Checks

Based on your potential role as a Consultant, we may request a background check that will collect additional data about you through a third-party service provider. If applicable to you, your express written consent to the collection of such additional data by the third-party service provider will be solicited at such time, pursuant to applicable laws.

3. Profile Creation

If we select you to be a Consultant, we may use some of your Personal Data to enable you to create a profile for us to display within the Services, which may be viewed by Clients seeking Consultant. We may also display some of your information on public sections of our websites, marketing materials, and presentations to showcase your skill sets or to demonstrate the value in the Network.

4. Client Feedback

If you become a Consultant, Clients you engage with may provide us information about your performance.

5. Information Obtained from Third Parties

We may collect information, such as your name, contact information, address, work experience, and education from publicly available sources, third-party data providers, or services. This includes sources such as professional job boards or social media websites, like LinkedIn. We use this information to supplement the information that you provide us or to assess if you may be a good fit for the Network.

6. Automatically Collected Data

When you interact with Altera through the Site or services, we may automatically collect certain information. Please read the “Site Visitors” section below for more information.

ii. How We Use the Information

1. To Provide the Service and Respond to Requests

We use your Personal Data to process your request to become a Consultant and administer our contracts with you and your engagements if you become a member of the Network.

2. For Certain Legitimate Interests

We also may use your Personal Data for certain business interests deemed legitimate under applicable law, including:

To send you administrative information, for example, information regarding the Site and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
To conduct analytics on how you use the Site and our Service for our internal purposes and to better understand your needs and interests to personalize your experience with our Services.
To maintain our Services, including our standards of integrity and excellence in our Network.
To market our Services and showcase Consultant to actual and potential Clients.
To help prevent fraud, criminal activity, and misuses of our products or Services and to ensure the security of our IT systems, architecture, and networks.
For legal reasons, including to comply with legal obligations and legal processes, such as our compliance with sanctions about specific regions or specifically designated individuals, respond to requests from public and governmental authorities, enforce our agreements, protect our operations, protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of you or others, and allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
If you ask us to delete your data and we are required to fulfill your request, we will keep basic data to identify you to prevent fraud or further unwanted processing.

3. With Your Consent

We may also ask for your consent to use your Personal Data for a purpose that is not listed on this Privacy Policy, and we will use your Personal Data for that purpose to the extent that you freely provide your informed consent. We may monitor, record, and transcribe audio or video calls with you during the application process or your time as a Consultant. Consenting is voluntary, and you may withdraw your consent at any time. These recordings allow Altera team members to review applications to the Network, to better review your suitability for a Client engagement, or for internal quality assurance and training purposes. Additionally, we may provide your interviews with Clients for specific engagements to Client stakeholders to review the call. We may collect your voice, image, in-meeting messages, and any other Personal Data you choose to share during such calls. In addition, other participants in a video conference may be able to view your display name, email address and profile picture. Any third-party software we use for these audio or video calls may also collect and use your Personal Data. Please review the terms of any third-party site for their specific privacy practices.

b. Clients and Prospective Clients

i. Information We Collect

1. Information That You Provide to Us

We collect Personal Data from Clients and Prospective Clients (collectively “Clients”) when a Client visits our Sites and begins to use our Services as well as through requests from a Client to engage our Consultant. This information may include, among other kinds of data:

Names;
Contact information;
Job titles;
Payment information;
Address;
Location; and
Company information, including the type of freelancer(s) the Client is looking to engage and other information related to the Client’s needs.

Altera provides Consultant and our internal team members the use of an alteraconsulting.com and/or alteraconnect.com email address. Altera stores and processes information sent to and from all these email addresses.

2. Information Obtained from Third Parties

We may collect additional information about you and your company from publicly available or from third-party databases or services that provide information about business contacts and companies (including individuals’ names, job titles, business contact information, and company information).

3. Automatically Collected Data

When you interact with Altera through the Site or Services, we automatically collect certain information. Please read the “Site Visitors” section below for more information.

ii. How We Use the Information

1. To Provide the Services and Respond to Requests

Altera uses the Personal Data you provide consistent with this Privacy Policy. If you provide Personal Data for a certain reason, if we use the Personal Data, we will do so in connection with the reason for which you provided it. If you provide Personal Data in order to obtain access to the Services, we will use your Personal Data through our performance of our contract with you to provide you with access to such Services, maintain your account, contact you regarding your use of the Services and/or the Sites or to notify you of important changes to the Services and/or the Sites, and to monitor your use of such Services.

2. For Marketing Purposes

We may use your contact details to tell you about Services, upcoming events, and other promotions that we believe you will be interested in. If we do so, each marketing communication we send you will contain instructions permitting you to “opt out” of receiving future marketing communications. You cannot opt out of some administrative communications that are reasonably necessary to the Services, such as billing or Service notifications, as those are not considered marketing communications. In addition, if at any time you wish not to receive any future marketing communications or you wish for us to delete your contact information from our mailing lists, please contact us at [email protected] or at our mailing address in the Contacting Altera section below. Where required by applicable law, we will only send you marketing information by email if you consented to our use of your Personal Data for such communications.

3. For Certain Legitimate Interests

We may use your Personal Data for the certain business interests deemed legitimate under applicable law, including:

To send you administrative information, for example, information regarding the Site and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to send you requested materials, newsletters and information and materials regarding our products and Services.
To conduct analytics on how you use the Site and our Services for our internal purposes, for example, for maintaining, benchmarking, and improving our offerings, identifying usage trends, and determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and to inform our marketing strategy and personalize our communications with you.
To supplement the information that we collected from you with information obtained from third parties (described above) to update, expand, and analyze our records, identify new Clients, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you.
To prevent fraud, criminal activity, and misuses of our products or services and to ensure the security of our IT systems, architecture, and networks.
For legal reasons, including to comply with legal obligations and legal process, respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence, enforce our agreements with you, protect our operations, protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of you or others, and allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
If you ask us to delete your data and we are required to fulfill your request, to keep basic data to identify you and to prevent future fraud or further unwanted processing.

4. With Your Consent

c. Job Applicants

i. Information We Collect

1. Application and Assessment Process

When you apply for a position with Altera, you will provide Personal Data in your application, resume, cover letter, or in other formats. While you may decide what information to include, for instance most applications include your:

Name;
Contact information;
Qualifications;
Recommendation information;
Employment history;
Education;
Salary history; and
Salary expectations.

If we invite you to undertake further assessments in connection with your application and you participate in such assessments, we will collect the additional Personal Data that you provide to us as part of that process. If you do not provide us with certain information when requested, it may impact our ability to assess your suitability for a role with us or we may not be able to offer you a position with Altera. With your prior consent, we may record your audio or video interview(s) to better evaluate your candidacy and for training purposes. Your consent is voluntary, and you may withdraw your consent at any time, including during the interview. If you withdraw your consent or do not consent, it will not impact your candidacy. Throughout the recruitment process, we may create Personal Data in connection with the assessment of your application, such as through your interviewer’s evaluation of your suitability for the role(s) that you applied for.

2. If Your Application is Successful

If your application is successful, we may collect further Personal Data about you in connection with conducting reference and background checks where required and permitted by applicable law, including, if applicable to you, special categories of Personal Data, which we will solicit your consent to collect at the time. We may also collect copies of relevant identification documents from you, such as your passport or driving license, proof of address, a copy of your work permit, a photograph, and a copy of your signature through your executed acceptance.

3. Automatically Collected Data

When you interact with Altera through our Site in relation to your application, we automatically collect certain information. Please read the “Site Visitors” section below for more information.

ii. How We Use Your Information

We have a legitimate interest in:

Facilitating the interview process with you;
Offering you roles to work for us;
Making informed recruitment decisions;
Selecting suitable candidates for roles with us;
Improving our recruiting and hiring processes;
Informing you of current and future career opportunities;
Complying with immigration requirements;
Verifying your identity for our own internal security purposes; and
Complying with our legal obligations and for the performance of your contract with us.

If you are engaged to work for Altera, your Personal Data will be used as part of your team member record under our team member privacy policies and may be shared with third-party service providers assisting us in completing our obligations to you, such as payroll providers.

d. Site Visitors

When you interact with Altera through the Site or the Services, we and service providers acting on our behalf will automatically collect information about you through cookies and other technologies. As a Site Visitor, our servers record information (“log data”), including information that your browser automatically sends whenever you visit the Site. This log data includes your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address from which we understand the country you are connecting from at the time you visit the Site, browser type and settings, and the date and time of your request. We use this automatically collected data for our legitimate interests in maintaining the safe operation of our Site, maintaining our legal obligations and our legitimate interest in learning how Site visitors interact with our Site to improve your use of the Site.

e. Software Users

Altera offers and maintains a variety of software for Freelancers and Clients to use. When you use Altera software, we collect account level data, including your name, email, and password, to facilitate your access, storage of historical data, and operation of software. If you create an account by using credentials from a third-party service or sign-in services such as your Google account, these services will authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share certain Personal Data, such as name and email address(es), with us. Use of account level data is necessary to perform a contract with us in relation to your use of the software or it is in our legitimate interest to respond to your requests and ensure we provide our Services in the best way that we can. When you use Altera software, we may collect usage statistics for analytics and to support and troubleshoot the software to provide a better user experience. We have a legitimate interest in conducting usage statistics to ensure our software is working as intended and to make improvements to our Services. We use service providers to assist in authentication of users and cloud hosting the storage and retrieval of screenshots. Altera’s software includes online components and cookies that are required for full functionality. For more information about the Sites cookie usage please see each software’s cookie policy.

f. Event Attendees

We may collect Personal Data from you when you attend one of our events, for instance at business conferences and trade shows. The data we collect includes information that you voluntarily give to us directly or through granting access to your Personal Data through the event, such as contact details on a business card. We will use this information to develop a potential business relationship with you including marketing our Services to you consistent with the purpose for which you gave the information. Where required by applicable law, we will ask your consent before or when sending you marketing information by email. When you provide us with your consent to be contacted for marketing purposes, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by following the instructions to “opt-out” of receiving marketing communication in each marketing email we send you or by contacting us at [email protected] or by mail at the address in the Contacting Altera section below.

4. Disclosing Your Personal Data

Altera is not in the business of selling your information. We consider information about you and our interactions to be a vital part of our relationship with you. There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may share your Personal Data with certain third parties, as explained below:

a. Business Transfers

As we develop our business, we might acquire businesses or assets. In the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar event, Personal Data may be part of the transferred assets.

b. Agents, Consultants and Other Service Providers

Altera, like many businesses, hires third parties to perform certain business-related functions. These third parties include website analytics companies, providers of digital advertising services, our hosting and cloud computing service providers, providers of customer relationship management software, marketing and sales software solutions, providers of billing and processing payments functions and providers of background check services. When we engage another company to perform a function of this nature, we only provide them with the information that they need to perform their specific function. Pursuant to our instructions, these parties may access, process, or store Personal Data in the course of performing their duties to us and solely in order to perform the services we hired them to provide. If you enter financial information into one of the Sites to process a payment, our payment processor will receive the information you enter and process the payment in accordance with their Privacy Policy.

c. Legal Requirements

Altera may disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law, for example, as part of our compliance with sanctions about specific regions and specifically designated individuals, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) comply with a legal obligation, (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of Altera, (iii) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public, or (iv) protect against legal liability.

5. Data Retention

Our policy is to keep your Personal Data only for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements. If you elected to receive marketing communications from us, we retain information about your marketing preferences until you opt out of receiving these communications and in accordance with our policies. To determine the appropriate retention period for your Personal Data, we will consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we use your Personal Data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances we may anonymize your Personal Data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case it is no longer Personal Data.

6. Your Choices

You can use the Sites without providing any Personal Data. If you choose not to provide any Personal Data, you may not be able to use certain Services.

7. Exclusions

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any Personal Data collected by Altera other than Personal Data collected through the Sites, Services, events, third parties or as otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy shall not apply to any unsolicited information you provide to Altera through this Site or through any other means (without prejudice to your rights under the applicable law). This includes, but is not limited to, information posted to any public areas of the Sites, such as forums (collectively, “Public Areas”), any ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, “Unsolicited Information”). All Unsolicited Information shall be deemed to be non-confidential and Altera shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, distribute, and exploit such Unsolicited Information without limitation or attribution.

8. Children

Altera does not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not submit any Personal Data through the Sites. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce our Privacy Policy by instructing their children never to provide Personal Data on these Sites without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 18 provided Personal Data to Altera through this Sites, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

9. Links to Other Websites

The Sites may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by Altera (“Third Party Sites”). The information that you share with Third Party Sites will be governed by the specific privacy policies and terms of service of the Third-Party Sites and not by this Privacy Policy. By providing these links we do not imply that we endorse or review the Third-Party Sites. We suggest contacting those sites directly for information on their privacy practices and policies.

10. Security

Altera takes reasonable and appropriate steps to protect the Personal Data provided via the Sites or the services from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet, email or other electronic transmission is ever fully secure or error free, so you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us in this way.

11. Other Terms and Conditions

Your access to and use of alteraconnect.com is subject to our Website Terms & Conditions. Your access to and use of other Sites may be subject to different terms and conditions. Please review those Sites for more information.

12. Changes to Altera’s Privacy Policy

The Sites and our business may change from time to time. As a result, at times it may be necessary for Altera to make changes to this Privacy Policy. Altera reserves the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice, unless otherwise required by the applicable law. Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any Personal Data. Your continued use of the Site after any changes or revisions to this Privacy Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Privacy Policy, without prejudice to your rights under the applicable law.

13. Contacting Altera

Please contact us if you have any questions about Altera’s Privacy Policy, the information practices of the Sites, or if you have questions about your rights. By email at: [email protected]