Consent policy

1The promise

Hirably does not check anyone in secret. Every verification begins with the employee themselves reading what is proposed and agreeing to it in their own name, on their own device. Until that happens, no lookup is performed and no source is contacted.

This applies to every employee and guarantor on Hirably.

2How consent is requested

When an employer or household creates a request, we contact the employee directly - WhatsApp first, with SMS as a fallback - in two messages:

1. Who is asking. The first message names the business or household requesting the verification, so the employee knows the request is genuine before anything is opened.
2. What is being asked, and the private link. The second message lists the checks requested and carries the employee's own private consent link.

The link belongs to that employee and request. Employers cannot agree on an employee's behalf or access their consent link.

3What the employee agrees to

The consent screen states, before anything is submitted:

• who requested the verification;
• which checks are included - identity, residence, guarantors, previous engagements;
• what each check involves, and what it does not;
• who will see the result, and that the employee receives their own copy;
• how long the consent is valid and how to withdraw it;
• that the report states facts only, with no score, rating or hiring recommendation.

One agreement covers all the checks in that request. Consent is specific to that request only - it never carries over to a future request, another employer, or any other purpose.

4Residence checks and location

Where residence verification is requested, the employee is told before agreeing that presence at the address they declared will be confirmed in person within an agreed period by a vetted agent. Only what the agent observed at the address is reported, and it is labelled as a physical visit so it is never presented as anything else.

Location information is used solely to establish presence within the declared zone. Precise coordinates are never shown to the employer and never appear in a report.

5Guarantors consent too

A guarantor is a person in their own right. Each guarantor named by a employee is contacted separately, told who is asking and what they are being asked to confirm, and gives their own recorded agreement before anything is recorded against their name. A guarantor may decline, and declining is reported factually - as a check that was not completed, never as a finding about the employee.

6How long consent lasts

• A consent link is valid for 14 days from the day it is sent.
• We send a reminder one day before it expires.
• If it expires unused, the request closes and the employer's check is credited back - nothing is checked.
• Once given, consent covers only the checks listed in that request, and lapses when those checks settle.

7Declining, and withdrawing later

A employee may decline. A employee who has already agreed may withdraw at any point by using the same link or by writing to privacy@hirably.com. Withdrawal stops anything not yet completed.

We record a decline or a withdrawal as exactly that - a factual status, with no adverse characterisation, no note of suspicion and no effect on any other record about the employee. Employers agree in our terms of service not to treat it as a finding.

A completed check cannot be undone. The consent and withdrawal remain in the audit trail.

8The consent record

For every request we store what was shown to the employee, exactly what they agreed to, when they agreed, from which device and network, and any later change of mind. This record is immutable and forms part of the audit trail for the case. It exists to protect the employee: it is the evidence that the verification was authorised, and it is available to the employee on request.

9What every employee can do

• See their own case, its status and its outcomes in their employee portal.
• Receive their own copy of the completed report - the employer never gets something the employee cannot see.
• Ask for a correction where a detail is wrong.
• Dispute any record filed about them; a disputed record is frozen while it is reviewed and removed if it cannot be substantiated.
• Ask for a copy of everything we hold, or ask us to delete what we no longer need.

10What consent never authorises

Consent given to Hirably never authorises monitoring after a check completes, tracking a employee's movements, contacting their family for any purpose beyond a guarantor confirmation they themselves agreed to, sharing the report with anyone outside the requesting organisation, or re-using the data for a different decision. Any of these is a breach of our terms and grounds for immediate suspension of the account concerned.