Your information, in plain words

Read this together with your support worker before your profile is created. Ask about anything — there are no silly questions. The formal detail follows the eight promises.

You own your story

Your profile belongs to you. Your support worker builds it with you, never about you. Nothing goes in that you haven’t seen.

Hidden until you say otherwise

Every part of your profile starts hidden. You choose — section by section — what verified employers can see. You can change your mind at any time, and it takes effect straight away.

Your background is yours to share, or not

Anything about the barriers you’ve faced is completely optional, off by default, and only ever shown to employers who offer matching support. Saying nothing never counts against you.

Nobody contacts you directly

Employers talk to your support worker first, always. Your phone number and email are never on your profile.

Never public, never searchable

Your profile is not on the open internet. Search engines can’t see it. Only verified employers inside the network can — and only what you’ve agreed to.

Every look is recorded

Whenever anyone views or filters anything sensitive, it’s written down in an audit log the network team reviews.

Take a break, or leave, any time

You can come off the pool instantly and nothing is deleted — or delete everything, including your photos and videos, and it’s gone from our systems.

If you move organisations

Your profile only ever moves to another partner organisation if you agree, and your agreement is recorded before anything happens.

Who is responsible for your information

Data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) calls the organisation that decides why and how your information is used the controller. On Backed there is more than one, each for a different part:

Controllers by kind of information
Information	Who is responsible	What that means
Your profile, case notes, consent choices, referral details, date of birth, and anything your support worker records with you	The partner organisation supporting you	The charity, college, council, probation team or other referrer you work with. Their support worker is your first point of contact, and they answer your requests about your information.
Your account, the audit log, security records, network settings and anonymous statistics	The Backed network operator	Runs the platform for everyone. Keeps the record of who looked at what, keeps the service secure, and handles complaints about the platform itself.
An employer’s own notes about a conversation, interview or hire with you	That employer	Once an employer is in a conversation about you, what they write in their own pipeline is theirs to answer for — within the rules of the network’s acceptable-use terms.

Contact details for your partner organisation are on your profile page and in every message you receive. The network operator can be reached through the support address shown to your support worker in the app.

What we hold, and why we may hold it

Every kind of information has a reason in law for holding it — the “lawful basis”. Here they are, in plain words:

Lawful bases by kind of information
Information	Why it is held	Lawful basis
Your name, pronouns, location, availability, skills, experience, goals and “about me”	To build a profile with you and, when you choose, show parts of it to verified employers	Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)) for anything shown to employers; the partner organisation’s public task or legitimate interest in supporting you into work (Article 6(1)(e) or (f)) for holding it while you build it together
Your photo and “meet me” video	So employers can meet you as a person, when you decide they should	Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)). Under-18s: never shown to employers, whatever is chosen
Your phone number, email and emergency contact	So your support worker can reach you. Never on your profile	The partner organisation’s legitimate interest in supporting you (Article 6(1)(f))
Date of birth, referral source and referral notes	Safeguarding (the under-18 rules) and funder reporting	Legitimate interest and legal duties around safeguarding (Article 6(1)(c) and (f))
Case notes and safeguarding concerns written by your support team	The record of the support you received, and to act on concerns about your welfare	Legitimate interest and legal duties (Article 6(1)(c) and (f)); for health-related content, Article 9(2)(h) or (b) with Schedule 1 Part 1 conditions
Your background — health, disability, refugee status, experience of the justice system, and similar (special-category and criminal-offence data)	Only ever to connect you with employers who have made a commitment to support people with that background (positive action under the Equality Act 2010 s.158). Never to filter you out, rank you, or score you	Your explicit consent, per tag and per audience (Article 9(2)(a); for criminal-offence data, Article 10 with Schedule 1 Part 3 para 29 — consent). Where an employer runs a positive-action programme, Schedule 1 Part 2 para 8 (equality of opportunity) also applies
“What helps me do my best” — adjustments for interview and work	So an employer who you choose can set things up right. Adjustments can imply a disability, so this section is treated as special-category data	Your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)). Hidden by default; never a filter
Right-to-work note, references and payroll readiness	So your support worker can say “documents were seen” without sharing the documents	Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)). Employers see only that documents were seen by the support team and that their own statutory check is still required — never what was seen
Messages between your support worker and employers about you	To arrange interviews, trials and support	Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) — always through your support worker, never directly to you
The audit log: who viewed, filtered or changed what, and when	To protect you — every look at anything sensitive is recorded and reviewed	The network operator’s legitimate interest and legal duty to keep processing accountable (Article 5(2), Article 6(1)(c) and (f))
Your sign-in details (email, a password hash, sign-in times)	So you can sign in to see and change your own profile	Contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)) and legitimate interest in security

Who receives your information

Verified employers on the network see only the sections you have chosen to share, at the audience you chose (matched employers only, or any verified employer). Your background is shown only to employers with a matching support commitment, and only when the network’s positive-action feature is switched on.

Another partner organisation sees your profile only if you agree to move to them, and your agreement is recorded first.

Nobody else. Your information is never sold, never published, and never used to advertise anything.

To run the service we use a small number of processors — companies that store or process information on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes:

Processors
Processor	What they do for us	Where
Supabase	Hosts the database and the private file storage for photos and videos	United Kingdom / European Union region, chosen at set-up
Vercel	Hosts the application and serves the pages	Global edge network; application servers in the UK/EU region
Anthropic	Drafts profile wording and report prose from what your support worker types — only when the network has switched this on. It receives what is typed, not your whole record, and does not train on it	United States, under UK international-transfer safeguards
OpenAI	Powers voice and translation interview practice — only when you use it and the network has switched it on. Practice audio is not kept on Backed	United States, under UK international-transfer safeguards

This table is the sub-processor register. The safeguards for any transfer outside the UK (the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK’s own International Data Transfer Agreement) are recorded per processor in the project’s docs/subprocessors.md, which changes whenever this table does.

How long we keep it

Retention periods
Information	Kept for
Your profile and everything in it	While you are supported, and up to 12 months after your last contact with your partner organisation — then deleted. Or straight away, when you ask
Case notes and safeguarding concerns	As your profile, unless a safeguarding duty requires longer — then 6 years from the concern being closed
Consent records	The lifetime of your profile, plus 6 years, so we can show what you agreed to and when
Messages	As your profile. Deleted with it
Photos and videos	As your profile. Deleted with it, from storage as well as the database
The audit log	6 years. When you delete your profile, every word that could name you or your background is removed from the log, leaving only the fact that something was viewed or changed, when, and by whom
Outcome statistics after you delete	Indefinitely, anonymously: dates, hours and whether a job lasted — with no name and no link back to you
Sign-in and security records	12 months

The detailed schedule lives in the project’s docs/retention-schedule.md.

Your rights

You can, at any time and for free:

See everything held about you — your support worker can show you on the spot, and your own sign-in shows it all.
Correct anything that is wrong.
Export your data as a file you keep, and your profile as a CV.
Change your mind about any consent — hide a section, a tag, or come off the pool — and it takes effect immediately.
Delete everything. Your support worker or you can do it in one step; photos and videos go too.
Object to, or ask us to restrict, any use of your information that is not based on your consent.
Not be subject to automated decisions. Backed ranks nothing about you automatically: “why this matches” is shown in plain words, and a person always decides.

Ask your support worker first — they can do all of this with you. If you would rather not, or you are unhappy with the answer, contact the network operator through the support address in the app.

You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first, but you do not have to give us one.

If you are under 18

Your photo and video are never shown to employers, whatever is chosen. A guardian or corporate parent’s agreement is recorded before your profile is created, and your support worker will explain each choice in a way that makes sense to you.

About this notice

This is version 2026-09-02 of the privacy notice. Every consent you give records which version you saw and in what language, and whether you confirmed it yourself or with your support worker. When the words change, the version changes, and you will be asked again for anything the change affects.