Effective Date: January 1, 2023

This California Personnel Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Garuda Labs, Inc. dba Instawork (“Instawork”, “we”, “us” and “our”) collects, uses, and discloses about our individual current and former employees, contractors, consultants, and candidates for the foregoing positions (and their beneficiaries and emergency contacts) who are residents of California in the context of our working relationship with the relevant individuals (“personal information”).  We may update this Policy at any time.  We may also provide you additional privacy notices regarding our collection, use or disclosure of information.

This Policy does not form part of any employment contract or contract to provide services. If you provide services to Instawork through or in connection with another company, we are not responsible for that company’s privacy practices.

This Policy does not apply to our handling of data gathered about you in your role as a user of the Instawork Platform, including our websites, mobile applications, content, and services. When you interact with us as in that role, the Privacy Policy associated with use of the Instawork Platform applies.  

1.     Right to Know: Types of Personal Information We Handle

We collect, store, and use various types of personal information through the application and recruitment process or during the relevant engagement or employment with us. We collect such information either directly from you or (where applicable) from another person or entity, such as an employment agency or consultancy, background check provider, or other referral sources.

The type of information we have about you depends on your role with us and may include, where applicable:

  • Identification and contact information and related identifiers such as full name, date and place of birth, citizenship and permanent residence, home and business addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and such information about your beneficiaries or emergency contacts
  • Professional or employment-related information, including:
    • Recruitment, employment, or engagement information such as application forms and information included in a resume, cover letter, or otherwise provided through any application or engagement process; and copies of identification documents, such as driver’s licenses, passports, and visas; and background screening results and references, if any.
    • Career information such as job titles; work history; work dates and work locations; employment, service or engagement agreements; appraisal and performance information; information about skills, qualifications, experience, publications, speaking engagements, and preferences (e.g., mobility); absence and leave records; professional memberships; disciplinary and grievance information; and termination information.
    • Financial information such as salary, payroll, pension or retirement contribution information; and bank account and tax information.
    • Business travel and expense information such as travel itinerary information, corporate expenses and reimbursements, and Instawork credit card usage, if applicable.
  • Education Information such as institutions attended, degrees, certifications, training courses, publications, and transcript information.
  • Internet, electronic network, and device activity and device information and related identifiers such as information about your use of the Instawork network, information, and communication systems, including user IDs, passwords, IP addresses, device IDs, web logs, and audit trails of system access.
  • Geolocation information for device recovery if you use an Instawork-issued device.
  • Audio or visual information such as CCTV footage, as well as other information relating to the security of our premises; recorded presentations and call recordings in which you participate; and any photographs or video taken at Instawork premises or offsite functions for marketing or other purposes. 
  • Legally protected classification information such as race, sex/gender, religious/ philosophical beliefs, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, marital status, military service, nationality, ethnicity, request for family care leave, political opinions, and criminal history. 
  • Health information about you, and, if applicable, your beneficiaries, such as medical conditions and other information provided in statement of health forms, disability status, health and safety incidents or accidents, sickness records, and health issues requiring accommodations to your working environment or working practices.

2.     How We Use and Retain Personal Information

We collect, use, share, and store personal information for Instawork’s and our service providers’ business purposes, which include, where applicable:

  • HR management and administration including training, compensation and benefits, invoices, leave, scheduling, career development, performance appraisals and recognition, investigating and resolving inquiries and complaints, providing references, succession planning, organizational changes, fraud prevention and investigation, preparing analyses and reports, and communicating with our workforce about updates or relevant information about perks, benefits and discounts, and changes to Instawork products and services.

  • Performance of business operations, including providing and monitoring IT systems for any lawful purpose; maintaining accounts and internal directories, crisis management, protecting occupational health and safety; participating in due diligence activities related to the business; business succession planning and conducting internal analyses and audits.

  • Recruitment, including job advertising, interviewing, and selecting and hiring new staff.

  • Security operations, including detecting security incidents, debugging and repairing errors, and preventing unauthorized access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution; and monitoring and controlling access to company premises and locations (including through use of CCTV).

  • Legal Compliance such as complying with tax, anti-bribery, social security and immigration obligations, and responding to and cooperating with legal or regulatory requests and investigations.

Certain information we collect may be considered “sensitive personal information” under California law.  We use such information as necessary to conduct our relationship with you, in the following ways:

  • State ID number, social Security number or passport information for legal compliance, payroll, benefits, tax, and immigration purposes;
  • Health information, which may include disability status, to provide reasonable workplace accommodations and manage absences, for workplace health and safety purposes, and for compliance with applicable law and contracts or to exercise rights thereunder; 
  • Racial/ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and/or disability status for equal opportunity and diversity and inclusion purposes and compliance with applicable law or to exercise rights thereunder;
  • Financial account information to facilitate direct deposit of payroll.

The personal information we do or will collect, including sensitive personal information, will be retained for as long as necessary to satisfy the purposes for which it was collected and our legal obligations.  As described above, these purposes include our business operations and complying with reporting, legal and accounting obligations.  In determining how long to retain information, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of the personal information, the purposes for which we process the personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes in other ways, the applicable legal requirements, and our legitimate interests. 

For example, we will keep certain information about former employees (e.g., name job title, organizational hierarchy, and records of employment) for as long as necessary for our legitimate interests in keeping this information as part of our organizational history and to confirm the facts of their employment with us and to comply with law.  The purposes we process information (as well as the other factors listed above) may dictate different retention periods for the same types of information.  For example, tax-related records with employee names may be retained for at least seven years, while employee names in email headers may be kept indefinitely depending on the nature of the email.

3.     With Whom We Share Personal Information

We will disclose workforce personal information to the following types of entities or in the following circumstances (where applicable):

  • Internally: to people within Instawork and its affiliates and subsidiaries (including but not limited to Advantage Workforce Services, LLC; Instawork Canada Inc., Advantage Workforce Services Canada Inc.; and Instawork Services India Pvt. Ltd.) to carry out the purposes described in this Policy, including to your manager, human resources, as well as personnel within the Instawork, such as payroll, IT, legal and finance.

  • Service Providers: such as compensation and benefits providers, tax and other professional advisors, technology service providers, corporate card issuers, travel management providers, travel providers, human resources suppliers, background check companies, and employment businesses (in relation to contractors or agency workers).

  • For Business Operations to provide another entity (such as a potential or existing business counterparty or customer) with a means of contacting you in the normal course of business, for example, by providing your contact details, such as your phone number and email address.

  • Legal Compliance: when required to do so by law, regulation, court order or other legal process, or in response to a request for assistance by the police or other law enforcement agency.

  • Litigation Purposes: to seek legal advice from our external lawyers or in connection with litigation with a third party.

  • Business Transaction Purposes: to another entity, including but not limited to a financial institution, in connection with the potential sale, purchase, or merger of the business.

4.     Other Rights for California Residents

In addition to the right to know the categories of personal information we have collected about you over the past 12 months, including the categories of data, sources from which it is collected, business or commercial purpose for collecting and sharing, and categories of third parties with whom we share, and the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, as described in detail above in Sections 1-3, you also have the right to opt out of the sale of your personal information by a business and to be free from discrimination for exercising your California privacy rights. To be clear, Instawork will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights, nor do we “sell” or “share” your personal information (as those terms are defined by the California Consumer Privacy Acy (“CCPA”)) and have not done so in the twelve months prior to the effective date of this Policy.

Subject to certain exceptions provided by applicable law, you also may request:

  • Access to a copy of your personal information
  • Deletion or remove of your personal information
  • Correction of personal information that we have about you that is inaccurate

If you would like to exercise your rights, you can make such request so by emailing us at privacy@instawork.com or delivering a request to Instawork, Attn: Legal Department, 548 Market Street, PMB 63152, San Francisco, CA 94104-5401. We also will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding to a request. In doing so, we may ask you for verification information so that we can match at least two verification points with information we maintain in our files about you. If we are unable to verify you through this method, we shall have the right, but not the obligation, to request additional information from you.

There are a number of exceptions to these above rights. For instance, we may retain your personal information if it is reasonably necessary to comply with a legal obligation, including but not limited to relevant records retention requirements. 

5.     How to Contact Us About this Policy

Please contact privacy@instawork.com with questions about this policy. Alternatively, you can write to us at Instawork, Attn: Privacy, 548 Market Street, PMB 63152, San Francisco, CA 94104-5401.