| Available for | Roles | Super Admin, Admin, Team Member, Limited Team Member GDPR settings configured by Super Admins only |
| Permissions | • Anonymize candidates | |
| Packages | Lever Basic, LeverTRM, LeverTRM for Enterprise |
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This article depicts and describes Lever's Compliance Task Visibility, Automated Candidate Anonymization, and Hired Candidate Anonymization enhancements included in the Fall 2024 Product Release, scheduled to rollout progressively in October and November 2024. For full details, refer to our Fall 2024 Product Release Notes. |
In locations where data regulation applies, you are required to anonymize candidates' personally identifiable information in the absence of their consent or legitimate interest. Lever provides multiple ways to efficiently anonymize candidate information to ensure proper data hygiene that is compliant with policies such as GDPR. Before proceeding, note that Lever does not provide legal advice in regard to data handling practices. We advise consulting legal counsel to determine the best data handling protocols for your organization. We also recommend reading the following help articles to understand how anonymization is systematized in your Lever environment.
How anonymization works in Lever
When a candidate's opportunity is anonymized in Lever, their personally identifiable data is deleted from the system. Non-identifiable data such as origins, sources, and actions taken, are kept in order to ensure that you can accurately report and calibrate based on your recruitment metrics.
When anonymizing an opportunity, the data that is deleted depends on if the candidate has more than one non-anonymized opportunity associated with their profile. If a candidate has more than one non-anonymized opportunity in the system, the candidate will not be considered fully anonymized until all of their opportunities have been anonymized. Expand the menus below to read a breakdown of the data that is deleted in each scenario.
If you are anonymizing an opportunity associated with a candidate linked to multiple non-anonymized opportunities, the following data will be deleted from their profile:
- The contents of any emails (including to/from/body/subject) sent in association with the opportunity
- Previous work history
- Resumes, CVs, and any other files attached to the opportunity
- Email drafts of upcoming interviewers associated with the opportunity
- Inbox notifications about the opportunity
If you are anonymizing the only non-anonymized opportunity associated with a candidate, the following data will be deleted from their profile:
- Candidate name
- Phone number
- Location
- Websites and social links
- The contents of any emails (including to/from/body/subject) sent in association with the opportunity
- Previous work history
- Resumes, CVs, and any other files attached to the opportunity
- Email drafts of upcoming interviewers associated with the opportunity
- Inbox notifications about the opportunity
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Candidates whose opportunities are associated with postings in locations subject to a localized data compliance policy (as configured via Settings > Data compliance) will have their data anonymized in accord with the configuration for that specific country. To learn more, refer to our help article on configuring localized data compliance settings. |
The way in which data is anonymized in your Lever environment depends on your GDPR or localized data compliance configuration. When setting up GDPR or a localized data compliance policy, anonymization can be configured around whether or not to store candidate data as a hashed value.
If you opt to store a hashed value of a candidate's email address...
Lever removes the candidate's email address from the data and stores it in a secure and unreadable format to which you will not have access. The hashed value is used to identify anonymized candidates if they ever apply again.
If you opt to not store a hashed value of the candidate's email address...
Anonymization results in the complete and permanent deletion of candidate data (including the candidate's email address) from the system.
Identifying opportunities in need of anonymization
User Workspace
With GDPR or data compliance enabled, you can view a list of candidate opportunities in need of anonymization under the User Workspace 'your tasks' list. Clicking these items will redirect you to a filtered view of the Candidates page. For more information on the User Workspace, refer to our help article on using your user workspace.
The Candidates page
By navigating to the list icon in the candidate search bar, Super Admins, Admins, Team Members, and Limited Team Members can manually filter their pipeline and archive for opportunities based on candidates' relationship to your GDPR policy or data compliance settings. To learn more about filtering your candidate database, refer to our help article on filtering the candidate pipeline by consent status.
Email notifications
If you have GDPR configured, owners of opportunities in need of anonymization will receive notifications to their Lever inbox when:
- The associated candidate submits a request for their data to be deleted
- The candidate's consent is within 30 days of expiry
- Legitimate interest has expired or the candidate's consent has been lapsed
Lever users can receive anonymization notifications direct to their primary inbox by navigating to Settings > My account > Email notifications, and configuring their email settings accordingly.
Data compliance settings
If you have data compliance configured, users with Super Admin access, Admin access, or custom permissions can also see a list of opportunities in need of anonymization on the 'Candidate Data' page of their Data compliance settings. You will read more about this option under method 3 for anonymizing opportunities described below.
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Super Admins and Admins can monitor the volume of open data erasure requests received by their organization from candidates on the Compliance dashboard in Visual Insights. Check out our Compliance dashboard help article to learn more. |
Methods for anonymizing opportunities
There are four methods for anonymizing opportunities:
Method 1: From the opportunity profile
If a candidate revokes their consent for retention of their data, a banner will appear at the top of their opportunity profile prompting you to anonymize their opportunity. Click the Anonymize button in the banner to reveal a summary of the candidate data that will be deleted. Click the Anonymize Candidate button below the summary to complete the action.
If consent expires or the legitimate interest period lapses for an archived candidate, a similar banner will appear at the top of their profile. To anonymize an archived opportunity, click the ellipses button (⋯) at the top of their profile and select Anonymize from the menu.
Method 2: From the pipeline Archive
In the Archive only, opportunities can be anonymized in bulk. To anonymize opportunities in bulk, click into the Archive tab and use the GDPR or data compliance filters to find opportunities in need of anonymization. Once you have applied the filter, select the opportunities in the opportunity list that you wish to anonymize. Click the rightmost button in the bulk action toolbar and select Anonymize Opportunities from the menu to reveal a summary of the data that will be deleted for the selected opportunities. Click the Anonymize Candidates button below the summary to complete the action.
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GDPR or data compliance pipeline filters are only available if you have the respective compliance settings enabled. |
Method 3: From 'Data compliance' settings
Note that only Super Admins and Admins have access to 'Data compliance' settings. In order to anonymize candidates via your 'Data compliance' settings, GDPR must be disabled. To anonymize opportunities:
- Navigate to Settings > Data compliance > Candidate data
- Use the filters to narrow down opportunities by the country of their associated postings and/or the length of time since consent or interest expired.
- To anonymize an individual opportunity, click the Anonymize link aligned to the right of the listed opportunity.
- To anonymize opportunities in bulk, select multiple opportunities and click the Anonymize Candidates button that appears at the top of the list.
- In the modal that appears, click the Anonymize candidate data button to complete the action.
Method 4: Automated candidate anonymization
With data compliance enabled, you have the ability to configure automated candidate anonymization by location policy. If this setting is enabled, then candidates will be automatically anonymized on the day they are set to expire. For more information, refer to our help article on configuring data compliance settings.
You can also view a history of anonymized candidates by navigating to Settings > Data compliance > anonymization history.
How anonymized opportunities appear in Lever
Following anonymization, any field in your LeverTRM environment where the candidate's name previously appeared (including the pipeline opportunity list and reports) will be replaced with "Anonymized candidate" following anonymization of their profile.
The opportunity will be removed from search results, as well as any field searches (for tags, emails, etc). If you have saved a link to the opportunity, you will be brought to a blank page with a notice that the candidate has been anonymized.
When viewing archived opportunities in the opportunities list, any anonymized opportunities will be counted at the bottom of the list.
The opportunity will also be scrubbed from any general and interviewer notifications as well as failed emails. The opportunity's hire date, offer status, and offer created date will still be counted on any requisitions linked to the associated posting (if applicable). For more information, refer to our help article on viewing candidates associated with requisitions.
When anonymized candidates re-apply or are sourced again
If an anonymized candidate applies or is sourced for one of your postings again using the same email address, their consent preference will be added to the new opportunity. However, no other data will be merged onto the new candidate profile.
Troubleshooting errors with candidate anonymization
If you encounter an error when attempting to anonymize candidate data, it could be for one of the following reasons:
- The candidate you are attempting to anonymize is not subject to a data compliance policy, as per your data compliance configuration in Lever. You will only be able to anonymize a candidate's data if their profile is associated with a posting that has a location for which you have configured a country-level data compliance policy. To learn more, refer to our help article on configuring data compliance settings.
- The job posting associated with the candidate's opportunity has a location with no country. To resolve this error, the location of the posting must be changed to a posting with a country or the current location of the posting must be updated to include a country. To learn how to edit postings, refer to our job postings help article. To learn how to update locations, refer to the 'Locations' section of our company settings help article.
- The candidate's profile has not been associated with a posting. Refer to our help article on adding opportunities to existing candidate profiles to learn more.
If you are encountering anonymization errors for reasons other than the ones listed above, please contact Lever Support.