Privacy notice for job applicants

Published 3.2.2020 | Updated 10.8.2026

1. Controller

University of the Arts Helsinki (Uniarts Helsinki)
Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 00097 Uniarts
Phone number: +358 294 47 2000 (switchboard)

2. Unit and person in charge of processing personal data

HR and Development Services, HR and Service Director Riikka Mäki-Ontto, etunimi.sukunimi@uniarts.fi, +358 294 47 2000 (switchboard)

3. Contact person for the processing of personal data

Hr Services, HR Planner Anne Kilpeläinen, etunimi.sukunimi@uniarts.fi, +358 294 47 2000 (switchboard)

4. Data protection officer

Find contact details for Uniarts Helsinki’s data protection officer on the data protection homepage.

5. Name of the register and brief description

Job applicant register

This privacy notice for job applicants describes our data protection practices that concern the collecting and processing of a job applicant in recruitment processes of Uniarts Helsinki. When the words “you” and “your” are used in the text, they refer to the job applicant.

6. Purpose and legal basis for processing personal data

Uniarts Helsinki’s right to process personal data is based on:

• Promoting the legitimate interests of Uniarts Helsinki in filling vacant positions.
• The legitimate interests of Uniarts Helsinki are based on the relationship between Uniarts Helsinki and the data subject. The relationship is established when the data subject submits an open or targeted job application to Uniarts Helsinki. The processing of the job applicant’s personal data is necessary in order to process job applications and to carry out the recruitment.
• Consent given by the job applicant / third parties.
• Uniarts Helsinki’s mandatory statutory obligations or rights under labour law.

The primary purpose of processing personal data is to fill open positions through targeted recruitment and in accordance with the career system, to build a resource pool (open applications) and to manage recruitment processes.

In many processes, the submission of personal data is a necessary prerequisite for handling the matter.

We may process job applicant data also for the following purposes:

• Reporting and compiling of statistics.
• Safeguarding the rights of the job applicant and Uniarts Helsinki and ensuring the university’s compliance with legislation applicable to recruitment.

Job applicant data will not be used for direct marketing or any purposes other than those mentioned in this notice.

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling as referred to in the GDPR in our processing of personal data.

7. What data do we process?

We only collect personal data that is relevant for the recruitment in question.

Some of the requested data may be essential for your application to be processed and reviewed, and without this data, our ability to consider you as a candidate for the position may be limited. The data collected is specified for each recruitment in the job advertisement and/or defined in the electronic recruitment system.

We process the following data, for example:

• Basic information, such as name, date of birth, first language, nationality and other information the data subject may provide.
• Contact information such as email address, phone number, address and other information the person may provide.
• Professional qualifications such as information concerning education and other training, job history, research-related, artistic, pedagogical merits and other special merits and competence relevant for the open position, language skills and other special competence areas.
• Other information related to the application, such as a CV, photograph, description of personal qualities, various certificates and evaluations or proof of skills (e.g. a recording of the applicant playing an instrument or singing), which the applicant wishes to use to demonstrate their merits and suitability for the position that they are applying for.

We also process the following information:

• Information related to the position applied for, including details of the job, the nature and type of the employment relationship and the contact person named for the recruitment process.
• Information on the progress of the recruitment process, such as upcoming follow-up interviews or suspension of the recruitment process.
• Assessment statements, such as proposals from preparatory working groups or applicant assessments conducted during the recruitment process (including assessments of research-related, artistic or teaching-related merits, as well as statements from bodies or other similar groups regarding the applicants’ merits or suitability for the position).
• Suitability assessment: A psychological suitability assessment, if conducted, will be carried out with your consent by Uniarts Helsinki’s contractual partner, who uses reliable testing methods.
• Personal credit record check: If the position requires that the selected person’s credit record is checked, we will inform about this already in the job advertisement.
• Criminal record check when selected for the position / Teacher duties at the Sibelius Junior Academy. We notify job applicants in the job announcement if the person selected for the position must present an extract from the criminal records. According to the Act on Checking the Criminal Background of Persons Working with Children (504/2002), it is the duty of Uniarts Helsinki to ask to see an extract from an employee’s criminal records if the employee works with persons under the age of 18 and if their employment relationship lasts for more than 3 months. Before a person can be appointed for a position like this and before the employment contract is signed, they must present an extract from their criminal records.

Sensitive personal data: Uniarts Helsinki does not request or collect sensitive personal data in connection with a recruitment process. However, if you do provide this information, it will not be made available in the recruitment process.

Sensitive personal information includes, for example, information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, physical or mental condition, political opinions or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, trade union membership or genetic information.

8. Where do we get data?

Uniarts Helsinki uses an electronic recruitment system Varbi, and you give and save your own data when you register to the system. In the electronic recruitment system, we ensure recruitment-specific consent for the processing of your data. Based on the consent given, the personal data you provide may be processed by internal reviewers involved in the recruitment at Uniarts Helsinki, and if necessary, the data may be electronically transferred and processed by external experts either within or outside the European Union, depending on what the recruitment process requires.

Information is also collected from you during, for example, the job interview and the teaching demonstration. With your consent, we may also collect information from your former/current employer and referees, for example. With your consent, we receive the results of the psychological suitability assessment from the designated service provider. With your consent, we obtain credit information from the credit register.

Information about other third-party sources:

With your consent, you may allow us access to certain personal data stored by third parties, such as social media sites (for example, LinkedIn). By granting Uniarts Helsinki permission to access this data, you agree that Uniarts Helsinki may collect, store and use this information in accordance with this notice.

9. To which parties do we disclose and transfer data and do we transfer data outside the EU or the EEA?

As a rule, we do not disclose information from the register to third parties.

We may disclose your information to third parties in the following situations:

• Statutory statistics and reporting to Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
• Compliance with the law or the requirements of a competent law enforcement authority, government agency, court or third party so that we can comply with legal process or law enforcement requirements or exercise or defend our legal rights.
• Information requests concerning recruitment. Our activities at Uniarts Helsinki are governed by the application of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999). As a result of the application of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, the university may be obliged to disclose information containing personal data to third parties.
• External service provider (suitability assessment).

For the most part, we only process your personal data within the EU/EEA area. In certain recruitments, personal data is processed on behalf of Uniarts Helsinki by external experts who may operate outside the EU/EEA area (in so-called third countries). The university ensures that the external experts that process data are committed to complying with the university’s data protection and information security policies.

If your personal data is transferred outside the EU/EEA area, this can only occur under circumstances and conditions permitted by the EU General Data Protection Regulation. We use the standard contractual clauses adopted by the EU.

10. How do we protect data and for how long do we store it?

As the controller, Uniarts Helsinki has taken the necessary technical and organisational measures and also requires the same from the service providers it uses.

We use subcontractors in the processing of personal data, and we have concluded agreements for the processing of personal data with them.

In targeted recruitments, we retain application documents and other information provided by the applicant for 3 years (36 months) from the date of submission, after which the data is automatically deleted from the electronic recruitment system. Other recruitment-related material is generally retained for 36 months from the selection decision, with the exception of material significant for research, which is retained permanently in accordance with the information management plan.

We assess the need for retention of the data on a regular basis, taking into account any applicable legislation. In addition to this, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the data subject’s personal data being retained in the register is not outdated, erroneous or incompatible with the purpose of processing. We immediately rectify or erase such data.

11. What are your rights as a data subject?

You have the right to:

• Access your job applicant data.
• Verify the accuracy of the job applicant data stored in the system.
• Request the correction or deletion of incomplete, incorrect or outdated job applicant data.
  • During the application period, you can check, update or delete your data in the electronic recruitment system at any time. When your application is targeted to a specific application, withdrawing your application deletes the application documents, leaving only a record of the withdrawal in the system.
  • After the application period ends, you can no longer update data entered in a targeted application yourself. Requests for data correction must be addressed to the Uniarts Helsinki HR contact person for the specific recruitment.
• Be forgotten under certain conditions: You may request that we delete your data from our systems. If there is no other legal basis for processing the personal data, we will delete it.
• Restrict the processing of your job applicant data under certain conditions (for example, if you believe the personal data we hold is incorrect or unlawfully held).
• Receive the job applicant data you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
• Withdraw your consent to the processing and transfer of your job applicant data:
  • Note that the recruitment process requires the sharing of requested data and consent to having the data processed and transferred. Failure to provide the requested data or withdrawal of consent may limit our ability to consider you for the position.
  • If you withdraw your application before a selection decision is made in the recruitment process, your data will be deleted from the electronic recruitment system.
  • Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

In addition, data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint especially to the supervisory authority of their permanent place of residence or work if they find that the processing of personal data violates the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679. Data subjects also have the right to employ administrative appeals and other legal remedies.

12. Who can you contact?

Questions about how to use the electronic recruitment system and other recruitment-related questions: The HR contact person mentioned in the recruitment-specific job announcement.

Privacy notice: If you have any questions about this privacy notice, you can contact us by writing an email to tietosuoja@uniarts.fi. Please refer to this privacy notice for job applicants in your message.

13. Your responsibility

You are responsible for the data that you submit or make available to Uniarts Helsinki. You must make sure that the information is true and accurate and in no way misleading.

14. Amendments to the privacy notice

When this privacy notice is updated, the date of the new version will be edited to the beginning of the notice. If we make changes to the content, we may take appropriate steps to inform you in a manner consistent with the significance of the changes.