Privacy Policy

Last updated: 8 October 2026

This privacy policy explains how NanoSearch Partners Ltd · Registered in England and Wales · Company No. 17509045 (“NanoSearch”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses and protects personal information when you use our website or our recruitment services. We are a specialist recruitment business for the semiconductor, electron microscopy, materials analysis and scientific instrumentation sectors.

We are the controller of your personal information for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are and how to contact us

NanoSearch Partners Ltd · Registered in England and Wales · Company No. 17509045, 102 Deeds Grove, High Wycombe, HP12 3NZ.

For any privacy question, request or complaint, contact us at contactus@nanosearchpartners.com or call 07539 202321. We do not have a formal Data Protection Officer, but this contact is responsible for data protection.

2. Who this policy covers

Candidates: people looking for work, or whom we think may be interested in a role.
Clients: people at organisations that hire through us, or that we would like to work with.
Referees: people whose details a candidate gives us for a reference.
Website visitors: anyone who uses this website or contacts us through it.

3. Information we collect

Candidates

Contact details: name, email address, phone number and location.
Your CV and career information: employment history, skills, qualifications, technical experience, languages and professional memberships.
What you are looking for: preferred roles, locations, willingness to travel or relocate, notice period, current and expected salary and benefits.
Notes from our conversations and interviews, feedback from clients, and references.
Right-to-work information (for example passport or visa details), only when you are progressing to an offer and the check is needed.
Information from public professional sources, such as your LinkedIn profile or professional publications.

We do not ask for special category information (such as health, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation). Please do not include it in your CV. If you choose to tell us about a disability so that we can arrange reasonable adjustments for an interview, we will use it only for that purpose, with your agreement. We only handle criminal records information if a client legally requires a check for a specific role, and we will tell you before this happens.

Clients

Names, job titles, work email addresses and phone numbers of the people we deal with.
Information about the roles you are recruiting for, and records of our communications and agreements.

Referees

Your name, contact details and relationship to the candidate, and the reference you provide.

Website visitors

Anything you submit through our enquiry or CV forms.
Technical information that our hosting provider records automatically for security and to keep the website running, such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested.

4. Where we get your information

From you: when you send us your CV, fill in a form on this website, email or call us, or meet us.
From public professional sources: such as LinkedIn, professional networking sites, job boards, company websites, publications and conference materials.
From other people: referrals from candidates or industry contacts, references from referees, and feedback from clients.

If we obtain your details from a source other than you, we will tell you within one month, and at the latest when we first contact you, and point you to this policy.

5. How we use your information and our lawful basis

What we do	Lawful basis
Finding and suggesting suitable roles, assessing your experience, arranging interviews, managing offers and keeping in touch about future opportunities	Legitimate interests: running a specialist recruitment business and helping candidates find relevant work
Sending your CV or details to a client for a specific role	Legitimate interests, and we will always get your agreement first. We never send your CV to an employer without your say-so
Providing our services to clients, invoicing and managing our agreements	Contract and legitimate interests
Right-to-work checks, keeping records required by law (including under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003), tax and accounting	Legal obligation
Responding to enquiries sent through our website	Legitimate interests, or steps taken at your request before entering a contract
Sending occasional business updates or market insights	Legitimate interests for business contacts, or consent where the law requires it. You can opt out at any time
Disability information for interview adjustments	Explicit consent
Keeping our website and systems secure	Legitimate interests

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against your rights and expectations. You can ask us for more detail, and you can object at any time (see section 9).

We do not make decisions about you using solely automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

6. Who we share your information with

Clients: candidate details for a specific role, only with your agreement.
Referees: to request a reference you have authorised.
Service providers who act on our instructions: website hosting and email (Fasthosts), IT, cloud storage and email services, and professional advisers such as accountants and lawyers. They may only use your information to provide services to us.
Authorities: where we are required to by law, such as HMRC, the Home Office or the police, or to protect our legal rights.
A buyer or successor: if our business is sold or restructured, under appropriate confidentiality protections.

We never sell your personal information.

7. International transfers

We are based in the UK and most of the information we hold stays in the UK. Some of our service providers, and some of the clients we recruit for, are based outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area, the United States and Japan. Where we send personal information outside the UK, we make sure it is protected, either because the UK has recognised the destination as providing adequate protection, or by using safeguards approved under UK law, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Candidate details are only sent to an overseas client for a specific role, with your agreement.

8. How long we keep your information

Candidates: up to 2 years after our last meaningful contact with you (for example a conversation, an application or an update from you). We may contact you before then to ask whether you would like us to keep your details.
Placements and records required by law: at least 1 year from the last service provided, as required by the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, and up to 6 years where needed for tax, accounting or potential legal claims.
Client contacts: for as long as we have an active business relationship, then up to 2 years, and up to 6 years for contract and financial records.
Website enquiries that do not progress: up to 12 months.
CVs sent through this website: CV files are emailed directly to us and are not stored on the website.

When information is no longer needed, we securely delete it or anonymise it.

9. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Access: ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Rectification: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Erasure: ask us to delete your information.
Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your information.
Object: object to our use of your information based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
Data portability: ask for information you gave us in a reusable format, where applicable.
Withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 1. There is usually no charge. We will respond within one month, and we may ask you to confirm your identity first. Some rights have exceptions, and if one applies we will explain why.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first using the details in section 1. You can complain in any way, by email, phone, post or message. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you updated and tell you the outcome.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113.

11. Keeping your information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) on this website, password-protected and access-controlled accounts, and reputable service providers. Website forms are protected against spam, and CVs uploaded through the website are emailed to us and deleted from the web server immediately. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will act promptly if anything goes wrong, including notifying you and the ICO where the law requires.

12. Cookies

This website does not use advertising or tracking cookies, and does not use analytics. It only uses cookies that are strictly necessary, such as those that keep website administrators logged in. These do not require consent. Fonts and images are served from our own website. If we introduce analytics or other non-essential cookies in future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

13. Links to other websites

Our website may link to other websites, such as LinkedIn. We are not responsible for how those websites handle your information, so please read their privacy policies.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.