Privacy Policy

A. General

This website "mathhire.org" (hereinafter referred to as "MathHire") is an online platform for mathematicians and institutions hosting publically accessible job and event listings, and allowing mathematicians to maintain a user profile and to apply online for the jobs and events listed on this site. Its goal is to connect and simplify the work streams of all related parties. MathHire is operated by Daniel Lütgehetmann und Sebastian Meinert GbR, Lorettostr. 12, 40219 Düsseldorf, Germany (also hereinafter referred to as "We" or "Us").

Parts of MathHire are accessible to all internet users. However, other parts of the website are restricted and require users to register to gain full access. Users may be:

• Mathematicians as applicants (hereinafter referred to as "applicant"),
• Institutions hiring mathematicians or inviting mathematicians to participate in events (hereinafter referred to as "employer/host" or "institution"),
• Users as part of a selection committee (hereinafter referred to as "selection committee member"),
• Users as referees for applicants (hereinafter referred to as "referee").

In order to be able to operate MathHire, we need to collect and process certain personal user data. Data protection and data security are of utmost importance to us. It goes without saying that we will fully comply with all applicable statutory requirements and regulations. We will collect, process and use personal data from users in connection with their use of the content and other offerings of MathHire as described in this Privacy Policy.

Now, therefore, we will explain in detail in the following sections for what purposes and to what extent personal data will be collected, processed and used.

Click on one of the links below to jump to the listed section:

• Processing of Personal Data of Applicants
• Processing of Personal Data of Employers/Hosts
• Processing of Personal Data of Selection Committee Members
• Processing of Personal Data of Referees
• Processing of Personal Data of Unregistered Users
• Newsletter
• Web Usage Analysis
• Data Security
• Rights to Disclosure, Correction, Deletion or Blocking of Data
• Contact for Questions

B. Processing of Personal Data of Applicants

Mathematicians may submit applications for jobs and events advertised by employers/hosts. They may ask other – both unregistered and registered – users to act as their referees and to upload recommendation letters supporting the mathematician's application. In addition, they may maintain a public profile in order to be approached by employers or recruiters proactively.

1. Registration

When registering an account, MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data:

• account type: applicant or employer/host;
• name;
• country of residence;
• e‑mail address;
• password.

After submitting the registration form, the applicant receives a confirmation e‑mail containing a one-time activation link.

Additional data may have to be submitted before the applicant is able to fully participate on MathHire.

2. Application Materials: Cover Sheet

Before applying for jobs and events through MathHire, applicants need to provide data for their standard application cover sheet that will be included in each application. MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data:

• Contact Information:
  • address, phone, website;
• Personal Information:
  • gender, nationality;
• Current Affiliation:
  • affiliation, current position;
• Education:
  • highest degree, date, institution, advisor, thesis.

3. Application Materials: PDF Documents

Before applying for a job or event through MathHire, applicants need to upload all PDF documents that employers/hosts may request to their personal and private file folder on our web server. Requested application materials may include personal data (e.g. in a motivation letter, curriculum vitae, research statement or teaching statement).

4. Application Materials: Reference Letters

The online application for a job or event through MathHire may require references. The applicant shall request so called managed reference letters prior to submitting his/her application. This is done by sending a reference letter request, which requires the following data, and MathHire will collect, store and process such data for the purpose of collecting and forwarding the reference letter on behalf of the applicant:

• referee's name;
• referee's e‑mail address;
• referee's affiliation;
• use case keyword;
• waiver of right to examine the letter of recommendation;
• confirmation that the referee has been informed in advance.

If the applicant waives his/her right to examine the letter of recommendation, the document will never be accessible by the applicant.

5. Submitting an Application

The personal data listed in B.1, B.2, B.3 and B.4 is not shared with any third party before the applicant actively submits an application.

An application for a job or event consists of the following information, which might contain personal data of the applicant and will be collected, stored and processed by MathHire:

• PDF documents: The applicant selects files from his/her file cloud matching the documents he/she was asked to supply for the application.
• References: Managed references as well as simple references might need to be provided. The data of a simple reference consists of only the name and e‑mail address of the referee, the data of a managed reference also includes the recommendation letter uploaded by the referee.
• Custom questions: The applicant enters text to answer additional questions of the listing administrator.
• Comment: The applicant may add a comment to his/her application.

The listing administrator decides which of the PDF documents, references and custom questions are required and which are optional. The applicant's comment is always optional. After having submitted the application, the following data will be shared with all current and future selection committee members:

• applicant's name;
• applicant's e‑mail address;
• applicant's country of residence;
• all data of the cover sheet (see B.2);
• all data of the application (PDF documents, references, custom questions, comment);
• meta data of the application (submission timestamp, update timestamp, application state).

6. Updating an Application

The applicant may modify his/her application as long as the application has not been closed. The listing administrator is able to change the following data of any application:

• PDF documents;
• custom questions;
• general comment.

The same personal data is then shared and for this reason processed by MathHire as listed in B.5. Every change by the applicant creates an entry in the activity stream of the listing, every change by the listing administrator creates an entry in the applicant's personal activity stream indicating which files have been replaced.

7. Withdrawing an Application

The applicant may withdraw his/her application at any time. The withdrawal and a possible undoing of the withdrawal create entries in the activity stream of the listing, which is shown to the members of the selection committee. The selection committee members can still access all data of a withdrawn application.

8. Maintaining a Public Profile

In addition to submitting applications, applicants may maintain a public profile in order to be approached by employers or recruiters proactively. For this, MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data:

• First Impression:
  • photo, headline, website, summary;
• Skills;
• Attachments:
  • file, descriptive file name;
• Experience:
  • title, institution/company, start date, end date, short description;
• Education:
  • degree, subject, institution, start date, end date, short description.

9. Publications

Applicants may maintain a list of publications on MathHire that can be included on the Public Profile (see B.8) as an HTML list or be submitted instead of a pre-compiled PDF publications list (if requested; see B.3) when submitting an application. For this, MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data:

• Publication Data:
  • title, coauthors, publisher, URL, short description, date;
• ArXiv.org identifier.

10. Bookmarks

Applicants can bookmark and unbookmark listings at any time. Information about bookmarks is not shared with other users.

11. Purposes of the Processing

MathHire will process the aforementioned personal data only for the purpose of running the platform, including creating an account for the applicant and for submitting the application to the listing administrator and the selection committee in order to assess and evaluate the application. The personal data is not forwarded to employers/hosts unless the applicant has given his/her express consent by submitting his/her application.

C. Processing of Personal Data of Employers/Hosts

Employers/Hosts may create new job or event listings and invite other registered users to join the selection committee and to access and evaluate received applications.

1. Registration

When registering an account, MathHire will collect, store and process the personal employer/host data listed in B.1.

2. Creating a New Job or Event Listing

When creating a new listing, the employer/host is asked to provide certain information which might include personal data. MathHire will collect, store and process:

• General Information:
  • Listing option: advertising only / advertising + manage applications online;
  • Listing language: English / French / German / Spanish;
  • Employer/Host Information: institution or company, department, address, logo;
  • Contact Information: name, e‑mail address, phone.
• Job/Event Description:
  • In the case of a job listing: job title, job type, keywords, job description, PDF attachments;
  • In the case of an event listing: event title, event type, start date, end date, subject tags, keywords, event description, PDF attachments.
• Application Instructions:
  • Application Instructions: deadline, close application after deadline, application instructions;

If the employer/host has selected the listing option 'advertising + manage applications online' then MathHire will additionally collect, store and process the following data:

• Requested Application Materials: PDF documents, custom questions;
• Requested References: number of managed references, number of simple references. (There are two types of references:
  • a managed reference is given by requesting and managing a reference letter through MathHire,
  • a simple reference is given by providing only the name and e‑mail address of the referee.)
• Rating Widget.

The author of the listing will be referred to as "listing administrator".

3. Payment

For the purpose of processing payments, MathHire will collect, store and process the following data:

• Billing Information:
  • name, country, address 1, address 2, postal code, city;
• Method of Payment (one of the following two):
  • credit card (transaction-ID, type of card, last 4 digits of card number, card owner, expiration);
  • bank transfer.

Payments made by credit card are not processed by MathHire but by the service provider Stripe Payments Europe Ltd, Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2, Ireland ("Stripe"). Users will have to use a plugin provided and operated by Stripe for payments by credit card. MathHire is not the data controller with respect to the data collected, processed and used by Stripe and has no influence on the data processing operations by Stripe. We point out that Stripe may disclose personal data to related bodies and third parties that are located outside Germany, where the level of data protection might be different from that in Germany. These countries may include the United States of America and Ireland. Further information about the processing of personal data by Stripe can be found in the Privacy Policy, available here: https://stripe.com/ie/privacy.aspx.

Once payment is completed, the listing will be published and is accessible for registered and unregistered users. The listing administrator receives an invoice via e‑mail, which is also available for download on his/her user profile.

4. Publication of the Job or Event Listing

For the purpose of publication of the listing, MathHire will process all provided data listed in C.2 except for:

• e‑mail address from the contact information;
• close application after deadline;
• rating widget.

The selection of a rating widget is only shared with members of the selection committee of this listing. The e‑mail address from the contact information is only shared with registered users. Additionally, the dates of the creation and the last update of the listing will be published and can be viewed by every user.

The employer/host's address is presented to all users as text and as a pin in an embedded Google Maps widget. Google Maps is a service operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. The use of Google Maps is governed by the Google Privacy Policy, which is available here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.

Additionally, it appears on an overview map showing the locations of all listings on MathHire in an embedded Google Maps widget.

5. Establishing a Selection Committee

When a listing is published, the listing administrator may invite other registered MathHire users (applicants or employers/hosts) to join the selection committee. The listing administrator may grant individual selection committee members the right to not just view but also evaluate applications (see D.5 and D.6).

For this purpose, MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data:

• e‑mail address;
• name;
• affiliation;
• permissions (view applications, evaluate applications).

The recipient obtains a unique combination of a URL and a PIN which grants access to the selection committee. Joining a selection committee is only possible for registered users. When registering an account, MathHire will collect, store and process the personal data listed in B.1. By sending an invitation, the listing administrator's name and e‑mail address are shared with the recipient.

To join, the invitee has to log in, browse to the URL and enter the PIN. MathHire will additionally and on a voluntary basis collect, store and process the following invitee's personal data:

• phone number;
• Skype name.

After confirming, the invitee is a member of the selection committee. Anytime a user joins the selection committee, an entry is created in the activity stream of the listing (see D.3), which is visible to the current and future selection committee members.

6. Unpublishing/Deletion of a Listing

The listing administrator may close the application for the job or event manually or choose to close the application automatically after the deadline has passed. If the listing administrator does not choose either of the two options, the application will be closed automatically and the listing will be unpublished after 120 days for listings in academia and after 60 days for listings in industry. The listing administrator is able to delete the listing from our web server at any time.

7. Reporting a Listing

All users - both unregistered and registered - may report a listing as spam, inappropriate or alike by clicking the report link within the listing. They need to supply a comment explaining why they want to report the listing.

MathHire will collect, store and process the personal data of the registered user as well as the information provided in the comment only for the purpose of reporting a listing.

D. Processing of Personal Data of Selection Committee Members

Selection committee members are registered users that accept the invitation of an employer/host to join the selection committee for an advertised job or event and to access and evaluate received applications.

1. Registration

In order to accept the invitation of an employer/host to join a selection committee, a user needs to be registered. If the user is not yet a registered applicant or employer/host, we recommend that he/she creates an employer/host account.

2. Acception of Invitation

When a registered user accepts an invitation to join a selection committee, the following personal data will be shared with all selection committee members and for this purpose be processed by MathHire:

• name;
• phone number;
• Skype name;
• affiliation of the selection committee member.

Selection committee members may access the following data of the listing which will be processed by MathHire:

• number of page views of this listing;
• activity stream (see D.3);
• shoutbox (see D.4);
• received applications including comments and ratings of other selection committee members.

Furthermore, every selection committee member is able to write private comments (private notes) concerning individual applications which will be processed by MathHire and which are only accessible for the respective selection committee member himself/herself.

3. Activity Stream

The activity stream lists recent events concerning the listing with the date and time they took place. Examples of such events are

• new applications,
• withdrawals of applications,
• new selection committee members,
• new comments on applications or in the shoutbox.

The data in the activity stream is only accessible by the current and future selection committee members of the listing.

4. Shoutbox

In the shoutbox, all selection committee members, regardless of their permissions, may post messages which might contain personal data and which will be processed by MathHire. The shoutbox is only accessible by the selection committee members of the listing.

5. Rating Applications

Every selection committee member with the appropriate permissions is able to rate applications. For each individual application the average of all ratings is calculated and presented to the selection committee members and for this purpose processed by MathHire.

6. Commenting on Applications

Selection committee members with the appropriate permissions (granted by the listing administrator) are able to comment on individual applications. These comments might contain personal data and may be edited and deleted. The comments are shared with all current and future selection committee members of the listing.

E. Processing of Personal Data of Referees

A referee is a (not necessarily registered) user who receives a ​managed reference request via e‑mail. The e‑mail contains a URL and a PIN. To upload a letter of recommendation, the referee visits the URL and enters the PIN.

MathHire will collect, store and process the following personal data

• the reference letter in PDF format,
• the referee's name and
• the referee's e‑mail address

for the purpose of uploading, storing and making available the reference letter to the members of the selection committee.

If the applicant has waived his/her right to examine the letter of recommendation, the document will never be accessible by the applicant.

F. Processing of Personal Data of Unregistered Users

Some data are generated whenever a user (registered or not) visits MathHire. We need to process these data to enable users to use MathHire.

1. Log Files

Our web server does generally not store information when users visit our website. Only if an error or other technical problem occurs, a log file with developer information is generated. A log file contains the source code which caused the problem, the time when the problem occurred, and the submitted data in case the issue followed the submission of an input form (e.g. the registration form, the job or event listing form, the reference request form).

2. Cookies

MathHire also uses cookies. Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded and stored on a user's computer.

Specifically, MathHire stores the following types of cookies:

• Session cookies, which are stored immediately when a user visits MathHire. These are necessary for a user to stay logged in when using the website. They contain a session ID through which the server can identify the user as being logged in or out, and they are deleted at the end of the browser session. These cookies are essential for the website to work.
• Usage agreement cookies, which are stored when a user dismisses the first-visit informational layover stating that MathHire uses cookies. They only contain a true/false value and are used to hide the layover upon future website visits. These cookies are essential for the website to work.
• Analytics cookies, which are stored only on MathHire.org servers to allow statistical evaluation of accesses to the website. The cookies contain a session, and data tracked on the analytics platform is anonymized, see Analytics for more information. These cookies are optional and can be opted out below.

The user can deactivate data collection for analytics via Piwik here:

If a user wants to disable the use of cookies, he/she can set his/her browser to reject and block any new cookies. However please note that if this is done, the user may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

G. Newsletter

If a user registers for a newsletter, MathHire uses the e‑mail address in order to send the newsletter. Users may object to all kinds of newsletters at any time free of charge, for example by using the respective link at the bottom of every newsletter.

H. Web Usage Analysis

For statistical reasons, MathHire uses Piwik, an open-source software for statistical analyses of user accesses to the website, which is installed on our own web server. The data MathHire collects via Piwik is never sent to other servers or to third parties. Before being stored on our web server, the collected data is anonymised. The data is used in anonymised form to improve the services of MathHire. IP addresses are stored in Piwik without the final tuple. Users can opt out in the Cookies section.

If the user's browser supports "do-not-track" technology and he/she has turned it on, his/her visit will be automatically ignored.

By using this web site, the user agrees that the data Piwik collects about him/her may be processed in the manner previously described and for the purpose previously stated.

I. Data Security

MathHire maintains administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal data users provide against accidental, unlawful or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use.

For this reason, MathHire uses a variety of methods, such as encryption (SSL, AES-256), antivirus software and manual security procedures, to help protect the accuracy and security of personal data. Please note we do not use encryption in our e‑mails. Furthermore, we recommend that users change the password from time to time.

The uploaded and generated PDF files are only stored encrypted on MathHire's web server. The encryption used is ​AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key length of ​256 bits in CRT mode​ (Counter mode).

In so far as data have been transferred to MathHire, we recommend that users create backup copies. MathHire reserves the right to change, extend, limit or withdraw its services at any time. Therefore, MathHire shall not be liable for any deleted data or loss of data.

J. Rights to Disclosure, Correction, Deletion or Blocking of Data

Users have the right to obtain confirmation and disclosure of personal data MathHire holds about him/her at any time. Requests may be made in text form by e‑mail to mail@mathhire.org or in writing to Daniel Lütgehetmann und Sebastian Meinert GbR, Lorettostr. 12, 40219 Düsseldorf, Germany.

Moreover, users have the right to have their personal data corrected, blocked or deleted if the statutory conditions for this are met, respectively. If we have stored any incorrect information about him/her, please let us know and we will correct it without undue delay. For corrections, please contact us at the postal or e‑mail address indicated above.

Personal data will be deleted if their collection or processing was unlawful from the outset, if their processing or use turns out to be unlawful due to circumstances that arise subsequently or if MathHire no longer needs to know such data to fulfil the purpose of their processing or use. Only data MathHire needs to complete any tasks that remain outstanding or to enforce our rights and claims, and data MathHire is required to retain by law will be excluded from deletion. However, such data will be blocked.

K. Contact for Questions

If you have any questions about our data protection procedures, please contact us by e‑mail at mail@mathhire.org.