PEOPLE PRIVACY STATEMENT

Last Updated Date: July 7, 2023

This People Privacy Statement applies to all employees, freelancers, contractors, and temporary workers residing in the State of California and engaged by a VICE Media Group owned and operated company.

 

This People Privacy Statement (the “Privacy Statement”) explains how the VICE Media Group together with its parents, affiliates, and/or subsidiaries (“VMG”, “we,” “our” or “us“) collects, uses, and discloses your personal information during and after your working relationship with us. To be clear, this Employee Privacy Policy only applies to current VMG employees and freelancers. If you are a prospective employee or job candidate please see our Candidate Privacy Statement.

 

OVERVIEW

Your personal information is collected by the VMG company that entered into an offer letter or employment contract, relationship or a contract for services with you (contact details for your appropriate VMG company are set out at Schedule 1 to this Privacy Statement). The purpose of this notice is to fully inform you about the ways in which we process your personal information.

 

This Privacy Statement is not an employment contract nor offer of employment, and nothing in this Privacy Statement should be construed as a promise of continued employment or employment for a defined period of time. This Privacy Statement may be updated by VMG at our discretion. We encourage you to revisit this Privacy Statement from time to time to stay apprised of any changes to our practices.

1. COLLECTION, USE, AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

(A) What categories of personal information do we collect about you?

“Personal information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household. Personal information does not include information that is considered publicly available, aggregated, or deidentified under applicable law. We collect the following categories of personal information:

  • Identifiers and contact information, such as a name, alias, postal address, phone numbers, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers. We collect identifiers directly from you.
  • Demographic information, such as your date of birth, gender, and pronouns. We collect demographic information directly from you.
  • Sensitive Personal Information, including social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number; financial account, debit card, or credit card number; racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership; contents of a consumer’s mail, email, and text messages. We collect sensitive personal information directly from you and from third parties such as benefits providers.
  • Internet or other similar network activity, such as browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application or advertisement. We collect internet or other similar network activity automatically.
  • Geolocation data, such as physical location or movements. We collect geolocation data directly from you or in some cases automatically. We do not collect precise geolocation information.
  • Professional or employment-related information, such as current or past job history or performance evaluations. We collect professional or employment-related information directly from you or from third parties such as previous employers.
  • Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)), such as education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records. We collect non-public education information directly from you, or from third parties such as LinkedIn or from background check providers where prohibited by law.
  • Inferences drawn from other personal information, such as a profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. We collect this information automatically, where we are permitted to do so by applicable law.

(B) What is the source of personal information we collect about you?

We collect personal information from you as described in this Privacy Statement or as may be notified to you by VMG from time to time. It may be mandatory for us to collect certain personal information about you. This will be the case where the law or a contract between you and the VMG company requires that your personal information is obtained. It will also be the case where collection of your personal information is necessary for the VMG company to enter into an offer or employment or contract with you.

As described in Section 1(A), we collect personal information directly from you in circumstances where you provide personal information. For instance, personal information that you provide to your local HR team, enter into the Employee Reporting Hotline, or enter directly into Workday or other human resources information system (“HRIS”). You may also provide us with personal information about others, notably your dependents and other family members. This tends to happen for HR administration and management reasons. For example, the information may be needed for the administration of benefits or because we need to contact your next-of-kin in an emergency situation that occurs while you’re working with VMG. Before you provide us with the personal information of others, please make sure that you have permission to share their personal information with VMG.

In some instances, the personal information we collect has been inferred about you based on other information you provide us, through your interactions with us, or from third parties. For example, we may gather: references from your previous employer(s); information from third parties acting on your behalf (e.g. recruitment/employment agencies or labor unions); medical reports from external professionals; information from tax authorities and benefits providers; details of your professional career from publicly available sources such as LinkedIn; and, the results of a background check (where permitted by applicable law).  When we collect your personal information from third parties, it is either because you have given us express permission to do so, your permission was implied by your actions, or because you provided explicit or implicit permission to the third party to provide the personal information to us.

(C) How long do we retain your personal information?

In general, we keep your personal information for as long as it is required bearing in mind the purpose(s) for which it was collected. We only keep your information for as long as is reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes set out in this Privacy Statement or as otherwise required by applicable law. What this means in practice will vary between different types of information, and when we consider our approach, we take into account any ongoing need for the information, as well as our legal obligations for example in relation to tax, health and safety, employment rights and potential or actual disputes or investigations. When determining the appropriate period to retain personal information after the employment relationship ends, we take into account how long retention of the personal information is required (e.g. the administration of retirement, disability or survivor’s benefits); our legal and regulatory obligations; the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal information; the purposes for processing such personal information and whether VMG can achieve those purposes through other means; and the establishment and defense of legal claims.

Thus, personal information relating to your employment will be kept for a period corresponding to your time at VMG (so long as we believe such information is accurate) and may be increased by any legal obligations to which VMG is bound (such as mandatory recordkeeping), as well as the limitation periods for all legal or administrative actions.

(D)  For what purposes do we collect your personal information?

We may collect and further process your personal information for various purposes subject to applicable state, federal, and local law. We’ve listed such purposes and the categories of personal information we collect below. Please note, however, that this is not an exhaustive list of the purposes for which we process personal information.

FOR RECRUITMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCES PURPOSES:

Recruitment, training, development, promotion, career and succession planning:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Education information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Inferences

Appropriate vetting for recruitment and team allocation including, where relevant and appropriate, right to work verification, criminal record checks (where permitted by law), relevant employment history, relevant professional qualifications:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Education information
  • Professional or employment-related information

Managing conduct, performance, capability, absence and grievance related reviews, allegations, complaints, investigations and processes and other informal and formal HR processes and making related management decisions:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Internet or similar activity
  • Education information
  • Professional or employment-related information

To support HR administration and management. This includes maintaining and processing general records necessary for the management of personnel and to operate the offer letter or employment contract or contract for services between you and the VMG company:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Geolocation Information
  • Internet or similar activity
  • Education information
  • Professional or employment-related information

Administration, consultations or negotiations with labor unions and their representatives:

  • Sensitive Personal Information

Processing information about absence or (where required or permitted by applicable law) medical information regarding physical or mental health or condition in order to: assess eligibility for incapacity or permanent  disability  related  remuneration  or  benefits;  determine  fitness for work; facilitate a return to work; make accommodations to duties or the workplace; administers leaves of absences; and make  management  decisions regarding employment or engagement (and the terms and conditions which will apply), or continued employment or engagement, or redeployment, and conduct-related processes:

  • Sensitive Personal Information

Complying with reference requests from potential employers where VMG is named as a referee:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Professional or employment-related information

To centralize HR administration and management processing operations in an efficient manner for the benefit of our personnel: 

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information

To provide support and maintenance for the HRIS:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information

 Conducting surveys for benchmarking and identifying improved ways of working, personnel relations and engagement at work. These will often be anonymous but may include profiling data such as age to support any analysis of the results:

  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Inferences

FOR FINANCE AND PAYROLL PURPOSES

Providing and administering remuneration, benefits and stock option plans, processing wage garnishments and making appropriate tax, social security deductions and contributions in accordance with applicable local laws:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information

FOR BUSINESS OPERATIONS PURPOSES 

Allocating and managing duties and responsibilities and the business activities to which they relate:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information

To develop, produce and exploit any digital or television content created by VMG that you may work on or appear in including both video and editorial content:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Professional or employment-related information

Communications between personnel, suppliers and clients who VMG works with: 

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Internet or similar activity

 For planning, managing and carrying out restructuring or redundancies or other change programs including appropriate consultation, selection, alternative employment searches and related management decisions:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Inferences

Operating email, IT, internet, social media, HR-related and other company policies and procedures. The company carries out monitoring of VMG IT systems to protect and maintain the systems; to ensure compliance with VMG policies and to locate information through searches where needed for a legitimate business purpose:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Internet or similar activity

Planning, due diligence and implementation in relation to a commercial transaction or service transfer that impacts your relationship with VMG. For example, mergers and acquisitions or a transfer of your employment under automatic transfer rules if applicable under local laws:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Geolocation Information
  • Inferences

For business operational and reporting documentation:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Geolocation Information
  • Inferences

To operate the relationships with customers and suppliers. This may include the disclosure to customers   of your contact details, curriculum vitae information, or photographic images. Disclosure of personal information to suppliers may also be necessary:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Education information

Where relevant for publishing appropriate internal or external communications or publicity material including via social media in appropriate circumstances:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information

To change access permissions to VMG operated workplaces and internal technology systems:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Internet or similar activity

FOR LEGAL AND OTHER PURPOSES 

Complying with applicable laws and regulation (for example, sick leave or parental leave legislation, working time and health and safety legislation, taxation rules, other employment laws and regulations to which VMG is subject):

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Geolocation Information
  • Inferences

Where required or permitted by applicable law, monitoring and review programs to ensure equality of opportunity, pay and diversity with regard to personal characteristics protected under local anti-discrimination laws and job descriptions, and implementing any changes required as a result of such programs:

  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Education information
  • Internet or similar activity

To enforce our legal rights and obligations, and for any purposes in connection with any legal claims made by, against or otherwise involving you:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information

To comply with lawful requests by public authorities (including without limitation to meet national security or law enforcement requirements), discovery requests, or where otherwise required or permitted by applicable laws, court orders, government regulations, or regulatory authorities (including without limitation matters relating to data protection, tax and employment), whether within or outside your country:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Geolocation Information

Together with any other related purposes permitted by applicable privacy and data protection legislation including legitimate interests pursued by VMG where this is not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of personnel:

  • Identifiers
  • Demographic Information
  • Sensitive Personal Information
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Geolocation Information

(E) When, and to whom, do we disclose your personal information?

(i) Within VMG companies

Your personal information is collected by the VMG company that entered into an offer letter or employment contract, relationship, or a contract for services with you. Your personal information may need to be processed by other VMG companies, for their own independent purposes. Additionally, your personal information may be disclosed to other VMG companies by virtue of your personal information being hosted on our secure servers. The following people and teams within VMG may be granted—on a need-to-know basis—access to your personal information:

  • local, regional and global HR managers and HR team members;
  • local, regional and executive management responsible for managing or making decisions in connection with your relationship with VMG, or when involved in an HR process concerning your relationship with VMG;
  • internal system administrators; and
  • where necessary for the performance of specific tasks or system maintenance, teams such as the Legal, Finance, IT Department and the Global HRIS support team.

Basic personal information, such as your name, location, job title, contact information, any published skills and experience profile, as well as any photo that you upload to the HRIS, may be accessible to all personnel for business purposes via the HRIS and local intranets.

(ii) With third-parties outside of VMG

We may disclose your personal information to organizations outside of VMG. We have disclosed employee personal information with the following categories of third parties in the past twelve months:

  • Service providers and other organizations that provide technology solutions and/or support for the benefit of VMG.
  • VMG’s professional advisers, as may be necessary from time to time, such as insurers, bankers, investors and business partners, IT administrators, lawyers, auditors, consultants, payroll providers, and administrators of VMG’s benefits programs.

VMG may disclose personal information outside of VMG companies or its service providers: (1) if it is required or authorized to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with the law or a legal process served on VMG; (2) to protect or defend the rights or property of VMG; (3) to protect the health, safety and well-being of VMG employees, contractors, applicants, former employees, visitors, or members of the public; and (4) in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction.

2. CHILDREN

We may collect data about children that are under 16 years old as necessary to provide and administer employment benefits and/or to otherwise comply with applicable laws.  We do not sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

3. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

By law, California residents have a number of rights with respect to their personal information. We’ve detailed these rights below.

The right to know and access

Subject to certain exceptions, and legal obligations, you have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information, at least over the past 12 months, including whether we sell or share such information. You also have the right to request access to personal information collected about you and information regarding the categories of personal information; the categories of sources of that information; the business or commercial purposes for which we collect, sell, or share it; the third parties to whom we sell, share, or disclose it; and the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.

This information is disclosed in the “Information Collected” Section of this Privacy Notice. You may also submit a request for this information as described below. To protect your personal information, we are required to verify your identify before we can act on your request. Please note that a large amount of information we hold about you is accessible via Workday (or the applicable HRIS program), and you’re encouraged to access this information via the HRIS yourselves before requesting access from your HR Business Partner.

The right to portability

You have the right to request that we provide a copy of the personal information we have collected about you, in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the data to another entity without hindrance. This right is subject to certain exceptions, and legal obligations imposed by state or federal privacy and employment laws. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will provide to you a copy of your data as required under the applicable data protection laws. We may provide this data to you via email to the email address you have provided with your request.

The right to delete

You have the right to request that we delete your personal information. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request to see if an exception allowing us to retain the information applies. This right is subject to certain exceptions, and legal obligations imposed by state or federal privacy and employment laws. We will delete or deidentify personal information not subject to one of these exceptions from our records and will direct our service providers to take similar action.

The right to correct inaccurate information

Subject to certain exceptions, and legal obligations imposed by state or federal privacy and employment laws, you have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we have collected about you. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing of the personal information to see if we can correct the data. We may also request additional information showing that the information you want to correct is inaccurate.

You can update most of the personal information that we hold about you by logging into Workday. Certain information can only be amended with the help of your local HR Business Partner, so please contact them if necessary.

Non-discrimination or Retaliation

We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising any of your data privacy rights.

(A) Submitting a request to exercise your privacy rights:

If you are a California resident and you have questions about our employee privacy practices or would like to exercise one or more of the rights listed above, please send your request to the following email address: employmentlegal@vice.com; call us at +1-888-269-1005; or write to us at the following mailing address:

Vice Media LLC

49 S. 2nd St.

Brooklyn, NY 11249

Attention: Legal Department

You must put the statement “Privacy Rights Request” in the subject field of your e-mail or include it in your writing if you choose to write to us at the designated mailing address. We’ll respond within 10 days from when we receive your request.

We usually act on requests and provide information free of charge, but may charge a reasonable fee to cover our administrative costs of providing the information for:

  • excessive/repeated requests, or
  • further copies of the same information.

In order to process your request to exercise your rights, we must first verify it using information necessary to complete your request. We will not collect additional personal information from you for the sole purpose of your exercising your rights under applicable data protection laws.

(B) Authorized Agent

 

You may authorize another individual, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. We may ask the individual to submit documentation or proof supporting their authority to represent you, and we may ask you to either verify your own identity or confirm that you provided the authorized individual to act on your behalf.

 

(C) Right to Opt Out of the Sale or Sharing of Personal Information to Third Parties

 

You have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information by VMG to third parties. Under California law, “sell” means to sell, rent, release, disclose, disseminate, make available, transfer, or otherwise communicate orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means your personal information to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration. “Share” means sell, rent, release, disclose, disseminate, make available, transfer, or otherwise communicate orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means your personal information to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising, whether or not for monetary or other valuable consideration. We do not sell or share your personal information, as those terms are defined under California law.

 

(D) Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information

 

California law considers the following pieces of personal information to be “sensitive” social security number, driver’s license number or other government-issued identification number, financial account number, any health insurance or medical identification number, an account password, security questions and answers, or unique biometric data. We collect this information to perform necessary functions such as administering benefits and payroll, performing other human resources functions, and complying with legal reporting obligations. You have the right to direct us to limit our use of your sensitive personal information to only those uses which are necessary for us to perform the services which are reasonably expected in this context or that are allowed by applicable laws.

4. SECURITY

We are committed to protecting the security of the personal information you share with us. In support of this commitment, we have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to help to protect your personal information against:

  • unauthorized or accidental destruction, alteration and/or disclosure;
  • theft and accidental loss, and/or unauthorized access;
  • misuse;
  • damage; and/or
  • any other form of unauthorized processing.

We cannot guarantee the security of your personal information as no security measures are perfect and there is always some risk of security incidents occurring. But we will use our best efforts to mitigate any damage caused as a result of a breach of these data security measures in accordance with all applicable data protection laws.

(A) What should you do if you believe there has been a breach of data protection principles?

It is the responsibility of everyone within the business to protect personal information and deploy reasonable industry standard measures to prevent data breaches from occurring. If you believe that this Privacy Statement or data protection laws have not been followed in respect of personal information about yourself or others, then you should raise the matter immediately with employmentlegal@vice.com. Any breach of applicable data protection laws or this notice will be taken seriously and may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment. 

(B) What are your obligations with respect to data protection?

As well as having certain rights over your personal information, you must also comply with applicable data protection laws when processing personal information. It may be that as part of your job, you process personal information about employees or about other individuals you work with or who are associated with our company, or are asked to disclose personal information by others. Even if you do not have direct involvement with personal information as part of your job, there may be times when you are asked by others to supply personal information. At all times you should be mindful of your obligations with regards to data protection. Any breach of applicable data protection laws or this notice may lead to disciplinary procedures, up to and including termination.

5. CONTACT US

If you have any questions about the way in which we process your personal information, please email employmentlegal@vice.com.

SCHEDULE 1:

Your VMG company contact details

Vice Media LLC

49 S. 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11249

Vice Holding Inc.

49 S. 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11249

Golden Heart Films LLC

49 S. 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11249

 

 

CANDIDATE PRIVACY STATEMENT