Privacy Policy

Last updated 19 October 2026

This policy explains what personal information CAO Partners Pty Ltd (ABN 34 681 413 687) collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and how you can access, correct or delete it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

We are a recruitment firm. That means we hold information about two groups of people: candidates looking for roles, and client contacts at businesses hiring through us. Some sections below apply to only one group, and say so.

1. What we collect

Information you give us

• Contact details — name, email address, phone number, and the business you work for.
• Candidate information — your CV and any supporting documents you send us, work history, skills, qualifications, and the roles and salary you are looking for.
• Client information — what you are hiring for, position descriptions and related documents you send us, and details about your business such as size and industry.
• Anything you tell us in a form, an email, a call or a meeting.

Interviews and calls

We record and transcribe video interviews and some phone calls. We use those recordings and transcripts to assess candidates, to brief clients, and to review and improve how our own consultants perform. We tell you before a call is recorded and you can decline. If you would rather not be recorded, tell the consultant and we will take notes instead.

Information collected automatically

• Usage data — pages viewed, referring page, approximate location derived from your IP address, browser and device type.
• Cookies and similar identifiers, including advertising cookies, described in section 4.

Information from other sources

For business development we obtain professional contact details — name, job title, business email, business phone and employer — from third-party business data providers and from publicly available professional sources. This is business contact information, not personal or home contact information. If we contact you this way, every message tells you how to opt out, and section 5 explains how.

For candidates, we may also verify information you have given us with referees you nominate. We contact referees only with your consent.

2. Why we collect it, and the lawful basis

We use personal information to:

• Match candidates to roles and present shortlists to clients.
• Arrange and conduct interviews, and communicate about a role or a search.
• Provide our recruitment services and administer our agreements, including invoicing.
• Send you marketing about our services, where we are permitted to do so.
• Measure and improve our website, our advertising and our own service quality.
• Meet our legal and record-keeping obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not disclose it for any purpose unrelated to the ones above without telling you.

Automated processing

We use automated tools, including artificial intelligence, to help summarise interview transcripts and to rank how well a candidate's experience fits a role. These tools inform our consultants; they do not make hiring decisions. A person reviews every shortlist before it reaches a client, and no candidate is rejected by software alone. You can ask us how an assessment about you was reached, and you can ask us to review it.

3. Who we share it with

• Clients — if you are a candidate, we share your profile, CV and interview summary with a prospective employer. We ask first, for each specific role, and we do not send your details to a client you have not agreed to.
• Service providers that run our systems on our behalf, under contract and only for the purposes above. These include our website host, our database and hosting providers, our email and calendar provider, our video conferencing and transcription tools, our telephony provider, our AI processing providers, and our accounting system.
• Advertising and analytics platforms, as described in section 4.
• Professional advisers, or a regulator or law enforcement body where we are required or authorised by law.
• An acquirer, if our business or part of it is ever sold or merged. Any acquirer would be bound by this policy.

Overseas disclosure

Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States and the European Union. Where we disclose personal information overseas we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

4. Cookies, pixels and advertising

Our website uses cookies and tracking pixels, including from Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok and Google. These are used to measure whether our advertising works and to show our ads to relevant audiences.

When you submit a form or request a report, we also send a record of that event to those platforms directly from our servers, so the measurement works even where a browser blocks the pixel. That record includes a hashed, non-reversible version of your email address and phone number, along with the identifiers those platforms have already set in your browser. We do not send them your CV, your interview transcript, or the content of what you told us.

We also use Microsoft Clarity to see how visitors use our pages, through heatmaps and recordings of clicks, scrolling and mouse movement. Clarity hides the text on our pages and everything you type into a form or the chat before it records anything, so a recording never shows your name, email, phone number or messages. Clarity sets its own cookies and stores this data with Microsoft, which may process it outside Australia. The Microsoft Privacy Statement explains how Microsoft handles it.

5. Marketing and how to unsubscribe

We send commercial electronic messages consistent with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Every marketing email we send identifies us and contains a working unsubscribe link. You can also reply to any message with the word unsubscribe, or email us at the address below, and we will remove you.

Unsubscribing is honoured across our systems, not just the message you received, and we action it promptly. You will still receive messages we need to send you about a role you are actively in, an interview you have booked, or an agreement between us — these are not marketing and are not covered by an unsubscribe.

6. How long we keep it

• Candidate records — kept for as long as we may reasonably be able to match you to a role. We are a specialist search firm and the right role for someone can appear years after we first meet them, so we do not put a fixed expiry on this. We review our candidate records periodically and remove those we no longer have a genuine use for. You can ask us to delete yours at any time, and we will.
• Interview recordings and transcripts — up to 2 years. These are kept for a shorter period than the record itself: the summary is what remains useful over time, and the raw recording is the most sensitive thing we hold.
• Client and business records, including invoices — 7 years, as required by Australian tax and corporations law.
• Unsubscribe and opt-out records — kept indefinitely, because that is the only way we can be sure not to contact you again.

7. Security

Personal information is held in access-controlled systems, encrypted in transit and at rest, and reachable only by staff who need it for their role. Documents such as CVs and signed agreements are stored in private storage that is not publicly addressable. No system is perfectly secure, but if a data breach ever occurred that was likely to cause you serious harm, we would notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

8. Your rights

You can ask us at any time to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct anything inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete your information, except where we are required by law to keep it.
• Stop marketing to you.
• Withdraw consent you previously gave, including consent to be put forward for a role.

Email us at info@caopartners.com.au. We will verify who you are, then respond within 30 days. There is no charge for a reasonable request.

9. Children

Our services are for working professionals. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. If the change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly.

11. Contact us, and how to complain

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your privacy enquiry or complaint, you can refer it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.