Snowflake's candidate privacy notice​​​​​​​

Effective Date: January 1, 2023
This Candidate Privacy Notice (“Notice”) describes how Snowflake Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries operating under the ‘Snowflake’ brand (“Snowflake”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) collect, use, transfer, share, disclose, or otherwise process personal information of individuals during the application and recruitment process. We use the word “you” or “your” to refer to anyone within the scope of this Notice. In brief, this Notice explains:
        1. key definitions;
        2. personal information we collect and process and third parties to whom it is disclosed;
        3. the purpose and legal basis for our collection and processing;
        4. where the personal information comes from;
        5. information specific to california candidates;
        6. your privacy rights;
        7. how long we retain your personal information;
        8. how do we secure your personal information;
        9. transfers of your personal information;
        10. changes to this notice;
        11. how to contact us;
1. Key Definitions
In this Notice, the following terms apply:
Personal information” is any information (including opinions and sensitive personal information), whether true or not, that identifies or could be used to identify a particular individual (whether directly, indirectly or in combination with other information), or is otherwise linked or reasonably linkable to a particular individual; and any other information defined as “personal data” or “personal information” or equivalent term under applicable data protection laws. Personal information does not, however, include anonymous or de-identified information that can no longer be used to identify a particular individual.
Sensitive personal information” is personal information subject to special protection under certain privacy laws, including EU privacy law, such as for example genetic or biometric data, or personal information that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health, sexual orientation, sex life or trade union membership.
Processing” means doing anything with the information, such as for example collecting, storing, transmitting, using, disclosing and deleting the information. 
​​​​​​​2. Categories of personal information and third parties to whom it is disclosed
General personal information we collect and process is described below, but the extent to which our collection of your personal information will involve most of the below, will depend how far you progress through our application and recruitment process.
Categories of personal information we collect
​​​​​​​2.1 Sensitive personal information
Some of the personal information that we collect is deemed sensitive in certain jurisdictions. For example, where allowed by law and reasonably necessary, we process sensitive personal information relating to your health, ethnicity, or gender, such as in connection with disability or accommodation requests or in connection with equality and diversity purposes. Where allowed by law and reasonably necessary, we also may conduct background and reference checks and collect information about any prior criminal offenses in order to assess suitability for certain of your job responsibilities.
3. Purposes and legal bases for our processing of your personal information
In this section, we describe the purposes for which we collect and process personal information about employees, and the legal basis of such processing pursuant to the EEA General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and other similar data protection laws. Where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent to the collection and processing of your personal information.
3.1 Legal bases for collecting and processing personal information under certain privacy laws
Certain laws, including the GDPR, UK Data Protection Act and other similar laws (referred to as “Relevant Laws” below) require that we inform you of the legal bases for our processing of your personal information. Pursuant to these Relevant Laws, we process personal information generally pursuant to the following legal bases:
  • Contract: the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or to take steps to enter into a contract with you including, for example, by processing your personal information to enter into an employment agreement;
  • Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject, including reviewing eligibility for work and avoiding unlawful discrimination; when we are required law to collect certain personal information about you, your failure to provide the data may prevent, or delay, the fulfillment of those legal obligations, and may impact our ability to employ you;
  • Legitimate Interest: in furtherance of our legitimate business interests balanced against your rights (where our interests are not overridden by your interests, fundamental rights or freedoms), including ensuring fair and efficient recruiting processes and improvements thereto and ensuring the security of our facilities and websites;
  • Consent: we have obtained your consent, in accordance with applicable legal requirements; for example if you are in the EEA or the UK, your consent must be informed, specific, and freely given, and we only rely on this legal basis under limited circumstances, where your participation in an activity is entirely voluntary, you are directing us to disclose or process your personal information in a specific way (e.g., to provide a reference or verify your employment to a third party at your request), or we are required under applicable law to obtain your consent. Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us as described in Section 6.
  • Other Legal Bases: Where permitted by applicable law, we may process your personal information to protect vital interests, or to exercise, establish or defend legal rights and claims.
3.2 Purposes for which we may process your personal information
We process your personal information for the purposes related to carrying out our application and recruitment practices, and where you are successful in your application, for entering into an employer-employee relationship with you.
The purposes for which we process your personal information are as set forth below.
  • To communicate with you regarding the application and recruitment process, as well as roles that may be of interest to you, including by email, phone/text, and via our applicant applications and systems
  • To respond to your inquiries or requests
  • To review and assess information related to your candidacy, including your suitability, skills, experience, qualifications, and interests
  • To verify your information, including via reference checks
  • If you are successful in your application,
    • To perform background screening, education screening, and reference checks, each as permitted by applicable law
    • To communicate with you, and to send you information or equipment, regarding your new hire and employee experience prior to your start date
    • To transfer your personal information to your employee file
  • If you are not successful with your application, Snowflake may retain your personal information for a reasonable period of time and may, as allowed by applicable law, reach out to you regarding future roles which we determine may match your experience and skills. If you do not wish for us to reach out to you for future roles, you may always opt out of such communication by emailing privacy@snowflake.com.
  • We may also process your personal information to
    • detect, prevent, and respond to fraud or other potentially illegal activities, including in connection with the use of our applicant applications and systems or our physical premises; 
    • secure, monitor, and protect our corporate assets, such as our networks, systems, devices, and physical premises;
    • operate, evaluate, and improve our applicant applications and systems, our application and recruitment process, including to analyze our candidate base, hiring practices or trends, to identify qualifications or skills shortages, and to match candidates and potential opportunities;
    • audit, test, maintain or troubleshoot our applicant applications and systems and our application and recruitment process;
    • comply with legal and regulatory obligations to which we are subject; and to
    • cooperate with law enforcement or regulators, where required.
As part of the application and recruitment process, we may link from our websites to certain thirdparty websites and applications, such as LinkedIn. In those circumstances, the data we collect, use and disclose via our websites will be subject to this Notice, including our Cookie Statement. However, your use of the third-party websites, applications and any information you instruct us to send to the third-party will be subject solely to the third-party’s terms and conditions and privacy notice, and will not be subject to any agreements you have with us or this Notice.
​​​​​​​4. Sources of your personal information
Generally, we collect employment-related information directly from you, such as personal or business contact information and most identity and verification information. We may also, to the extent permitted by law, receive information about you from third parties, for example your references, our personnel who interview you, recruitment agencies we work with, publicly available information from websites or social media, including information you provide us via such third party in connection with your application (e.g., when applying through LinkedIn), or third parties who help us to carry out background and reference checks, and help to assess suitability for employment. ​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​5. Information For California Candidates:
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”), effective as of January 1, 2023, requires businesses that collect personal information of California residents to make certain disclosures regarding how they collect, use, retain and disclose such information. This section facilitates those requirements.
The personal information we collect is described in Section 2. The purposes for which we collect the personal information are described in Section 3.2. The sources from which we collect that information are described in Section 4. We retain personal information as described in Section 7.
Snowflake does not sell or share personal information collected as part of our application and recruitment process, as we understand the terms sale and share to be defined by the CCPA and its implementing regulations. Snowflake does not have actual knowledge that it sells or shares the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age. Snowflake does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those permitted purposes under the CCPA.
California law gives California residents the right to make certain requests with regard to their personal information. Please see Section 6 for a description of those rights and how you may make a request.
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6. Your Privacy Rights:
You may have privacy rights regarding your personal information.
  • You may request a copy of your personal information or request to correct, update, or delete your personal information.
  • You may request that we disclose what personal information we collect, including the categories of personal information, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information.
  • Where required by law, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information, or request portability of your personal information.
  • If we collected and processed your personal information with your consent, where required by law, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
  • Where applicable, if you wish to submit a complaint to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information, you can find contact details for data protection authorities in the EEA available here, in the United Kingdom here, and in Switzerland here.
  • Californians also have the right to opt out of the sale of personal information or the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. They also have the right to limit the use or disclosure of sensitive personal information for purposes other than those permitted by the CCPA. As described above, we do not sell your personal information, or use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those permitted by the CCPA. You may opt-out of the sharing of personal information in the Cookie Settings.

You can submit a request online by filling out Snowflake’s Consumer Rights Request Form or by contacting us at 877-243-8061.

Snowflake will verify that the information you submit (which may include verification that your first name, last name, email address, company, and country/state) matches our records before we fulfill the request. You may use an authorized agent to submit a consumer rights request on your behalf using the methods above, however, Snowflake will require the authorized agent to provide signed permission to submit the request on your behalf and may still contact you to confirm your identity and that this request was submitted with your permission.
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Snowflake does not discriminate against you for exercising your rights or offer you financial incentives related to the use of your personal information. 
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​​​​​​​7. How long do we keep your personal data?
If you are successful in your application your data will be kept in your personnel file. If you are unsuccessful, we will either delete or anonymize your personal information when we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process to retain your personal information. Data such as CCTV images may be deleted after a shorter period. ​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​8. How do we secure your personal data?
We take all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information in an effort to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information which may include: physical access controls, encryption, internet firewalls, intrusion detection and network monitoring depending on the nature of the information and the scope of processing. Our staff who may have access to your personal information are required to keep that information confidential.
​​​​​​​9. Transfers of personal data
Our primary operations are within the United States, but we have offices around the globe. Therefore, your personal information will be processed in the countries where you have applied for a job, the United States, or other countries where members of our group are located. Where necessary, these transfers are covered by an intra-group transfer agreement ensuring appropriate and suitable safeguards with our group members. If you wish to see details of these safeguards, please contact us at privacy@snowflake.com​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​10. Changes to this Notice
We may change this Notice from time to time. If we make any changes to this Notice, we will change the “Last Updated” date above. If such changes are material in nature, we will provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to the main website page or sending you an email notification).
​​​​​​​11. How to Contact us
In processing your personal information, we, and in some cases our group companies, may act as a data controller. If you have any questions about this Notice or privacy-related issues, please contact us at privacy@snowflake.com or Snowflake Inc., Suite 3A, 106 East Babcock Street, Bozeman, Montana 59715. For inquiries related to our activities in the EEA, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you may contact Snowflake’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) at dpo@snowflake.com and where related to activities within the EU, Snowflake’s representative to the EU at privacy@snowflake.com or Snowflake Computing Netherlands B.V., FOZ Building, Gustav Mahlerlaan 300-314, 1082 ME Amsterdam, Netherlands. If you are in India and have any questions/complaint relating to the content on our website or our data privacy policy, please contact Snowflake’s Grievance Officer, Craig Hawkins, at privacy@snowflake.com or Snowflake Inc., Suite 3A, 106 East Babcock Street, Bozeman, Montana 59715.

Manage Personal Information


You can submit a request online by filling out Snowflake’s Consumer Rights Request Form or by contacting us at 877-243-8061.

Snowflake will verify that the information you submit (which may include verification that your first name, last name, email address, company, and country/state) matches our records before we fulfill the request. You may use an authorized agent to submit a consumer rights request on your behalf using the methods above, however, Snowflake will require the authorized agent to provide signed permission to submit the request on your behalf and may still contact you to confirm your identity and that this request was submitted with your permission.

Snowflake does not discriminate against you for exercising your rights or offer you financial incentives related to the use of your personal information.