HOW WE USE YOUR DATA

Privacy and Data Protection Notice

Effective August 2026
Dublin, Ireland

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This notice explains how Quinn & Associates collects, uses, shares and protects personal data. It also explains how we use artificial intelligence in our recruitment work and the rights available to you.

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We aim to explain this in clear language. If you have any questions, please contact us using the details below.

 

Who we are

Quinn Executive Search Limited, trading as Quinn & Associates, is the controller of the personal data described in this notice.

Quinn Executive Search Limited is registered in Ireland under company number 758739. Our registered office is:

The Greenway
Ardilaun Court
112 to 114 St Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
D02 TD28
Ireland

Sandra Quinn, Founder, is our data protection contact.

Email: sandra.quinn@quinnandassociates.ie
Telephone: +353 1 265 4000

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Who this notice applies to

This notice applies to:

• Candidates and prospective candidates
• People who contact us about career opportunities
• Client contacts and prospective clients
• Referees and people providing professional recommendations
• Suppliers, advisers and business partners
• Visitors to our website
• Anyone whose personal data we process as part of an executive search or recruitment assignment

 

The personal data we collect

Depending on our relationship with you, we may collect:

• Your name, contact details and location
• Your CV, career history, qualifications and professional memberships
• Information about your skills, experience and career interests
• Current and previous employers, job titles and employment dates
• Salary, remuneration expectations, availability and notice period
• Information about your preferred location, flexibility and willingness to travel
• Right to work information where relevant to a role
• Notes from telephone calls, meetings, interviews and other conversations
• Assessment, interview and reference information
• Information supplied by clients, referees or professional contacts
• Publicly available professional information, including information from LinkedIn, company websites, professional bodies and other legitimate public sources
• Correspondence and records of our relationship with you
• Website enquiry information and ordinary technical information such as your IP address, device information and website activity
• Financial, contractual and invoicing information where you are a client, supplier or business partner

We only collect information that is reasonably relevant to our work and relationship with you.

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Special category information

We do not actively seek information about health, disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, trade union membership or other special category information unless it is necessary and lawful to process it.

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You may choose to share health or disability information with us where you require a reasonable accommodation during a recruitment process. Where we process special category information, we will do so only where an appropriate condition under data protection law applies. This may include explicit consent, meeting obligations or exercising rights under employment law, protecting legal rights, or establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.

We will limit access to this information and use it only for the relevant purpose.

 

Where we obtain your information

We normally obtain personal data directly from you. We may also receive it from:

• LinkedIn and other professional networking platforms
• Referrals and professional contacts
• Clients or prospective clients
• Previous employers and referees
• Public company and professional websites
• Professional bodies and publicly available registers
• Recruitment technology and research platforms used by our business

Where we obtain your personal data from another source, we will normally provide you with this notice when we first contact you, and no later than required by law.

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How we use your information

We may use personal data to:

• Identify and contact people who may be suitable for a role
• Assess a person’s experience against the requirements of a position
• Conduct executive search, market mapping and succession research
• Discuss career opportunities and provide career related advice
• Represent candidates accurately to clients
• Manage applications, interviews, assessments, references and offers
• Communicate with candidates, clients and professional contacts
• Maintain our candidate and client relationship records
• Provide retained search and recruitment services
• Respond to website enquiries
• Develop and manage client relationships
• Send relevant professional updates or information where permitted
• Operate, protect and improve our website, systems and services
• Manage contracts, invoices and business administration
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims
• Meet legal, regulatory, tax and professional obligations
• Protect candidates, clients and our business from fraud, misuse or security incidents

We will not use personal data for a new and incompatible purpose without providing further information and, where required, identifying an appropriate lawful basis.

 

Our lawful bases

We rely on different lawful bases depending on what we are doing.

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Legitimate interests

We may rely on our legitimate interests to:

• Identify and contact suitable candidates
• Conduct executive search and market research
• Assess professional experience against role requirements
• Maintain professional relationships with candidates and clients
• Develop our business and communicate with relevant professional contacts
• Protect our systems, business and legal rights

Our legitimate interests include operating an effective executive search business, helping clients identify suitable people and helping candidates consider relevant career opportunities.

Before relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are proportionate and whether they are outweighed by your rights and interests.

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Contract

We may process information where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, including contracts with clients, suppliers and business partners.

Legal obligation

We may process information where necessary to comply with legal, tax, accounting, regulatory or reporting obligations.

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Consent

We may ask for consent for a specific activity. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect processing that took place before it was withdrawn.

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Legal claims

We may retain or process information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

 

How we use artificial intelligence

We use approved software with artificial intelligence features to support parts of our work.

AI assisted tools may help us with:

• Research and candidate discovery
• Organising and searching information
• Comparing professional information with job related criteria
• Formatting CVs and documents
• Preparing first drafts
• Summarising CVs, meetings and notes
• Supporting administrative and workflow tasks

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Where AI assists with organising, comparing or summarising candidate information, it may consider job related information such as professional experience, qualifications, industry background, location, availability and remuneration expectations.

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These tools support our consultants. They do not make the final decision about whether a person is approached, assessed, shortlisted or presented to a client.

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A person reviews all material candidate decisions and can disregard, correct or override an AI assisted output. We do not subject candidates to decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

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We do not use AI to:

• Infer a person’s emotions from their face or voice
• Infer protected characteristics
• Make fully automated rejection decisions
• Replace professional judgement in candidate selection
• Present unchecked AI generated information as our own considered assessment

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Where personal data is processed through an AI assisted tool, we seek to use approved business services with appropriate privacy, contractual and security safeguards. We apply data minimisation and check material outputs for accuracy, relevance and potential bias.

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You may ask us:

• Whether AI has been used in relation to your information
• For an explanation of its role in the process
• To correct inaccurate information
• To speak directly with a person
• For human review of a decision or assessment involving AI assistance

Please contact Sandra Quinn using the details in section 1.

 

AI assisted meeting notes

We may occasionally use an AI assisted tool to help prepare accurate meeting notes.

Where such a tool will process meeting audio or a transcript, we will tell you before it is used. You may ask us not to use it, in which case we will take notes manually where reasonably possible.

Meeting information will be handled in accordance with this notice and the applicable provider arrangements, including appropriate controls over access, retention and deletion.

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Sharing candidate information with clients

As part of a recruitment assignment, we may share relevant candidate information with a client considering candidates for a position.

We will normally speak with you before sending an identifiable CV or presenting you formally for a particular role. We will share only information reasonably relevant to the process.

Clients who receive candidate information are responsible for handling that information in accordance with data protection law and their own privacy obligations.

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Other recipients of personal data

We may share personal data with:

• Current or prospective clients in connection with a search assignment
• Recruitment research and delivery partners working on our behalf
• Our customer relationship management and recruitment technology providers
• Approved AI assisted and business software providers
• Website, communications, email, scheduling and document service providers
• Professional advisers, including legal, accounting and insurance advisers
• Regulators, courts, law enforcement or public authorities where required
• A purchaser or adviser involved in a genuine business sale, investment or restructuring, subject to appropriate confidentiality arrangements

Service providers acting on our behalf are expected to process personal data only for agreed purposes and under appropriate confidentiality, security and data protection terms.

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International data transfers

Some of our clients, assignments and technology providers are located outside the European Economic Area.

Where personal data is transferred outside the EEA, we will use an appropriate transfer mechanism where required. This may include:

• A European Commission adequacy decision
• Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission
• Another lawful transfer mechanism
• Additional technical or organisational safeguards where appropriate

You may contact us for further information about the safeguards relevant to your information.

 

How long we retain information

We retain personal data only for as long as it is reasonably required for the purpose for which it was collected, and to meet any legal, tax, professional or contractual requirements.

We normally retain candidate information for up to two years after our last meaningful contact with you. We review candidate records periodically and may delete information sooner where it is no longer relevant.

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If we remain in active contact with you, or you ask us to continue considering you for future opportunities, we may retain updated information for a further period.

Client, supplier, contractual, financial and invoicing records may be retained for up to six years, or longer where required by law or in connection with a legal claim.

Website enquiries that do not develop into an ongoing relationship are normally retained for no longer than twelve months.

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Where a complaint, dispute, regulatory matter or legal claim arises, relevant information may be retained until the matter and any applicable limitation period have ended.

You may ask us to delete your information at any time. We will do so unless we have a lawful reason to retain some or all of it.

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Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Ask for access to your personal data
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Ask us to delete your information
• Ask us to restrict how we use your information
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Ask to receive certain information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
• Ask for human intervention where automated processing is involved
• Express your point of view and challenge a decision
• Make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions.

To exercise a right, contact Sandra Quinn using the details in section 1. We may need to confirm your identity before responding.

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Direct communications

We may contact candidates about roles or professional information that we reasonably believe may be relevant to them.

We may also contact existing or prospective client representatives about our executive search services where permitted by law.

You may ask us to stop sending nonessential communications at any time by replying to the communication or contacting us directly. We will retain enough information to respect your preference.

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Keeping information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or misuse.

These measures include access controls, business software settings, confidentiality requirements, staff awareness, secure systems and appropriate arrangements with service providers.

No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will assess it promptly and notify affected people and the Data Protection Commission where required.

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Equality in our work

We assess candidates on their experience, judgement, capability and suitability for the genuine requirements of a role.

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We do not discriminate on the grounds protected by the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015. We apply human judgement to candidate decisions and check our processes and tools for potential bias.

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We welcome requests for reasonable accommodation during a recruitment process.

Further information is available in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

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Cookies and website technology

Our website uses cookies and similar technology that are strictly necessary for it to operate.

It may also use optional analytics, scheduling, embedded content or other website technology. Optional cookies or tracking technology will be used only where you have chosen to allow them through the website’s cookie controls.

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You can change or withdraw your cookie choices at any time through the cookie settings available on the website. You can also control cookies through your browser settings.

Third party websites and services linked from our website have their own privacy and cookie practices. We are not responsible for those external practices.

 

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal data, please contact Sandra Quinn first. We would appreciate the opportunity to understand and address it.

You also have the right to complain to:

Data Protection Commission
6 Pembroke Row
Dublin 2
D02 X963
Ireland

Telephone: 01 765 0100 or 1800 437 737
Website: www.dataprotection.ie

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Changes to this notice

We review this notice at least once a year and whenever our practices, technology or legal obligations change materially.

The current version will be published on our website with its effective date.