December 2025
1.1. Graphcore is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.
1.2. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your application to work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor), in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
1.3. Graphcore is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
1.4. This notice applies to any prospective employees, workers and contractors. This notice does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services. We may update this notice at any time.
1.5. It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your information.
2. The information we hold about you
2.1. Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
2.2. There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. Please see section 2.4 below.
2.3. In connection with your application for work with us, we may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
2.3.1. Personal contact details such as name, title, address, telephone number, and personal email address.
2.3.2. Recruitment information (including interview notes and opinions taken during and following interviews and other information included in a CV or cover letter or as part of the application process).
2.3.3. Employment records (including job titles, work history, training records and professional memberships).
2.3.4. Results of any tests, typically coding or personality tests, included in the recruitment process.
2.4. We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:
2.4.1. Information about any reasonable adjustments required in relation to interview attendance.
3. How is your personal information collected?
3.1. We typically collect personal information through the application and recruitment process, either directly from you or sometimes from an employment agency. In addition, we may also collect information from any reference persons you have provided to us, for example former employers.
The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below:
4.1.1. Making a decision about your appointment with the company.
4.1.2. Determining the terms on which you work for us.
4.1.3. Checking you are legally entitled to work in locations where Graphcore operate.
4.1.4. Assessing qualifications for a particular role or task.
4.1.5. Dealing with legal disputes involving you.
4.1.6. Ascertaining your fitness to carry out the role.
4.1.7. Complying with health and safety obligations.
4.2. In terms of our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of third parties, these legitimate interests are to enable us to deal with and defend any dispute or legal proceedings.
4.3. We may also use your personal information where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests). For example, if you became seriously unwell or had an accident during the recruitment process, we may need to provide a hospital with personal information about you.
4.4. If you fail to provide information when requested which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we may not be able to process your application successfully.
4.5. We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we have collected it. Occasionally we may reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason compatible with the original purpose. For example, if we contact you about a different role (or career opportunity) than the one you originally applied for. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
4.6. There are limited circumstances where we will disclose your personal information without your knowledge. Any such disclosures will be made either where required by law or in line with data protection legislation (for example, in relation to police investigations).
6.1.4 HireRight (background & reference checks)
6.2. All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
6.3. We may share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.
7. Data security
7.1. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
7.2. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
8. Data retention
8.1. We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to complete the recruitment process. This will include retaining information so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way. For unsuccessful candidates, we will then securely destroy your personal information after - two (2) years. For successful candidates, your application and recruitment information will transfer across to your employee folder.
8.2. If we wish to retain your personal information on file, on the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to consider you for that, we will write or send an email to you separately, seeking your explicit consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.
8.3. If you are successful in being appointed to a role with us, our privacy notice for an employee will apply. A copy will be available on our Company intranet.
9. Rights of access, correction, erasure and restriction
9.1. It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during the recruitment process.
9.2. Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
9.2.1. Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
9.2.2. Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
9.2.3. Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
9.2.4. Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
9.2.5. Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
9.3. If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please send your request to [email protected]
9.4. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
9.5. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
10. Right to withdraw consent
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer or personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the People team. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.
11. Right to complain
You have the right to make a complaint at any time
• UK: Information Commission Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
12. Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.
