Data and cyber

Data and cyber

When customers provide their information, they trust SEEK to protect their privacy and to use their data ethically to help them find the best job opportunities. SEEK invests heavily in cybersecurity, data governance, and responsible AI to maximise benefits of technology for all.  

Data trust and AI 

Responsible use of data and artificial intelligence (AI) is central to SEEK’s approach and ensures that data and AI services are not only useful, but also meet community expectations in relation to privacy, ethical considerations and personal control over data.

Candidates create their SEEK Profile by submitting their employment history, contact details, and other personal information directly on SEEK’s platform. They can edit their profile or delete their account at any time. Additionally, candidates can manage how much of their SEEK Profile is visible to hirers, including indicating their openness to be approached with job opportunities.

Responsible AI 

SEEK understands that recruitment is a human-centred process that can be strengthened by the responsible use of AI. Leveraging data and AI technology can improve outcomes for candidates and hirers and reduce cost and effort. Data is analysed to gain insights into how candidates and hirers use the products and services on SEEK’s employment platforms. SEEK uses AI and Machine Learning to deliver more effective and personalised matching of candidates and hirers, fairer advertising prices for hirers, and improved marketplace transparency and efficiency through predictions and insights.

In developing these capabilities, SEEK focuses on user trust and takes a responsible, risk-based approach. SEEK’s AI governance ensures that all AI services undergo thorough assessments before being widely implemented to prevent potential risks. SEEK also has regular review points to continuously improve its AI services, especially when data or algorithms change, to oversee and mitigate undesired behaviours. SEEK invests continuously in empowering its workforce to use AI responsibly and confidently.

SEEK’s Responsible AI Framework is guided by six principles that drive its AI-driven innovation. These principles are based on international standards and align with the Australian Government’s AI Ethics Framework and the OECD AI Principles. These principles are tailored to reflect SEEK’s mission and fit SEEK’s unique operating environment. SEEK’s workforce from C-level executives to AI developers use these principles to make accountable decisions related to AI.

SEEK completes annual responsible AI reviews of its high priority services. AI services are deemed to be high priority based on their overall risk assessment against the framework and any critical changes introduced since their previous assessment. These reviews provide an updated assessment of risks for each service and identify appropriate preventions and mitigations to ensure compliance with SEEK's Responsible AI Principles.

SEEK’s Responsible AI Framework

Responsible AI Principles

Details

Beneficial

Deliver significant net value to both hirers and candidates

Fair

Do not add or entrench unfair bias and minimise the use of potential bias signals

Transparent

Provide users with reasonable awareness of the overall purpose and scope of AI services

Defendable

Meet and exceed social expectations of how AI systems are designed, built and deployed

Reliable

Consistently maintain AI services to uphold standards of delivery

Compliant

Comply with all regulations, SEEK’s values and security guidelines

SEEK's use of GenAI-powered technology: The candidate standout services are an example of SEEK’s use of GenAI-powered technology. By leveraging large language models (LLMs), SEEK offers services that analyse job descriptions and candidate profiles, highlighting the most relevant skills for a job application. The AI service extracts and matches qualifications, skills, and experience to job requirements, helping candidates stand out and hirers make well-informed decisions in the hiring process. Candidates are informed when they are a strong fit for a role and what skills are the most valuable. Hirers can more easily identify the most qualified candidates. Data shared with SEEK by both candidates and hirers and processed by the AI is used exclusively to find better job matches while adhering to the SEEK’s security, privacy and responsible AI standards.
SEEK's AI recommendations services: In addition to actively searching for jobs on the SEEK platform, candidates often want to be notified about relevant opportunities as they become available, whether they are currently active on SEEK or not. SEEK’s AI-powered recommendation services leverage sophisticated models to deliver optimal job matches in real time on the website and via email and mobile phone notifications (if users chose to opt into these services). These models leverage relevant information from resumes and profiles that candidates choose to share with SEEK for the purpose of providing better job matches, combined with their activity on SEEK, to recommend highly relevant job opportunities. As users engage with more job listings on SEEK, the algorithms adapt to better align with their evolving preferences and goals. The data they share with SEEK is used solely for the purpose of discovering better job matches for them.

SEEK Pass

SEEK Pass (formerly Certsy) is a core product that underpins the role of trusted and verified credential data in its employment marketplaces. SEEK Pass offers candidates a way to verify and share work credentials and to complete compliance checks. It is a secure and free way for candidates to demonstrate they hold the credentials to meet relevant job requirements. Candidates securely upload evidence for verification and then share only the verified result – not their sensitive documents – with hirers on SEEK’s Australian and New Zealand employment platforms. Verified results can be easily re-used by the individual in multiple job applications.

For more information refer to the SEEK Pass page.

Data privacy 

SEEK is committed to being transparent about how candidate information is collected, used and managed and to being complying with all relevant privacy legislation.

SEEK’s platform has a Privacy Statement explaining how personal information is collected and used. The Privacy Statement can be found on the Security and Privacy Hub page. This page also contains links to other pages that help candidates take steps to protect themselves online and to a plain language summary of SEEK’s approach to the protection of candidates’ personal information.

SEEK collects information about how candidates interact with its employment platform. When SEEK collects information on usage of its sites in order to improve platform performance or make business decisions, the data is aggregated and anonymised. SEEK does not share personal information with third parties, other than as disclosed in its relevant Privacy Statements or as permitted by law.

Cybersecurity 

Cybersecurity threats and failures are testing the world’s digital systems, and businesses continue to face threats by cyber criminals. SEEK expects cyberattacks and prepares accordingly.

  • Proactive approaches: SEEK acknowledges that every organisation can be vulnerable to a cyber breach, and the Security team continually reviews and updates its security controls to help limit a security breach. In addition to an assumed breach approach, SEEK also has a proactive threat detection approach to identify malicious activity and key threats.

  • Security intelligence: SEEK’s security intelligence capability supports the Cybersecurity Strategy and involves identifying and assessing the capabilities, motivations and tactics of threat actors that are likely to target SEEK. This intelligence is then used to drive proactive mitigation and defence against cyberattacks.

SEEK augments internal capabilities with an externally managed Security Operations Centre. This provides an additional layer of defence for 24/7 security alert monitoring and response. This service includes regular threat hunting to proactively search for any signs that would require further investigation.

Bug bounty program: The security researcher community is encouraged to legally attack and report security vulnerabilities in SEEK’s systems and products through the public Bug Bounty program. This allows public researchers to test for security weaknesses that might lead to compromises of customer data and be rewarded based on the severity of issues found. For more information refer to the Bug Bounty program website.

Contact us

Connect with our media team or investor relations team.