Privacy Policy

VSAP privacy notice

VSAP, the Skills Passport and the free Skills Check

Last updated: 1 November 2026. This notice is about people who use the free Skills Check or who sign up for their own Skills Passport on vsap.validateskills.com. If you use VSAP through your employer, your employer decides how your assessment data is used and this notice does not replace theirs; ask them, or us, if you are not sure.

The short version

• We are Assess Management Ltd, trading as ValidateSkills. We decide why and how your data is used, so we are the "controller" of it.
• The free Skills Check reads your CV once to suggest skills. We do not keep your CV.
• A Skills Passport holds what you put in it: your skills, scores, evidence and so on. It is yours. You choose who sees it.
• AI helps with some features. It only suggests. It never changes your scores, and nobody is decided about by a machine alone.
• We only send you marketing if you tick the box. You can change your mind at any time.
• You can ask to see, correct or delete your data by emailing enquiries@validateskills.com.

Who we are

Assess Management Ltd, trading as ValidateSkills, Bedford, England, UK, company number 5659441. Our contact for anything about your data is enquiries@validateskills.com. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, number ZA892315.

What we collect and why

We only collect what each part of the service needs.

We do not ask for, and you should not put in your Passport, special category information such as health, ethnicity or religion. If you add it yourself, we will only treat it as part of your Passport.

How AI is used

Some features use an AI service to read text and make suggestions: the CV and job description scan, the Skills Check and the Skill Inspector. The text you give to those features is sent to the AI service, which is Anthropic. We send only what the feature needs: for example the CV text, or a skill's wording together with your own note about it. We do not add your name, your employer or your job title to what we send; if your CV or your notes contain them, they will be in the text the AI service reads.

We use Anthropic PBC (based in the United States) to power the AI features that suggest skills from a CV and help with notes about a skill. Anthropic acts as our processor under its Commercial Terms and Data Processing Addendum. Under those terms, Anthropic may not train its AI models on the content we send it. Anthropic deletes what we send through its service automatically within 30 days, unless it has to keep it longer, for example to enforce its Usage Policy or because the law requires it.

The AI only suggests. It never changes a score, and you decide what to keep. No decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you is made by a computer alone.

Who sees your data

• You. Always.
• People you choose. If you share your Passport with a recruiter, a reviewer or a verifier, they see what you share. You can stop sharing.
• Companies that help us run the service (our "processors"). They only act on our instructions. Today they are: Supabase our database and sign-in UK Europe; Amazon Web Services Uk Europe and sending email UK; Stripe (payments); Cloudflare (a check that you are not a robot); an AI provider, Anthropic (United States); and Adzuna, which receives the job search words and location when you use Job Search.
• Others only where the law requires it, or if we sell or reorganise the business, in which case your data stays protected by this notice.

We do NOT sell your data.

Data going outside the UK

We are based in the UK, data is process here. Where that happens, we rely on the UK's adequacy decisions, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or other approved safeguards, as applicable; confirm for each provider.

What we keep on your device

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. We store only what the service needs to work:

• Your sign-in, so you stay signed in.
• A random code (no name, no email) that lets the free Skills Check count one free check a week for each browser.
• The skills from your latest free Skills Check, for 14 days, so they are waiting for you if you build a Passport. No CV text is kept. You can clear it any time by clearing your browser data, or by choosing Not now.
• Your choices on screen, such as a tab you last used.

How long we keep things

Your rights

You can ask us, free of charge, to:

• show you the data we hold about you, and give you a copy;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete your data (some records, such as payments, we must keep for financial regulation);
• limit or stop how we use your data, including for marketing;
• give you your data in a form you can move to someone else;
• stop sending you marketing: untick Emails from VSAP in Your account, use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or email us.

Email enquiries@validateskills.com. We will usually reply within one month. We may need to check it is really you.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Children

The Skills Passport is for adults. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you think a child has signed up, email us and we will remove the account.

Keeping your data safe

Your password is kept in scrambled form. Sign-in needs a code emailed to you. Data travels encrypted. Access inside our business is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and if something goes wrong that puts your data at risk we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.

Changes to this notice

If we change how we use your data we will update this page and, if the change matters to you, email you. The date at the top shows when it last changed.