California Water Service Group Job Applicant Privacy Policy

Last Updated: January 01, 2023

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”), California Water Service Group and its affiliates (“Cal Water” or the “Company”) are required to advise California residents who are our job applicants or prospective talent (together “job applicants”) about the categories of personal information we collect about you and the purposes for which we will use this information, and about your related rights with respect to your personal information. This privacy notice describes how we treat the information we receive with respect to your application and candidacy, including how we collect, use, and disclose your information, and the rights you have with respect to that information.

  1. Categories of Personal Information that California Water Service Group Collects

California Water Service Group collects information in connection with your application and candidacy. Certain of the information we collect may be “Personal Information,” by which we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a natural person, household, or device, such as a real name, postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. Other information that is directly associated with Personal Information may also be considered Personal Information. Information that is aggregated, de-identified, or anonymized is not considered Personal Information. Publicly available information that is made available from federal, state, or local government records, also is not Personal Information.

The Personal Information we collect may be provided by you directly, or we may obtain Personal Information about you automatically, or from third parties such as your references, prior employers, publicly available information, and places of education.

Personal Information can include:

  • Personal and online identifiers (such as first and last name, email address, phone number, unique online identifiers, physical characteristics or description, social security number, driver’s license or state identification number, address, veteran status, date of birth, insurance policy number, bank account number, race or ethnic origin, or gender);
  • Professional or employment-related information collected from the recruitment and hiring processes (such as interview information, CV or resume, cover letters, references, reference letters, letters of offer and acceptance, hire, start date, skills, work experience, language abilities and education information);
  • Residency, citizenship, or work permit status, visa number, military status, nationality, and passport information;
  • Physical limitations and special accommodations needed;
  • Where permitted by law and as applicable, the results of (i) criminal background checks; (ii) drug testing; (iii) a general background search on highest level of education obtained and employment history; (iv) SSN tracing; (v) a national sex offender registry search; and (vi) a driving record search;
  • Information required for us to comply with laws, including at the direction of law enforcement authorities or court orders;
  • Voicemails, e-mails, correspondence, documents, and other work product and communications created for, stored at, or transmitted to the Company; and
  • Other Personal Information about you that is linked to the Personal Information above.

Certain of the Personal Information we collect also falls under the sub-category of “Sensitive Personal Information,” as defined by certain laws. This information includes information such as your SSN, and racial and/or ethnic information. We only collect and use Sensitive Personal Information as necessary to fulfill business purposes related to your employment, and do not use such information to infer characteristics about you.

We do not collect biometric information at this time.

  1. How We Use Your Personal Information

We use and disclose the personal information we collect for our business purposes. These business purposes include, without limitation:

  • Processing, evaluating, and communicating with you about your application, including to check references or your background, and communicate with you about other jobs that may interest you;
  • Aiding the Company’s efforts towards meeting our diversity and inclusivity initiatives;
  • Other business purposes, which include:
    • Auditing related to our interactions with you;
    • Comply with legal obligations, including detecting and protecting against security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity;
    • Debugging;
    • Performing services (for us or our service provider) such as account servicing, processing orders, and payments, and analytics;
    • Internal research and analytics for technological improvement and security purposes, trends, and other aggregated and anonymized analytics research; and
    • Activities to maintain and improve our business operations
  • Verify your eligibility to work in the United States;
  • Complying with government-required reporting, such as creating our Affirmative Action Plan (“AAP”);
  1. Categories of Third Parties We May Share Personal Information With

California Water Service Group does not sell or share your Personal Information to third parties, and will not sell or share your Personal Information to third parties without your explicit consent. We may, at times, disclose Personal Information we collect to the following categories of third parties, for the purposes identified above, or with your consent:

  • Our group of companies, affiliates, and related entities in accordance with this privacy notice;
  • With third parties to manage aspects of your relationship with us and to effectuate the uses of Personal Information described in the “How We Use Job Applicants’ Personal Information” section above, including third party service providers who access Personal Information about you to perform services on our behalf, such as provide us with results of background checks and drug testing, and compile our AAP;
  • With other persons with whom you have requested that we share Personal Information, in order to fulfill services you request; and
  • If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary (a) to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; (b) to enforce our policies, (c) to protect our rights or property, or the security or integrity of our services, or (d) to protect us, users of our services or the public from harm or potentially prohibited or illegal activities.

When sharing Personal Information with third parties, we expect that they only use or disclose your Personal Information as necessary for the purpose and uses described.

  1. Retention

Unless otherwise stated above, we retain Personal Information and other information you provide or otherwise make available to us, to fulfill the purposes described above.

We use the following criteria to determine how long to retain Personal Information:

  • Our relationship with you, and the products and services we provide to you;
  • Your requests to us regarding your information, or our products or services;
  • Any legal obligations to retain the data, or for our own legal purposes (such as enforcing our agreements or litigation);
  • Recommendations and legal requirements in applicable labor and employment; and
  • Technical considerations and feasibility, and level of protections in place for your Personal Information.
  1. Security

We take reasonable precautions, including physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards, to protect your Personal Information. We make reasonable efforts to maintain security on our systems. Despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee that Personal Information will not be accessed, disclosed, or altered by breach of our safeguards. You should also take adequate precautions to protect your Personal Information.

  1. Your California Privacy Rights

Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 sections 1798.100 et seq. ("CCPA") and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”), California residents have certain additional rights in relation to their Personal Information, subject to certain exceptions. For example, you may have may the right—subject to exceptions and other applicable law—to:

  1. Transparency. Businesses that collect Personal Information subject to the above listed laws have a responsibility to provide you with notice regarding the categories of Personal Information to be collected, the purposes for which the categories of Personal Information are collected or used, whether that information is sold or shared, and the length of time we intend to retain each category of Personal Information, or if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period, among other information.
  2. Access the categories and specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected, the business purpose for collecting the Personal Information, and the categories of third parties with whom California Water Service Group shares Personal Information.
  3. Correct inaccurate or obsolete Personal Information that the Company may maintain.
  4. Delete the Personal Information under certain circumstances.
  5. Opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information. Although these are rights in California, i.e., to opt out of the transfer of personal information to third parties for valuable consideration or cross-context behavioral advertising purposes, California Water Service Group does not sell or share your personal information.

California Water Service Group does not discriminate against our users on the basis of their exercising any of their rights afforded by the CCPA and CPRA, which is further in accordance with California residents’ rights under the law.

To request access to your Personal Information, or correct or delete your Personal Information, you may contact us through any of the following methods:

Please specify in your request what Personal Information you would like to access, correct or delete.

We will first acknowledge receipt of your request within 10 business days after receipt of your request. We will provide a substantive response to your request within 45 calendar days after its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days or the permitted timeframe), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

Only you or an authorized agent (as described below) may make a verifiable consumer request related to your Personal Information.

How to Authorize an Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to submit your verified consumer request on your behalf, only if the authorized agent has your written permission to do so and you have taken steps to verify your identity directly with us.

How We Verify Your Request. To respond to your request we must verify your identity or the authority of your authorized agent. We will only use the Personal Information provided in that context to verify your identity or the authority of your authorized agent to make the request. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. To allow us to verify your request, we will require that you provide at least two pieces of Personal Information, including your email address and phone number, we already have in our possession. We will verify your consumer request by comparing the information you provide to information already in our possession, and take additional steps to minimize the risk of fraud.

  1. Changes to This Privacy Notice

We may update this privacy notice periodically to account for changes in our collection and use of your Personal Information, or due to updates in applicable law. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Statement, we will provide you with notice of such changes, as appropriate. For administrative changes, we may provide indication in our privacy notice by updating the “Last Updated” date at the top of this document.

  1. Other Interactions with California Water Service Group

We may collect information about you that is unrelated to your application to the Company, if you are a business customer of California Water Service Group or if you interact with one of our customers. More information about our privacy practices can be found in our Privacy Policy.

  1. Contact

For questions or concerns about this policy or California Water Service Group’s practices, please contact Tammy Nguyen, Director of Talent Acquisition, either by telephone (408-367-8372) or email at tnguyen@calwater.com.