Applicant Privacy Notice

Applicant Privacy Notice
Introduction

Auto-Owners Insurance Group℠ and its subsidiaries, Auto-Owners Insurance Company, Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company, Home-Owners Insurance Company, Owners Insurance Company, Property-Owners Insurance Company, and Southern-Owners Insurance Company (collectively, “Auto-Owners”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collect, use, and disclose your personal information in relation to processing your application for employment at Auto-Owners.

Please review this Notice carefully to understand our views, practices and treatment regarding your personal information. We respect the privacy rights of individuals and are committed to handling personal information responsibly and in accordance with all applicable laws. This Notice is designed to help you understand the categories of information about you that we collect and the purposes for which those categories of information will be used. It also seeks to identify the third parties to whom Auto-Owners discloses your personal information.

You are not required to provide any information to Auto-Owners, but failing to do so may result in our not being able to process your application properly, or at all. If you have any questions regarding our collection or processing of your information, or have any comments or questions about this Notice, please contact us using the details found below. If you are California resident, please see the additional details surrounding the personal information we collect and the rights afforded to California residents, please see Your California Privacy Rights section below.

If you are applying for a position at Auto-Owners from outside of the United States, please note that your information is being transferred to, stored or processed in the United States, where our data center and servers are located and operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in your country of residence. By providing us with your personal information, you understand and consent that your information will be transferred to our data center and servers in the United States and may be shared with third parties in accordance with this Notice.

What personal information do we collect about you?

When you apply for a position at Auto-Owners, we will collect and process personal information about you necessary for the recruiting and hiring process. Auto-Owners collects and records your personal data from a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you. You may provide this information directly to our personnel, through your resumé or other identification documentation, by your participation in human resource (“HR”) processes, through e-mails you send to us, or through verbal communication that may be recorded electronically or manually, or from interviews with Auto-Owners personnel. Auto-Owners also obtains some personal information about you from third parties, such as from references, former employers criminal and driving records.

 The types of personal information we may collect and process about you include, but are not limited to:

  • Identity Information, including but not limited to first name and last name, Social Security Number, driver’s license number, home address, phone number, email address and contact information.
  • Demographic Information, including but not limited to education, employment/professional information, employment history, titles and names of previous employers, skills and responsibilities related to previous work experience, any applicable credentials obtained, and criminal history,
  • Commercial Information, including but not limited to DMV records and credit information.

Auto-Owners also obtains some personal information about you from third parties, such as from your professional references, your former employers, service providers conducting background checks on you. These entities provide Identity, Demographic, and Commercial Information as listed above.

How do we use the personal information that we collect from you?

As a job applicant, we may collect, store, use, disclose or, otherwise, process the categories of personal information listed above for the purpose of facilitating the review and processing of your application, specifically to:

  • Assess your suitability for employment for the role for which you are applying, as well as future roles that may become available.
  • Perform recruitment related administrative functions.
  • Communicate with you about your application.
  • Conduct background checks.
  • Comply with applicable laws, for legal purposes to defend claims, or to investigate violations of law or breaches of our own internal policies.
  • Perform any other legitimate purposes required by us as a potential employer.
How and to whom do we disclose your personal information?

We take care to limit access to your personal information to only those who require such access to perform their tasks and duties in connection with your application, and/or to approved third parties who have a legitimate business purpose in doing so. Whenever we permit a third party to access personal information, we will implement appropriate measures to ensure the information is used in a manner consistent with this Notice and that the security and confidentiality of the information is maintained. We may disclose your personal information:

We may also disclose personal information to third parties on other lawful grounds, such as:

  • To comply with our legal obligations, including where necessary to abide by law, regulation or contract, or to respond to a court order, administrative or judicial process, including, but not limited to, a subpoena, government audit or search warrant.
  • In response to lawful requests by public authorities (including for national security or law enforcement purposes).
  • As necessary to establish, exercise or defend against potential, threatened or actual litigation.
  • Where necessary to protect the vital interests of another person.
  • In connection with the sale, assignment or other transfer of all or part of our business.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties and have not sold your personal information in the past twelve (12) months.

How do we protect your personal information?

We will take a range of reasonable measures to protect your personal information and to store it in a secure environment, whether that is in paper or electronic form. We will also take reasonable measures to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and/or unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure.

How long do we keep your personal information?

Your personal information will be kept as long as needed to carry out the purposes described in this Notice or as otherwise required by applicable law. This means your personal information may be retained after the application process is complete even if you do not become an employee of Auto-Owners.

What additional information is provided or additional rights afforded to California residents?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides the residents with rights with respect to its personal information exercisable against us. Please follow the link to the Auto-Owners Privacy Policy (https://www.auto-owners.com/privacy) for a complete description of those rights and the methods to exercise those rights.  

Additionally, the relevant data rights under CCPA described in the Privacy Policy are based on the specific data processes described herein. Specifically, for California residents, the categories of personal information, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for which we collect personal information and the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information are found in this Notice under the appropriate sections:

How can you contact us?

Auto-Owners recognizes that you may have additional privacy questions or need further information. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this Notice or Auto-Owners privacy practices, please submit a request via e-mail to:

If you have any questions regarding the application process in general, please contact RecruitingAssistants@aoins.com.

How do we update this Notice?

This Notice may be updated periodically to reflect any necessary changes in our privacy practices. You will be able to see when we last updated this Notice because we will include a revision date.

Last revised March 24, 2023