Privacy Policy

Melben ("we," "us") is a direct-hire and contract recruitment firm placing industrial skilled trades with employers across the United States. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and what control you have over it.

Questions about anything here: jobs@melben.io.

We collect what you give us so we can do one thing: match tradespeople with employers who are hiring. If you are a candidate, that means we share your information with employers who have an open role you fit. We also recognize some website visitors, through tools described below, so a recruiter can reach out about the jobs they looked at. We do not sell your information, and the records we keep about you stay with us: we do not hand out copies of them to anyone, you included.

From tradespeople (candidates), when you apply for a role or join our talent pool:

• Name, email address, phone number
• Trade, years of experience, and the certifications or licenses you hold
• City and state
• Your resume, which we need when you apply for a specific job. It is optional when you join the talent pool.
• Anything else you tell us in a message or on a call

From employers, when you submit a request or book a call:

• Name, company name, email address, and phone number if you provide one
• Details about the role: trade, location, pay range, number of openings, shift, timeline
• Anything else you tell us

From site visitors, automatically: our hosting provider logs standard technical information such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited, to keep the site running and secure. We also keep a record of the pages and job listings each browser views (see Cookies), and we attach it to you once we know who you are.

If you choose "Continue with Google" on our site, Google gives us your name and email address, and we ask for your phone number.

Identity partners. On some pages we use identity matching services. Their code on our site may recognize your browser from their own data network and tell us who you are: typically your name, email address, phone number, employer, job title, city and state, and professional profile. We use this only to contact you about jobs, or about hiring if you are an employer. We pass some of them the random ID from our own visit log (see Cookies), so a match is attached to the right visit record; for the others we attach it by the page and the time of the visit. Their code runs on our pages, so it could read what you type into a form; we switch off the part of it that copies form submissions. Once we know who you are, we stop asking them about your browser. We do not use these services for visitors outside the United States, for visitors in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania or Washington, or when your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. In those nine states we use them only if you agree, by choosing "Yes, remember me" in the box on our job pages. We keep that choice in a cookie (mb_ok) for a year, and you can take it back at any time by clearing your cookies or emailing us.

Sources. We collect information directly from you, from the identity partners above, from Google if you sign in with it, and from public records and business contact data providers we use to find or confirm contact details and work history.

Candidate information is used to contact you about matching roles, verify your certifications against documented proof, present you to employers with an open role you fit, and keep you in our talent pool for future roles.

Employer information is used to respond to your request, understand the role, and source, screen, and submit candidates for it.

We do not use your information for advertising. We do not use automated decision-making or AI scoring to reject candidates. A person reviews every candidate.

Stating this plainly, because it is the most important thing on this page.

If you are a candidate, we share your information with prospective employers. That is the service. When we submit you for a role, the employer receives what it needs to consider you: your name, trade, experience, certifications, location, and a resume. Employers agree to use it only to consider you for that role and not to pass it on.

We only do this for roles relevant to you. If you tell us not to submit you to a specific employer, we will not.

We also use service providers who process data on our behalf so the business can run: our website host, our email delivery provider, our email provider, our phone and text messaging provider, and our call scheduling tool. They process data only to perform their service for us and may not use it for their own purposes.

We may disclose information if legally required to, such as in response to a valid subpoena or court order.

• We do not sell your personal information. Not to data brokers, not to anyone.
• We do not share it for advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising.
• We do not give out copies of our records. Nobody gets them: not you, not another recruiter, not an employer outside a submission for a specific role.
• We never charge a candidate a fee. Our fee is always paid by the employer. If anyone claiming to represent Melben asks you for money, it is not us. Report it to jobs@melben.io.

The resumes, profiles, notes, call records and research that Melben creates or keeps are Melben's confidential business records. That includes any resume we wrote, rewrote or formatted from your information. We do not provide copies of them to candidates, to employers outside a submission for a specific role, or to anyone else.

The only exception is a disclosure a law requires of us, such as a court order, or a state privacy law that applies to Melben and gives you a right to a copy. In that case we provide what that law requires and nothing more.

If you give us your phone number and check the box asking for texts, we may text you. Candidates hear from us about roles that match, scheduling an interview, and the next steps on a placement. Employers hear from us about candidates we are submitting, interview scheduling, and updates on an open search.

If you tap "Text me this job" on a job listing, you are asking us to text you that job, and a recruiter may call or text you about it.

If you sign up for job alerts, you are asking us to text you new jobs that match the trade and town you gave, at most twice a week, and a recruiter may call you when one fits. On that form the box asking for texts has to be checked, because the alerts are texts. Reply STOP to any alert to end them.

Checking that box is optional. Consent to texts is not a condition of applying, of being submitted for a role, of being placed, or of requesting workers. Leave it unchecked and everything else works exactly the same.

How often we text depends on what is happening with your search. Some months there is nothing to say. During an active placement there may be a few in a week. Typically no more than 10 messages per month. Message and data rates may apply.

Reply STOP to any message and we stop. Reply HELP and we send you our contact details. You can also just tell a recruiter on a call.

We do not share, sell, or rent your mobile number or your text-message consent to third parties, affiliates, or data brokers for marketing purposes. Consent itself is never shared with anyone at all: it covers messages from us and nothing else. The only companies that touch your number for texting are the providers who deliver the message on our behalf, and they may use it only to deliver it. Sharing your contact details with a prospective employer when we submit you for a role is a different thing, and it is described under Who we share it with.

If you tap "Turn on job notifications" and allow it in your browser, your browser gives us a push address for that device. We keep that address, the trade you were looking at, and your state as shown by your internet connection, and use them only to send you new jobs, at most one notification a day. We do not get your name or number this way.

Turn them off any time in your browser's settings for melben.io. Once your browser tells us they are off, we delete the address.

The site uses what is necessary to function, plus two analytics tools. Vercel Web Analytics counts page views without cookies and without identifying you. Apollo.io's website tracker records visits (pages viewed, time on site, and your IP address) so we can see which companies visit our site. We do not use advertising cookies, and we never share SMS opt-in data through it. You can block it with any standard browser tracker or cookie blocker.

We also keep our own visit log. A first-party cookie (mb_v) gives your browser a random ID so we can see which pages it viewed, which job listings it opened, roughly which city it is in, whether it is a phone or a computer, and what site or link brought it here. On a browser's first visit we also look up which organization owns the network it connects from (an internet provider, a company or a data center) and keep that name, so we can tell people from automated traffic and see which companies visit. We do not store your IP address with it. When that network belongs to an internet provider, we may also ask a business data provider (People Data Labs) whether the address is a known company's internet line, and keep the company name, website, size, industry and location it returns. The address is sent only for that lookup and is not stored. We do not do this for visitors outside the United States, in the states listed above, or when your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. The log stays anonymous until you tell us who you are, by applying, joining the talent pool or asking us for workers, or by opening a melben.io link we sent you in a text or email. Those links carry a short code tied to the message, so we know you opened it. From then on the pages you view are attached to your record, so a recruiter can follow up about the jobs you looked at. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we do not keep this log for you.

When you tap "Save this job", the job is kept in your own browser's storage on that device so you can find it again on the Saved jobs page. It is not sent to us, though our visit log notes that a job was saved.

Automated traffic (search engines, AI assistants, job boards, link previews and scripts) never runs our page code, so our server counts the pages it requests each day by the name it gives, and for scripts and unnamed tools keeps the network part of the address (the last part removed) and the name of the network's owner.

Visit recordings. We use Microsoft Clarity, with Microsoft Advertising, to see how people use our pages: where they click and scroll, and recordings of the visit, so we can fix pages people leave. It uses first and third party cookies and similar technology, and Microsoft may use this data for site improvement, fraud and security, and advertising, as its privacy statement explains. What you type into our forms is hidden and never recorded. Each recording carries the random ID from our own visit log (see Cookies), so we can match it to your visit record. We do not use it for visitors outside the United States, in the states listed above unless you agree in the box on our job pages, or when your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.

"Continue with Google" is run by Google and may use Google's own cookies. Our identity partners place their own cookies or similar tags to recognize your browser, only in the United States, and in the states listed above only after you agree. You can block them with a tracker blocker, by turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser, or by emailing us to stop matching.

We keep candidate information as long as it is useful to place you, which for a talent pool can be several years, because someone we could not place today is often right for a role next year. Ask us to delete it at any time and we will.

We keep employer and placement records as long as needed for the working relationship and our legal and accounting obligations.

You can ask us to:

• Tell you what kinds of information we hold about you and where it came from
• Correct it if it is wrong
• Delete it
• Stop contacting you
• Stop recognizing your browser through identity partners

We do not provide copies of our records (see Our records stay with us). If you live in a state whose privacy law applies to Melben and gives you more rights than this list, we honor what that law requires. We will not treat you differently for making any of these requests.

To exercise any right, email jobs@melben.io. Because we operate entirely online, email is our designated method for submitting a request. Tell us what you want. We will take reasonable steps to verify that you are who you say you are, then act on it within 45 days, and we will tell you if we need longer. We will not charge you and we will not make it difficult. If we deny a request, we will tell you why.

An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with your written permission.

We protect your information with reasonable safeguards. No system is perfectly secure and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach ever affects your information, we will notify you as required by law.

This site and our services are for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have, we will delete it.

Melben does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. We do not honor discriminatory requests from employers, and we will end a client relationship over one.

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and post the new version here. We review it at least once a year.

Email jobs@melben.io.