Privacy policy

Last updated 3 November 2026

Who we are

Instead (instead.work) helps independent businesses hire people. It is run by Monty Ventures Limited. Questions about your data go to privacy@instead.work.

For a business’s own account, we decide how its details are used. When you apply for a job, the business you apply to decides what happens with your application, and we handle it for them.

If you run a business on Instead

We keep:

your name, email and role, and your team’s, so you can sign in
your business’s name, address, website or Instagram, opening hours and the jobs you post
the messages you send to applicants and the notes you write
which share links people used, so you can see where your hires came from

When you sign up, we read your public website to find jobs you already advertise and your opening hours. You check everything before it goes live.

If you apply for a job

We keep your name, email, mobile number, your answers, your CV and the emails between you and the business. We also note how you heard about the job and who shared it with you, if anyone did.

When you apply, or scan a business’s sign to join it, you join that business’s bench, so they can invite you to future shifts. That’s in their legitimate interest and what you’d expect from applying, and you can leave it when you apply or from any email we send. Your application is kept for 12 months after your last activity, or 24 months while you’re on a bench. We only share your first name with other local businesses if you opt in to that separately. Every email we send you has a link to download or delete your details. Deleting removes your name, contact details, CV and messages; we keep only anonymous counts. To tell that it’s the same person applying to different businesses, we keep a pseudonymous identifier (a keyed hash of your mobile number and email) that we use only to avoid duplicate pool entries, to honour your consent choices and to delete your details everywhere when you ask; it is never shown to employers.

Accounts you connect

A business owner can choose to connect other accounts. Each one is optional, and you can disconnect it at any time from Account in Instead.

Google (your email address and read-only access to your contacts) and Microsoft Outlook (your profile and read-only access to your contacts): we read your contacts only when you open the contact picker, to show you the list. We don’t store your contacts. Only the people you pick are used, to send them a job you chose to share.
Instagram and Facebook (the list of Pages you manage, your Page’s posts, and the Instagram business account linked to it): we read your recent posts to find jobs you’ve already advertised, so you can bring them in as drafts.

We store the sign-in tokens these services give us, encrypted, and delete them when you disconnect. We never post on your behalf, and we never sell, rent or advertise with data from these accounts.

Instead’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We don’t use Google or Microsoft data to train AI models, and no person reads it unless you ask us to, it’s needed for security, or the law requires it.

How we use AI

We use Anthropic’s Claude to write job ads from your notes, read business websites and posts, and summarise applications. A person makes every hiring decision; Instead never rejects anyone automatically. Anthropic processes this data for us and doesn’t use it to train its models.

If you use Instead from an AI assistant

You can ask an AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude to use Instead for you. We receive only what the assistant sends us for that request, never your conversation. To make a job we receive the business’s name, the role, pay, hours, area and description, and your email if you give it; we use them to make the job, its poster and its apply link, and to email you the link to publish it. A job nobody publishes is deleted after 30 days. Searching for jobs sends us only your search, and we don’t keep it.

Who else handles data

We use these companies to run Instead. Each only processes data on our instructions.

Supabase: database and file storage (London)
Vercel: hosting (London, with a global network for pages)
Resend: sending and receiving email (Ireland)
Anthropic: AI (United States)
Cloudflare: domain and bot protection on forms
Google: website statistics (Google Analytics)

Where data leaves the UK, we rely on the UK’s adequacy rules or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

Cookies

We use cookies to keep you signed in, protect forms from bots and remember which link brought you here. We don’t use advertising cookies.

We also use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages and links work, so we can improve Instead. It sets cookies (named _ga) that last up to two years. We only see totals, never who you are; advertising features are off, and we strip private links and email addresses from page addresses before they reach Google. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, we don’t load it.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. Email privacy@instead.work and we’ll reply within a month. If you applied for a job, you can also use the link in any email from us, or ask the business directly.

To remove Instead’s access to your Facebook or Instagram, disconnect it in Instead, or remove Instead under Business Integrations in your Facebook settings. To delete the data we got from it, email privacy@instead.work; we delete it within 30 days.

You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.