hiCalibre - Candidate Terms of Service

1. Who we are and how these Terms work

These Candidate Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you (the "Candidate", "you") and Cidade Extremada, trading as hiCalibre, a company incorporated in Portugal under company number 518042758, with its registered office at Bloco A2, Suite 7, 8650-117, Portugal ("hiCalibre", "we", "us", "our"). hiCalibre is built and operated by RecT Solutions but trades and operates as its own distinct brand and platform.

By creating a candidate account, submitting an application, or otherwise using hiCalibre (the "Platform", "Service"), you accept these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Service. You must be at least 18 years old, and you must hold the legal right to work in each specific jurisdiction where you apply for a role, indicate availability, or accept an Introduction (for example, if you state you are available for UK-based roles, you must hold the right to work in the UK; if you apply to a role based in Portugal, you must hold the right to work in Portugal). It is your responsibility to know and disclose accurately what your right-to-work status permits in each jurisdiction you engage with through the Platform.

Our separate Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data, including under the EU General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) and, where applicable, the UK GDPR. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Where anything in these Terms conflicts with the Privacy Policy on a data protection matter, the Privacy Policy governs.

2. Definitions

• "Application" means the information, CV, and answers you submit through the Platform to apply for candidate status.
• "Client" means a hiring company or agency recruiter registered on the Platform.
• "Vetted" means hiCalibre has confirmed your identity, stated credentials, and availability, without a live interview.
• "hiCalibre tier" means, in addition to Vetted-level checks, hiCalibre has conducted a live interview with you and produced a recruitment report shared with Clients who unlock your profile.
• "Unlock" means a Client has spent credits to view your full, de-anonymised profile.
• "Introduction" means hiCalibre facilitating contact between you and a Client following an Unlock.

3. Your account and Application

1. You must provide accurate, current, and complete information in your Application and keep your account details up to date. Submitting false, misleading, or someone else's information (including a CV that is not genuinely yours) is a material breach of these Terms and may result in immediate removal from the Platform.
2. hiCalibre reviews every Application manually. We do not guarantee acceptance onto the Platform, assignment to any particular tier, or any minimum number of Introductions, views, or Unlocks once accepted. Acceptance and tier assignment are at hiCalibre's sole discretion, based on the information you provide and, for the hiCalibre tier, an interview conducted by our team.
3. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Tell us immediately at support@hicalibre.io if you suspect unauthorised access.
4. You may withdraw your Application or deactivate your account at any time by contacting us at support@hicalibre.io; see Section 6 (Data Protection) on what happens to your data afterward.

4. What hiCalibre does and does not do

1. hiCalibre is a marketplace that lets Client companies discover and pay to Unlock your profile. We are not your employer, we do not negotiate terms of engagement on your behalf, and we do not guarantee you a job, interview, salary, or any specific outcome. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any statutory protection you are entitled to as a work-seeker under applicable law.
2. Once a Client Unlocks your profile, hiCalibre facilitates an Introduction between you and that Client. Any subsequent interview, offer, negotiation, or employment/engagement is a matter between you and the Client; hiCalibre is not a party to it and accepts no liability for its outcome, terms, or conduct, save as set out in Section 8.
3. You control whether you are shown as open to Introductions and, where the Platform supports it, whether you receive notifications about matching roles. Pausing your visibility does not delete your account or data - see Section 6.
4. For hiCalibre-tier candidates, the recruitment report we produce is based on your interview and the information you provide. Before we share a hiCalibre-tier report with any Client, we will give you a reasonable opportunity to review a summary of its factual content (for example, role history, skills, and stated availability) and to flag any material factual inaccuracy for correction before it is shared. This review right covers factual content only, not hiCalibre's own professional assessment or opinion, which reflects our team's independent judgement formed during the interview. We take reasonable care in preparing every report but cannot guarantee it is error-free.

5. Your content and intellectual property

1. You retain ownership of your CV, profile information, and any other content you submit ("Candidate Content"). By submitting it, you grant hiCalibre a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, reproduce, adapt (e.g. into card summaries or profile formats), and display your Candidate Content to registered Clients for the purpose of operating the Platform, for as long as your account is active plus any retention period described in the Privacy Policy.
2. You confirm you have the right to submit your Candidate Content and that it does not infringe any third party's rights (for example, a former employer's confidential information) or contain anything unlawful, defamatory, or fraudulent.
3. The hiCalibre name, logo, badge system (Vetted / hiCalibre), and Platform design are our intellectual property or that of our licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of it to you.
4. You agree to indemnify and hold hiCalibre harmless against any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and reasonable legal fees arising from: (a) any breach by you of clause 5.2 above; (b) any fraudulent, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material you submit as Candidate Content; or (c) your infringement of a third party's intellectual property, confidentiality, or other rights through your Candidate Content. This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim arises from hiCalibre's own negligence, or from a hiCalibre-tier recruitment report, except where that report is materially based on information you provided that you knew, or ought reasonably to have known, was inaccurate.

6. Data protection

1. We process your personal data - including CV content, contact details, salary expectations, availability, and interview notes - as described in our Privacy Policy, principally to run the vetting process, present your profile to Clients, and facilitate Introductions.
2. Automated matching: the "Matched to your roles" feature and similar matching logic use automated processing to surface your profile to relevant Clients. This does not make a final hiring decision about you and does not, on its own, produce a legal or similarly significant effect - but you have the right to ask a human at hiCalibre to explain how a match was generated. See the Privacy Policy for your rights under Article 22 GDPR.
3. Please do not include special category data (health, disability, religion, ethnicity, trade union membership, etc.) in your CV or Application unless it is strictly necessary (for example, a reasonable adjustment request) - see the Privacy Policy for how we handle this if you choose to share it.
4. You may exercise your data subject rights (access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, objection) at any time by contacting privacy@hicalibre.io - full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

1. submit false information or impersonate another person;
2. use the Platform to harass, discriminate against, or defraud any Client or other user;
3. attempt to bypass hiCalibre to contact or engage a Client outside the Platform for the purpose of avoiding hiCalibre's role or any applicable fee, other than to continue a genuine employment/engagement relationship that has already resulted from a legitimate Introduction (see Section 9 for the consequences of breaching this clause);
4. scrape, reverse-engineer, or interfere with the Platform's normal operation; or
5. upload malicious code or attempt to access another user's account or data without authorisation.

8. Disclaimers and liability

1. The Platform is provided "as is". To the maximum extent permitted by law, hiCalibre disclaims all warranties, express or implied, about the accuracy, availability, or fitness for purpose of the Service, and does not guarantee that Clients will act lawfully, fairly, or in good faith toward you.
2. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of your data protection rights, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
3. Subject to clause 8.2, hiCalibre's total liability to you for proven direct losses arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, is limited to EUR 500 in aggregate for any single claim or series of connected claims arising in any 12-month period. hiCalibre is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of an employment opportunity, income, or reputation, except to the extent such loss arises directly from our negligence in preparing a hiCalibre-tier recruitment report that we knew, or ought reasonably to have known, contained a material factual inaccuracy - in which case clause 8.2's carve-outs, not this cap, determine our liability.

9. Suspension and termination

1. We may suspend or remove your account if you breach these Terms, if we reasonably suspect fraud or misuse, or if we are required to do so by law. Where reasonably possible, we will give you notice and a chance to respond before removal, except where immediate action is necessary to protect the Platform or other users.
2. Breach of clause 7.3 (attempting to bypass hiCalibre) is treated as a material breach: it entitles hiCalibre to suspend or terminate your account immediately without notice, and, where hiCalibre can demonstrate quantifiable loss directly caused by that breach (for example, the Unlock fee a Client avoided paying by contacting you outside the Platform), to recover that loss from you as a debt, in addition to any other remedy available at law.
3. You may close your account at any time. Certain records (for example, transaction and audit logs relating to Introductions already made) may be retained after closure as described in the Privacy Policy, for legal, accounting, or dispute-resolution purposes.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect new features or legal requirements. We will give you reasonable notice of material changes (for example, by email or an in-Platform notice) before they take effect. Continuing to use the Platform after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

11. Complaints and disputes

1. If you have a complaint about the Platform or a Client's conduct, contact us first at support@hicalibre.io so we can try to resolve it directly.
2. If we cannot resolve a dispute directly, either party may refer it to mediation before an independent mediator agreed between the parties, on a without-prejudice basis, without affecting either party's right to bring court proceedings.
3. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority regarding any data protection matter - see the Privacy Policy for details.

12. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Portugal, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection or data-protection rights you have under the law of the country where you habitually reside (including, for UK-based Candidates, applicable UK law and the UK GDPR). The Portuguese courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising from these Terms, without prejudice to your right to bring proceedings in your country of residence where applicable law gives you that right.

13. General

1. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues in effect.
2. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and hiCalibre regarding the Service.
3. hiCalibre may transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, provided your data protection rights are unaffected.

14. Contact

Cidade Extremada, trading as hiCalibre - Bloco A2, Suite 7, 8650-117, Portugal

General queries: support@hicalibre.io

Data protection queries: privacy@hicalibre.io