Privacy Policy
Last updated: 8 October 2026
The short version
- Benchd is a practice tool for you. Your interviews, scores and feedback are private to you.
- We never sell your data, and we never share your results with employers or recruiters.
- We don’t store your interview audio. Speech is processed live for transcription and then discarded. Your transcripts and reports stay until you delete them or your account.
- Our AI providers aren’t allowed to use your data to train their models.
- You can download or delete your data at any time.
1. Who we are
Benchd is a trading name of OWN Capital Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 16610833, with its registered office at Dulke House, London, E14 0XF. We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.
For anything about your data, email privacy@benchd.co.uk.
2. What we collect
| Type | What it includes | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account details | Name, email address, login credentials, confirmation that you’re 18 or over | You |
| Career profile | Current role, target role, seniority, target company, LinkedIn profile URL | You |
| CV and job description | The documents or text you upload or paste, and details we extract from them, such as roles, companies and skills | You |
| Interview speech (not stored) | Your spoken answers are streamed for live transcription only; we do not keep audio files | You |
| Transcripts | The text of the interviewer’s questions and your answers | Generated from your interview |
| Results | Scores, feedback, examples quoted from your answers and practice suggestions | Generated by our AI from your interview |
| Consent records | When you agreed to transcription and how we process your interview | You |
| Beta sign-up | Email address, target role, seniority and how actively you’re interviewing | You |
| Technical information | IP address, browser, device type, log-in times, error and performance logs | Your device |
| Messages | Anything you send us by email | You |
We store the LinkedIn profile URL you enter on your Benchd profile. If you sign in with LinkedIn, we also receive your name and email from LinkedIn to create or link your account. We don’t scrape your LinkedIn profile, posts, connections or other profile data.
3. How we use it, and our legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Running your account, generating your interviews, transcripts, scores and feedback | Contract: we need it to provide the service you signed up for |
| Transcribing your spoken answers | Contract. We also ask you to confirm before voice transcription starts |
| Showing how your score compares with other candidates in the same role and seniority, using anonymised scores only | Legitimate interests: giving you meaningful context for your results |
| Improving Benchd: reviewing failed or low-quality sessions and improving our questions and scoring. A small number of our team may read transcripts for this | Legitimate interests: making the product work well |
| Keeping Benchd secure and preventing misuse | Legitimate interests |
| Sending service emails, such as account and security notices | Contract |
| Contacting beta sign-ups and sending product updates | Consent. You can unsubscribe at any time |
| Meeting legal obligations and handling legal claims | Legal obligation or legitimate interests |
When other candidates see comparisons, they only see aggregate statistics. They never see your name, your answers or your individual score.
4. Sensitive information
We don’t ask for sensitive information, such as details about your health, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Because interviews are open conversations, you might mention something like this in an answer. Please try not to.
If you do, it will appear in your transcript. We rely on the explicit consent you give before the interview starts to process it, and only as part of providing your feedback. You can remove it at any time by deleting that interview.
5. AI and automated processing
We use AI to run your interview, transcribe your answers, and generate your scores and feedback. These outputs are practice feedback for you. They aren’t used to make any decision about you that has legal or similarly significant effects, and they aren’t shared with employers.
We don’t use your data to train general-purpose AI models. Our AI and speech providers are contractually prohibited from using your data to train theirs.
6. Who we share it with
We share personal information only with service providers that help us run Benchd, and only as much as they need:
- cloud hosting, database and file storage providers;
- AI language model providers;
- speech-to-text and text-to-speech providers;
- email delivery and authentication providers; and
- error monitoring and security providers.
These providers act on our instructions under contracts that protect your data. We can send you a list of them on request.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect people’s safety or our legal rights, or to a buyer or investor as part of a sale or restructuring of our business, under appropriate confidentiality.
We never sell your personal information. We never share your interviews, scores or feedback with employers or recruiters. If we ever offer a feature that connects candidates with employers, it will be opt-in, and we’ll ask for your permission separately before anything is shared.
7. International transfers
Some of our providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. When they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK-US data bridge), the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Email us for details.
8. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Audio | Not stored. Speech is processed live for transcription and discarded; we only keep the transcript |
| Transcripts, scores, feedback, CVs, job descriptions and profile | Until you delete them or your account. Then deleted within 30 days |
| Inactive accounts | Deleted after 24 months without a login. We’ll email you first |
| Consent records | Until your account is deleted, then 12 more months |
| Beta sign-up details | Until you join or unsubscribe, or 12 months after we last contacted you |
| Technical and security logs | Up to 12 months |
| Backups | Deleted data can remain in encrypted backups for up to 35 days |
| Anonymised statistics | Kept indefinitely, as they don’t identify you |
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- correct information that’s wrong;
- have your information deleted;
- restrict or object to how we use it, including use based on legitimate interests;
- receive your information in a portable format; and
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on it.
You can delete individual interviews or your whole account in the app. For anything else, email privacy@benchd.co.uk. We’ll respond within one month, and it’s free. We may need to confirm your identity first.
10. Cookies
We only use cookies that are strictly necessary to run Benchd, such as keeping you logged in and keeping the service secure. We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies. If that changes, we’ll ask for your consent before setting them.
11. Security
We protect your information with encryption in transit and at rest, and we limit access to the members of our team who need it to run and support Benchd. No system is completely secure. If a breach affects your information in a way that puts you at high risk, we’ll tell you.
12. Age
Benchd is only for people aged 18 or over. If we learn we’ve collected information from someone under 18, we’ll delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
If we make significant changes, we’ll tell you by email or in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy was last updated.
14. Contact and complaints
OWN Capital Ltd (trading as Benchd)
Company number 16610833, registered in England and Wales
Registered office: Dulke House, London, E14 0XF
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Read together with our Terms of Service.