Recruitment Privacy
MU RECRUITMENT PRIVACY POLICY
Manchester United's Recruitment Privacy Policy
Manchester United is a group of companies which includes Manchester United Football Club Limited and various other entities (together “Manchester United”, "we", "our" and "us"). For a full and up-to-date list of entities in the Group please click here. This Privacy Policy ("Policy") applies to all companies within the Manchester United Group from time to time.
Date effective and last updated: Date effective and last updated: 15 January 2026.
A PDF version is available to download here.
1. About this Privacy Policy
As a data controller, Manchester United takes your privacy very seriously and so we want to safeguard the privacy and security of your personal data. This Policy explains what personal data we may collect about you, how we may use it, and the steps we take to keep it secure. In addition, this Policy explains your rights in respect of the processing of your personal data. This Policy also forms part of our digital terms of use, which you can read here.
This Policy applies whenever we process your personal data as part of our recruitment process, including where you have applied through the official Manchester United careers page (please see the following link here), so please read it carefully. This Policy does not apply to our processing of your personal data in the capacity of your employment, for which a separate Privacy Policy will apply and will be provided to you at that stage.
In this Policy, the term “Data Protection Legislation” means any applicable data protection and direct marketing laws, including, but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) ("EU GDPR"), the Data Protection Act 2018 ("DPA 2018"), the EU GDPR as implemented into UK law ("UK GDPR") and any successor legislation to the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR, the DPA 2018 or any other applicable data protection and direct marketing laws.
Please note that our careers page contains links to third party websites that are provided for your convenience. We are only responsible for the privacy practices and security of our own website. Therefore, we recommend that you check the privacy and security policies and procedures of every other website that you visit.
2. How to contact us
All enquiries
If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy or how we process your personal data, please email us at privacy@manutd.co.uk or write to us at the following address:
Legal & Business Affairs
Manchester United Football Club Limited
Sir Matt Busby Way
Old Trafford
Manchester
M16 0RA
Job applicant enquiries
If you have any questions or concerns regarding a job that you have applied for with us then you can contact us via the above contact details or you can also email our Talent team at Talent@manutd.co.uk.
The personal data that we process about you and the purposes for which we process your personal data are set out in this Section 3 of this Policy.
Processing purposes
Please see the following list of processing purposes and related purposes:
- to manage your application, including inviting you to assessment centres and either in-person or video interviews, assessing your skills, qualification and suitability for the position(s) you have applied for or expressed an interest in;
- to fulfil any requests for reasonable adjustments;
- to carry out background and reference checks and ask about these, where applicable;
- to keep you updated on your application throughout the recruitment process;
- to keep records relating to our hiring process;
- to manage your account on our careers page;
- aligning to best practice, industry guidance and requirements on recruitment in the club; and/or
- to manage general enquires.
Categories of personal data and additional processing purposes
When we manage your application, we may process any personal data that you provide to us. For example, we may process your title, name, address, date of birth, email address, telephone number, candidate ID number, whether you are over the age of 18, education history and qualifications, employment history and any dismissal (including for the club), dates and experience, work permit/visa details, driving licence, salary levels (optional) and expectations, language skills/specialist training, preferred start date, whether you have a criminal record (unspent convictions), whether you have worked for the armed forces and any other information you have provided in your application (including your CV and covering letter) and during the interview(s). Please note that this may include special category personal data, such as information about your health, if you have provided this. Where the job being offered is at a location that is not accessible by public transport, we will need to know how you plan to travel there, including whether you hold a valid driving licence and have access to your own vehicle, as well as your travelling distance to the location of the role.
4. What if I fail to provide the personal data?
If you fail to provide information when requested during the recruitment process which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications, work experience or right to work information), we will not be able to process your application any further until this information is provided.
5. What is our lawful basis for processing?
In this Section 5 of this Policy, we provide a general explanation of each 'lawful basis' that Manchester United rely on to process your personal data to assist you with understanding this Policy.
Please see the following non-exhaustive list of lawful bases that we may rely upon:
- Performance of a Contract: When it is necessary for Manchester United (or a third party) to process your personal data to enter into and then fulfil an employment contract with you (such as where you have accepted a job offer from us).
- Legitimate Interests: We may process your personal data to pursue our own legitimate interests or those of a third party (e.g. in assessing candidates' suitability for our vacancies and in seeking candidates' feedback in relation to our recruitment process)
If you would like more information about this, please contact us as set out in Section 2 “How to contact us?” of this Policy.
- Compliance with Legal Obligations: When we must process your personal data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (e.g. our legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for individuals with a disability).
- Substantial Public Interest for Special Category Data: We may process your personal data for reasons of substantial public interest based on the available exemptions contained within the DPA 2018 which permit us to process your special category data without your explicit consent (for example, to promote or maintain equality of opportunity or treatment, assess your health and any reasonable adjustments, to promote or maintain diversity of senior position holders and/or to prevent/detect unlawful acts).
- Vital interests for Special Category Data: We may process personal data where it is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of others (e.g. in the event of an emergency at one of our assessment centres or in-person interviews).
Please note that we have an appropriate policy document and safeguards in place in relation to our processing of information relating to criminal convictions and offences and special category data.
6. How do we collect your personal data?
In this Section 6 of this Policy, we set out how we collect and process your personal data. We provide a list of potential sources below:
- provided by you to Manchester United;
- provided by recruitment agencies, services, systems or consultants who support us with managing our recruitment process;
- from our systems and platforms for managing the recruitment process and interviews;
- the police or other law enforcement agencies;
- provided by your employer, former employer or referees; and
- provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service.
When we receive data from organisations such as law enforcement agencies, this will be primarily based on the lawful basis of legitimate interests, Section 10 of the DPA 2018 and Schedule 1 DPA 2018. We also rely on other lawful bases for certain processing activities for the purposes set out below at (b) under heading "Other third parties and purposes" of Section 7 "Who do we share your personal data with and for what purpose?" of this Policy.
7. Who do we share your personal data with and for what purpose?
In this Section 7 of this Policy, we set out the third parties that we share your data with and for what processing purposes.
Recruitment agencies or consultants
In order to manage your application, we will share information about our decisions relating to your application and your suitability for the role(s) with our recruiters and consultants in order for them to confirm to you whether your application has been successful and the details of any offer on our behalf. We receive many applications for our vacancies so our external recruitment agencies and consultants help to support us with managing this process.
Current and/or former employer and referees
So that we can consider you for a position, we will share information with you about the role you have applied for with your current and/or former employer and any referees in order to obtain a reference from them.
Disclosure and Barring Service
We share your personal data with the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain the results of your criminal record. This is to satisfy the requirements of the role and The Premier League's Safer Recruitment Standards.
Other third parties and purposes
Furthermore, we may share your data with third parties for the purposes set out in the following non-exhaustive list:
(a) if we are under a legal or regulatory duty to do so, including for audit requirements;
(b) to lawfully assist the police, law enforcement or security services with the prevention and detection of crime; and/or
(c) as otherwise permitted under applicable law.
In all instances where we disclose your personal data to any third parties, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that your information is appropriately protected.
In this Section 8 of this Policy, we explain how we process your personal data for monitoring purposes.
Manchester United may record and transcribe Teams calls and similar platform services as referred to above.
Please note that for safety and security purposes and for the prevention and detection of crime, CCTV is in operation in all of our premises that are open to the public. There is signage in and around all sites that operate CCTV.
9. Security of information
In this Section 9 of this Policy, we explain how we keep your personal data secure.
Manchester United takes the security of your personal data extremely seriously. We have put in place appropriate security measures to protect the personal data that we collect and process as part of the recruitment process and we limit access to a need-to-know basis only.
Where a password is required to access our careers page, you are responsible for keeping your password secure and confidential. Please do not share or disclose your password to any other person.
In this Section 10 of this Policy, we explain how long we retain your personal data and how it is deleted.
We will securely retain your information for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the job vacancy you have applied for. At the end of that retention period, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised (e.g. by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis).
Please note that if you have been unsuccessful at an interview for any of our roles, we may consider your application for one of our other vacancies if it is similar to the role that you applied for (unless you have told us not to).
If you have applied for a permanent or temporary role, you will be able to update and delete your data and applications via your careers page account.
In this Section 11 of this Policy, we explain how we protect your personal data if it is transferred to other countries.
The personal data that we collect about you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the United Kingdom ("UK") and/or the European Economic Area ("EEA"), for example our careers page provider. Whenever we transfer your personal data outside of the UK and/or the EEA to a third country, we make sure that a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that at least one of the safeguards required under the Data Protection Legislation is implemented. Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data outside of the UK and/or the EEA.
In this Section 12 of this Policy, we explain the rights you have related to the processing of your personal data.
Under the Data Protection Legislation, you have certain rights (subject to certain exemptions) that we have set out below. Please note that you may have additional rights depending on where you are located:
- Your right of access: You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data.
- Your right to rectification: You have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. Please note that you can also update the information on your careers page account at any time. We encourage you to promptly update your personal data if it changes.
- Your right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Your right to restriction of processing: You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Your right to object to processing: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Your right to data portability: You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal data you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
As mentioned above, where we are relying on consent to process your personal data, you are able to withdraw your consent at any time. You can do this by changing your preference to be considered for similar roles in your account on our careers page or by contacting us as set out in Section 2 “How to contact us?” of this Policy or by. However, your withdrawal of your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out by us before you withdraw your consent.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information to clarify your request to assist us with providing you with a response.
We are generally required to respond to requests within one calendar month. We may extend this deadline by a further two months if your request is complex and/or if you submit several requests to us. Please note that other laws may apply to you with different timescales. If we do extend the deadline then we will communicate this to you and we will always aim to provide you with a response to your request as soon as possible.
You are not usually required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. However, we may charge a 'reasonable fee' for administrative costs if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
In this Section 13 of this Policy, we provide you with information about our use of cookies to process your personal data.
In common with many other website operators, we use standard technology called 'cookies' on our website. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive and they are used to record how you navigate this website on each visit.
For further, more detailed information on how we use cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy that you can read here.
14. Where to make a complaint
For the UK the appropriate regulator would be the Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO"), please see the following contact details:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
For the EEA you can submit a complaint to any regulator located in the EEA such as Ireland's Data Protection Commission ("DPC"), please see the following contact details:
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
We aim to meet high standards and so our policies and procedures are periodically reviewed. From time to time, we may change this Policy and so we recommend that you check this page often in order to review the latest version. Any material changes made to this Policy will be announced via our careers page.