Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Rynda Crewing enables seafarers to maintain professional CVs, find vacancies, apply and communicate with recruiters. Employers and agencies can publish vacancies, search for crew and review CVs and applications. Available plans include additional search, promotion and matching tools.

RYNDA GLOBAL FZCO is the provider of the platform and the controller responsible for personal data processed to operate it. Our registered address is Unit RET-R5-172, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Our registration number is DMCC203729. We process personal data in accordance with Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data and other applicable law.

This Policy covers browsing, accounts, recruitment features, purchases and support. It applies to visitors, seafarers and individuals representing employers or agencies. It also covers people whose details reach the platform from others: emergency contacts listed by a seafarer and contact persons named in vacancies collected from public sources. Contact info@rynda.io about personal data and support@rynda.io for general support.

2. Information we collect

The information we process depends on the features you use and the details you choose to provide.

Account and contact information. This includes your name (including its Latin spelling), email address, telephone number, any additional phone, email or Telegram username you add, credentials stored in protected form, sign-in details if you use Google or a passkey, and account preferences. For organisation representatives, it may include job title, business contact details, organisation name and registration details, and authority to act.

CV information. This includes date of birth, citizenship, city and country of residence, photo, rank and desired ranks, sea service (vessel type, flag and particulars, rank and dates), education and institution, languages, expected salary, availability and employment preferences. Optionally, it may include marital status, height, weight and workwear and footwear sizes.

Seafarer documents. This includes certificates of competency and proficiency, seafarer's identity document, passport, visas and medical certificate: document type, number, issue and expiry dates, and any images of documents you upload. We do not ask for diagnoses. Please do not upload medical records beyond the certificate itself.

Emergency contact. A seafarer may provide the name, relationship and telephone number of a person to be contacted in case of an incident at sea. These details are saved only if the seafarer confirms that this person has been told about it.

Files uploaded for CV recognition. If you upload an existing CV or document images, we process the file, the text extracted from it and the recognition result in order to fill in your CV for you.

Applications and recruitment communications. This includes vacancy and application content, submitted CVs, messages and attached files, and related dates and delivery information. For employers and agencies, it includes advertisements and candidate correspondence.

Search, promotion and matching information. This includes search criteria and preferences, the CV information used for search or matching, promotion status, CV completeness scores, automatically generated CV summaries and the resulting recommendations, relevance assessments or rankings associated with a CV or vacancy.

Subscription and payment information. This includes the selected plan, access period, billing contact details, transaction references, amounts, currency, payment status and dates, and records of recurring payment permission, renewal, cancellation and refunds. We also process information needed to identify a saved payment method and manage its authorised use. Payment providers process full card details to complete transactions; we do not receive them.

Referral and source information. If you join through another user's invitation or an advertising link, we record who invited you and the source of your first visit.

Support and safety information. This includes contact details, requests and information needed to investigate and respond, such as relevant account, vacancy or message records concerning reported misuse.

Technical and usage information. This may include your IP address, browser and device information, pages and features used, access times, error information and cookie preferences. Our Cookie Policy explains the use of cookies and the choices available to you.

Contacts in vacancies collected from public sources. The platform automatically collects vacancies published on public websites and channels. Such advertisements may include the name, telephone number and email of an employer's or agency's contact person, published so that candidates can get in touch.

Information comes from you, your use of the platform, the service you use to sign in and other participants, such as an employer replying to an application. Keep details accurate and relevant. Share another person's details, such as an emergency contact, only with an appropriate basis and an explanation to that person.

3. How and why we use information

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• Operating accounts: creating and administering accounts, authenticating access, maintaining account settings and enabling the features you request.
• Filling in your CV from an uploaded file: recognising the text of an uploaded CV or document images to suggest completed fields. You can also fill in your CV manually without uploading a file.
• Supporting recruitment: maintaining CVs, making CVs available through crew search, finding vacancies, submitting applications and exchanging recruitment messages.
• Emergency contact: making the emergency contact available to the employer that hires the seafarer.
• Public seafarer directory: publishing a de-identified CV card on the internet where the seafarer has given separate consent (section 4).
• Providing additional tools: applying search criteria, promoting CVs and generating relevant vacancy or candidate suggestions through available matching features.
• Vacancies from public sources: showing collected vacancies to seafarers and enabling a candidate to contact the employer about a specific vacancy.
• Administering subscriptions: providing paid access and allowances, processing payments and authorised renewals, managing saved payment permissions, issuing payment records, handling cancellations or refunds and granting referral rewards.
• Serving employers and agencies: verifying organisations, publishing vacancies, identifying advertisers and enabling representatives to find and review CVs and applications.
• Communicating with you: sending service messages about your account, applications, enquiries, security or changes affecting your use of the platform, and vacancy digests and reminders. You can unsubscribe from messages not related to security or your agreement using the link in the email.
• Providing support: answering questions, correcting problems and handling requests about your account or personal data.
• Protecting the service: investigating reports, detecting unauthorised access and addressing fraudulent vacancies, spam, bulk contact harvesting and other misuse.
• Improving the service: understanding how features are used, identifying errors and improving usability and performance through appropriate technical information and, with your consent, analytics cookies.
• Meeting legal responsibilities: responding to lawful requests and retaining or using information necessary to meet legal duties or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We process personal data with your consent unless applicable law permits another basis. For example, we use information necessary to perform our agreement with you, including requested account, recruitment and subscription functions, or take steps you request before entering it. We may also process information to meet a legal obligation, establish, exercise or defend a legal claim, or protect the interests of the data subject, which is relevant to emergency contacts used in case of an incident at sea. Each basis applies only where its conditions are met. An organisation's agreement with us does not by itself replace consent required for its representatives' personal data.

You can withhold optional details. Missing information essential to a requested function may prevent us from providing that function; required fields or the context explain what is needed.

This Policy is not consent to optional processing. Where consent is needed, we request it for the relevant purpose and enable withdrawal.

4. Applications, CVs and recipients

Crew search. Verified employers and agencies can find your CV through crew search without receiving an application first. They can see your CV, documents, name and photo. Your phone number, email, messengers and emergency contact become available to an employer only after a mutual response (an accepted application or an accepted invitation) or after the employer unlocks contacts within its plan allowance. If you mark your CV as not looking for work, it is shown with that status, you receive no invitations, and your contact details are available only to employers you applied to yourself, whose invitation you answered or with whom you served as crew. Promotion places a CV higher in crew search results. It does not authorise recipients to use the information for unrelated purposes.

Public seafarer directory. If you give separate consent, a de-identified card based on your CV is published on the website and may be indexed by search engines. It shows rank, age, citizenship, city, sea service, vessel types and service periods without vessel names, documents with type, dates and part of the number, education institution, languages, expected salary and availability. Your name, photo, contact details, document images and exact date of birth are not published. Cards of seafarers under 18 are not published. You can withdraw consent in your account, and the card is removed from the website immediately. Search engines update their own copies independently and not instantly.

Applications. When you submit an application, we make the information included in it available to the employer or agency identified for that vacancy. This enables the recipient to assess your application and communicate with you. Messages and attachments are available to the participants of the conversation. Please review the vacancy and the information you are submitting before sending it.

Recipients are responsible for recruitment decisions and their subsequent handling of personal data. Their privacy information explains rights concerning that use. Agencies must explain their role and have a lawful basis for onward disclosure. Our Employer and Recruitment Agency Rules limit CV use to relevant recruitment and prohibit unauthorised resale or disclosure.

Contacts in vacancies from public sources. Such contacts are shown only to a signed-in seafarer and only when they click to reveal them in an open vacancy. Bulk export is not available. If you find your contact details from someone else's advertisement on the platform and object to their display, write to info@rynda.io.

Service providers. We use providers for hosting and server maintenance, email delivery, payment processing, CV recognition (Anthropic, Claude service), web analytics (Google Analytics and our own product analytics system, see the Cookie Policy), sign-in with Google and other support functions. Providers receive information needed for their services under appropriate confidentiality, security and processing arrangements. A provider processing information on our behalf must follow our instructions and applicable requirements. A payment provider may also process information under its own legal duties and privacy notice to authorise payments, prevent fraud and meet financial recordkeeping obligations.

Internal notifications. When a new employer or agency registers, platform administrators receive a notification with the representative's name, contact details and organisation details, including through the Telegram messenger, so that the registration can be verified.

We may disclose information to a court, regulator or other competent authority where required or permitted by applicable law in connection with a lawful request, an investigation or the protection of legal rights. Any disclosure must be relevant and proportionate to its purpose.

5. Automated search and matching

Available matching features compare professional CV information, preferences or search criteria with vacancy requirements to generate suggestions or an indication of relevance. This can involve automated processing, including AI. Results may help a seafarer identify vacancies or help an employer or agency identify candidates. Relevant factors depend on the feature and may include rank, qualifications, experience, availability and the criteria selected by the user.

Matching can influence which results are suggested and their order. Promotion separately affects placement in crew search; paid placement is not an assessment of professional suitability. Automated results may be incomplete or inaccurate, particularly where the underlying information is incomplete or outdated. They do not themselves constitute an offer, rejection or decision to hire. Seafarers choose which opportunities to pursue, and employers and agencies remain responsible for recruitment decisions.

You can correct your CV and request information about automated processing affecting you. Subject to applicable law, you may object to decisions resulting from that processing and request human review. Contact info@rynda.io with the relevant CV, vacancy or result so that we can consider your request. These rights apply to our processing; an employer or agency remains responsible for its own decisions and use of your information.

6. International processing

Maritime recruitment involves organisations in different countries, and our platform infrastructure and service providers may be located outside the United Arab Emirates and outside the country where you are. For the purposes described in this Policy, personal data may be transferred to and processed in other countries, including countries that do not provide a level of data protection equivalent to that of the United Arab Emirates or your country. Such transfers are made in accordance with applicable law, on the grounds described below. Transfers may take place in the following cases:

• CV recognition. The text extracted from an uploaded file is sent to a recognition service to fill in your CV fields automatically. If you do not want this transfer, fill in your CV manually.
• Web analytics, only if you allow analytical cookies.
• Platform operation. Part of the processing, including storage of copies of uploaded files, takes place on servers outside the United Arab Emirates.
• Employers and agencies. Information is made available to an organisation in another country when you apply to it or when it finds your CV in crew search.
• Internal notifications about new employer and agency registrations, sent through a messenger (section 4).

We transfer personal data internationally only where the applicable legal requirements are met. Depending on the destination and circumstances, this may require a recognised level of protection, appropriate contractual safeguards or another permitted ground, such as your consent or the performance of our agreement with you. Using the platform does not amount to unrestricted permission to send your information to any recipient or country.

Contact us about relevant recipients and safeguards. Contact receiving organisations about their subsequent handling of your information using their vacancy or privacy notice details.

7. How long we retain information

We keep personal data for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to applicable legal requirements. In particular:

• Account, CV and documents are kept while the account exists.
• Account deletion. Once you request deletion, your CV is immediately removed from crew search and the public directory, your vacancies are unpublished, sign-in is closed and automatic renewal of your subscription is switched off. An employer with whom you are on a voyage at the time of the request keeps access to your CV and contact details until that voyage ends, as it needs them to meet its obligations to you on board, such as notifying your family and arranging repatriation. Within 30 days you can restore the account simply by signing in. After 30 days your CV, documents, photos, contact details and organisation details are erased.
• Messages. Messages and attached files remain available to the other participants after your account is deleted, and the author is shown as "Deleted user".
• Files uploaded for CV recognition and the text extracted from them are kept for 30 days.
• Subscription and transaction records are kept as needed to administer purchases, handle refunds and meet applicable accounting, tax or legal requirements.
• Unsubscribe and block lists. An email address that has unsubscribed is kept on a suppression list so that we do not email it again. The address of an account blocked for a breach is kept on a block list.
• Support requests are kept until the matter and any related claims are resolved. Technical information is kept according to its operational or security purpose.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it or make it no longer identifiable. If a limited record must be retained after an account closes, we limit its use to the reason for keeping it.

Deleting your account does not automatically remove a CV or message already received and retained independently by an employer or agency. You can request deletion from that recipient, subject to its applicable legal obligations.

8. Keeping information secure

We use appropriate organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, alteration or disclosure. These measures take account of the nature of the information and the risks involved in processing it. Access is limited according to the responsibilities of the people and service providers who need it.

Protect your login details, use a secure device and promptly report suspected unauthorised access to support@rynda.io. We cannot promise absolute security, but remain responsible for the protection required by law.

9. Your rights and choices

Subject to the conditions and exceptions in applicable law, you may request information about our processing, access to your personal data, correction of inaccurate details or completion of incomplete information. You may also request deletion, restriction or cessation of processing, and obtain or transfer a copy of your information.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing lawfully carried out before withdrawal. We will explain if another lawful ground permits or requires us to retain particular information. Withdrawing consent to an optional feature does not by itself require you to close your account.

You can disable automatic renewal or withdraw permission to use a saved payment method as described in our Terms of Use. This stops the relevant future use for recurring charges, but does not automatically erase records of completed transactions that we must lawfully retain.

You can do much of this yourself: edit your CV, mark yourself as not looking for work so that employers cannot invite you or receive your contact details unless you have dealt with them yourself, withdraw consent to the public directory, delete your account in the security settings, unsubscribe using the link in an email, and change your cookie choices through the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of the page. For other requests, contact info@rynda.io and describe the information or action concerned. We may request reasonable information to establish your identity and protect your account from unauthorised disclosure. We handle requests within the periods required by applicable law and explain any lawful restriction on the action requested. You may also raise a complaint with the UAE Data Office or another competent data protection authority.

10. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the service or applicable requirements change. The effective date above identifies the current version. We will provide additional notice of material changes where appropriate and obtain further consent where legally required. The Terms of Use explain the rules governing use of the platform.