Privacy Policy
Last updated: 9 August 2026 · policy version 2026-08-09
Summary: HK Refer is operated independently by Harsh Kumar. The résumé matcher runs entirely inside your web browser — your résumé is never uploaded to us, never stored, and never shared with anyone. We have no accounts, no sign-up, no newsletter, and no advertising trackers. We keep an anonymous record that consent was given (see section 3) — it identifies nobody. The only personal data this site gives us is whatever you choose to put in an email to harsh@hkrefer.online. We do also send referral outreach, which is separate from this site and described in section 3a.
1. Who We Are
HK Refer is an independent referral service operated by Harsh Kumar ("we", "us", "our"), based in New Delhi, India, and reachable at harsh@hkrefer.online. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or acting on behalf of micro1 or any other platform we reference. This policy covers the website at hkrefer.online.
2. Your Résumé Is Not Collected
This is the most important thing on this page, so it gets its own section.
When you upload or paste a résumé on our site, the file is read by JavaScript running on your own device. The text is matched against a static list of publicly advertised job openings that your browser downloads, and the results are drawn on the page. At no point is the résumé — or any text extracted from it — sent to us, to our hosting provider, or to any third party. It is held in your browser's memory and is discarded the moment you close or reload the tab.
Because we never receive it, we cannot store it, read it, share it, sell it, or hand it over in response to a legal request. There is nothing to delete.
If you upload a PDF, your browser loads an open-source PDF reading library (PDF.js, Apache-2.0) from this site itself — not from a third-party CDN — and uses it to extract the text on your device. Reading a PDF therefore involves no request to anyone but us.
3. What We Actually Collect
- A consent record. When you tick the consent box and run a match, we store a record that a consent was given: a random reference ID, the time, which version of this policy you agreed to, and a cryptographic hash of the exact consent sentence shown to you. It contains no name, no email, no IP address and no part of your résumé — nothing that identifies you. You are shown the reference ID and can download a receipt. If consent is ever questioned, your receipt and our record match each other; neither identifies you on its own. Records are kept for up to 7 years, as consent evidence should outlive the thing it evidences.
- Emails you send us. If you email us, we hold your address and whatever you wrote, so we can reply. That is a normal mailbox, nothing more.
- Standard server logs. Our hosting provider (Cloudflare) records ordinary web-server information when a page is requested — IP address, timestamp, browser user-agent, and the page requested. This is generated automatically by the infrastructure and is used for security, abuse prevention and keeping the site online.
We do not operate accounts, logins, contact forms, mailing lists, analytics, advertising pixels, or cookies. This site sets no cookies of its own. The consent record above is the only thing this site writes to a server, and it is anonymous by construction.
What we never do:
- We never upload, store, or read your résumé.
- We never sell, rent, trade, or buy personal data.
- We never add you to a mailing list, or email you marketing, because you used this tool.
- We never run advertising or cross-site tracking.
3a. Referral Outreach We Send
This is separate from the site and is not generated by anything you do here. Alongside this tool, HK Refer contacts professionals directly about specific open contract roles, where their profile is listed as open to contract work on a talent platform. This site has no mailing list and never feeds one — using the matcher will not put you on any list.
Where we send such an email, we hold only what is needed to send it: name, email address, professional background, and the roles matched. Every message says who we are, discloses that we may earn a referral fee, and carries a one-click opt-out. We honour an opt-out permanently and keep the address only on a suppression list so we do not contact you again. To opt out in advance, or to ask what we hold about you, email harsh@hkrefer.online and it will be actioned.
4. Third Parties Your Browser Contacts
Loading any web page means your browser makes requests, and whoever answers them can see your IP address. On this site that is:
- Cloudflare — hosts the site and serves every page.
- Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com) — serves the two typefaces used in the design.
- The platform you click through to (e.g. micro1) — only when you deliberately click an apply link. From that point their own privacy policy governs.
That is the complete list. Neither receives your résumé, and the site's Content-Security-Policy blocks the page from sending data to any other origin — so this is enforced by your browser, not merely promised by us. If you would prefer not to load web fonts from Google at all, a content blocker will stop that request without affecting the matcher.
5. Legal Basis for Processing (DPDP Act / GDPR)
Where the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (India) or the UK/EU GDPR applies:
- Consent — for processing your résumé in your browser. You give it via the checkbox before matching runs, and you can withdraw it simply by not using the tool or by closing the tab; since the résumé is not retained, withdrawal is immediate and complete. The anonymous consent record described in section 3 is what evidences that this consent was taken, and when.
- Consent — for handling the contents of an email you choose to send us.
- Legitimate interest — for the security and availability logs described in section 3, balanced against your rights and limited to what the hosting infrastructure generates automatically.
6. Affiliate Disclosure
HK Refer takes part in the open referral programmes offered by platforms such as micro1. If you sign up or are placed on a paid project through one of our referral links, we may earn a referral fee — at no cost to you. This does not affect your pay, your hiring eligibility, or any decision made by the platform.
We do not guarantee any interview, placement, pay rate, or hiring outcome. Opportunities, eligibility and compensation are decided entirely by each platform under its own terms. Any pay figures shown on this site are taken from the platforms' own public listings and are not a promise of earnings.
7. Data Sharing
We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data. Data is shared only in these limited ways:
- By your own action: clicking a referral link takes you to a third-party platform. We pass no personal data to them — the link carries only a referral code identifying us, not you.
- Infrastructure: our hosting provider processes requests as described in sections 3 and 4.
- Legal obligation: if required by law. Note that this cannot include your résumé, because we never hold it.
8. Data Retention
- Résumés: not retained at all — they never reach us.
- Consent records: up to 7 years. They contain no personal data, so there is nothing in them to identify or erase; if you want yours removed, send the reference ID from your receipt.
- Email correspondence: kept while needed to deal with your enquiry, and no longer than 12 months after our last exchange, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
- Server logs: retained by our hosting provider on its standard short rolling schedule.
- Referral outreach details (section 3a): kept only while the role is open and we are corresponding with you. If you opt out, we erase the rest and keep only your address on a suppression list, so that we can honour the opt-out.
9. Your Rights
Under the DPDP Act and/or GDPR you have the right to access, correct, or delete personal data we hold about you, to object to processing based on legitimate interest, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a supervisory authority (in India, the Data Protection Board).
In practice the data we hold is an email you sent us, or — if we have contacted you about a role — the contact and background details described in section 3a. To exercise any of these rights, email harsh@hkrefer.online with the subject line "Privacy Request". We aim to respond within 72 hours and, in any event, within the period required by applicable law.
10. Children
This site is intended for working professionals and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.
11. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. The strongest security measure here is structural rather than technical: because your résumé is never transmitted or stored, it cannot be exposed by a breach of our systems.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above will reflect any change. If we ever begin collecting personal data in a materially different way, we will update this policy before doing so.
13. Contact
For any privacy-related question or request:
Harsh Kumar
New Delhi, India
harsh@hkrefer.online