What we tell applicants before they start: our notice, line by line
Before an applicant starts a Calavion exercise they must read and acknowledge a notice. It says what is recorded, who sees it, what Calavion does and does not decide, who at Calavion can access the record, what is not recorded, that no retention period is fixed, and that the work is a prepared exercise, not the company’s real systems. This page publishes that notice in full, the version in use as of 2026-10-20, with a note on why each point is there.
Why publish it
An applicant is asked to do work and have it recorded. We think they should be able to read exactly what they are agreeing to before they accept an invitation, not only after. The notice is not legal consent language. It states what the product does today, in plain words, and nothing else. It states no retention period because none is fixed, it names no legal basis, and it makes no promise about what an employer does with a record.
Each quoted block below is the notice text exactly as an applicant sees it.
The notice
Before you begin
This is a work exercise set by the company that invited you. Please read how it works.
1. What is recorded
Everything you write and every action you take is recorded, along with when you did it and the state the work was in as a result.
Why it is there: the record is the product. Replay is built from it, so an applicant should know that messages, actions and timing are all kept. Calavion does not record a screen or webcam (point 7).
2. Who sees it
The employer that invited you sees this record, called a Replay. They use it to talk with you about the work and to make their own hiring decision.
Why it is there: the record goes to the employer, not only to Calavion. The employer decides.
3. Automatic checks of what you did
Calavion may check your recorded actions against criteria your employer approved before you began. A check can report that something was done, was not done, needs a person to read it, or could not be checked, and it points to the moments in your Replay that support it. The employer sees these findings. The checks do not treat a technical interruption as a failure. Nothing you write is graded automatically: a check can only record that a message was sent, and a person reads what it said.
Why it is there: a check of recorded actions against approved criteria is something an applicant would otherwise not know about. The point also says what a check cannot do.
4. Comparing applicants and making a shortlist
The employer can look at the records of several applicants side by side, with what each did against the approved criteria and links to the moments in the Replay they come from. A person at the employer may then choose some applicants and put them in an order of their own, and must write down a reason where that order goes against the criteria the employer approved. That order is the employer’s own working list. Calavion does not make it.
Why it is there: an applicant’s record may be read next to other applicants’ records, and a person may order a shortlist. The order is the employer’s own.
5. No automatic decision
Calavion does not produce a score, and it does not rank applicants or make a hiring decision by itself. People at the employer decide who is on a shortlist, in what order, and who is hired.
Why it is there: it states what the software does not do, in the same notice as what it does.
6. Calavion access
Calavion staff can technically access the record.
Why it is there: it is true, and an applicant should not be left to assume only the employer can see it.
7. What is not recorded
Calavion does not record your screen or webcam.
Why it is there: an applicant working in a browser may reasonably wonder. The exercise records what is done inside it, not the applicant’s device.
8. How long it is kept
Calavion has not set a fixed period for how long the record is kept. If you have questions about your data, ask the employer who sent you this link.
Why it is there: no retention period is enforced today, so the notice does not state one. We would rather say that plainly than name a period we do not enforce.
9. A controlled exercise
You are working in a prepared exercise, not in the company’s real systems. Nothing you do here reaches real customers.
Why it is there: the work is a prepared version of real work. Applicants should know nothing they do touches a real customer.
Acknowledgement
I have read this and understand that my messages, actions and timing are recorded and shown to the employer, that my actions may be checked automatically against criteria the employer approved, and that the employer may compare my record with other applicants’ and make an ordered shortlist.
An applicant must acknowledge this before the session can begin.
Earlier versions
This is the third version of the notice. Earlier versions are kept unchanged: an applicant who accepted an earlier version is treated as having seen the exact words of that version, never as having accepted a later one. When the product changes what it does, the notice changes by adding a new version.
What we do not know
- Retention. No fixed period is set or enforced. We have not decided one.
- Legal review. The notice has not been reviewed by counsel. We make no statement about whether it meets any law or regulation.
- Requests about data. The notice sends questions to the employer who sent the link. A route for applicants to ask Calavion directly about access, correction or deletion is manual and not yet confirmed.
Related
- For applicants:
/for-candidates/ - What a Replay shows:
/replay/ - How we read evidence:
/methodology/