Privacy Notice
This notice explains what Phase 3 Search LLC ("Phase 3 Search", "we", "us") collects when you use ph3.bio, when you contact us or download our research, and when you take part in an executive search as a client or a candidate. It explains why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. We are a retained executive search firm based in San Diego, California. We do not sell personal information and we do not run advertising trackers on this site.
1. What we collect
Information you give us. When you use the contact form or download a report or framework, we ask for your name, work email, title and company, and on the contact form your phone number, your area of interest and your message. All of it is optional except name and email.
Information collected automatically when you submit a form. To protect the forms from abuse and to understand which of our research leads to real conversations, each submission is stored with your IP address, the approximate location derived from it (country, region and city), your timezone, the network your connection belongs to, your browser's user-agent string, the page you submitted from, the page you first arrived on, the site that referred you, and any campaign parameters in the address (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, gclid). These are the only pages on which we record an IP address.
Information collected while you browse. We use Plausible Analytics, which is cookieless and records only aggregate page views, referrers and the events listed in section 4. It does not collect your IP address in a form we can see, does not create a persistent identifier and does not follow you to other sites. We do not use Google Analytics or advertising pixels.
Candidate information. If we approach you about a role, or you approach us, we hold your professional details: name, contact information, career history, current role and compensation expectations, notes from our conversations, and documents you choose to share (for example a CV). We obtain candidate information from you directly, from publicly available professional profiles, and from referrals within our network.
Client information. If you retain us, we hold the business contact details of the people we work with, the details of the search, and the records needed to run and invoice the engagement.
2. Why we collect it and our legal basis
We use this information to reply to you, to deliver the research you asked for, to run and administer executive searches, to keep our forms free of spam, and to understand which pages and campaigns lead to enquiries so we can spend our time on what is useful. For visitors in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, our legal bases are our legitimate interests in operating a professional search practice and protecting our systems (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR / GDPR), the performance of a contract with clients (Article 6(1)(b)), and your consent where we ask for it. Where our interests are the basis, we have weighed them against your rights and will show you that assessment on request.
3. Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the service providers that run our systems, and only for the purposes above. They act on our instructions under written terms and may not use the information for their own purposes. The categories are:
- Cloudflare: hosts this site, stores form submissions, and runs the Turnstile check that keeps bots off the forms.
- A transactional email service that delivers form submissions to us.
- Plausible Analytics: aggregate, cookieless site analytics.
- A recruiting database where candidate and client records for searches are kept.
- Our email and calendar provider.
- Libsyn: the embedded player on the podcast page, which may set its own cookies when you play an episode. That page is the only place a third-party embed appears.
Candidates: we share your details with a client only when you have told us you are interested in the specific role, and only after the client has agreed to keep them confidential. On confidential searches we put a non-disclosure agreement in place before any names are exchanged, yours included. We never send your details to a client without your knowledge.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to protect our rights, or as part of a sale or reorganisation of the business, in which case this notice will continue to apply.
4. Analytics events we record
Plausible records page views and four anonymous events: a click on a "Start a Diagnostic" button, the first keystroke in the contact form, a successful submission, and a download of the CTO Mandate Framework. Each event carries the page it happened on and, for the first, where on the page the button was. None of them carries your name, email or any form content.
5. How long we keep it
- Form submissions (contact and downloads), including the technical details in section 1: 24 months from submission, after which they are deleted automatically from our database. Our copy of the email notification is kept in line with our normal business records.
- Candidate records: for as long as we are in an active conversation with you about a role, and afterwards while your profile remains relevant to the searches we run, reviewed at least every three years. You can ask us to delete your record at any time (section 7).
- Client and engagement records: for the life of the relationship and then for the period required for tax, accounting and legal purposes.
- Analytics: aggregate only, with no personal data to retain.
6. Where it is processed
We are in the United States and our providers process information in the United States and the European Union. If you are outside the United States, your information will be transferred here. For UK and EEA visitors we rely on the providers' standard contractual clauses and, where a provider is certified, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
7. Your rights and choices
You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to our using it, or ask us to restrict how we use it. Candidates can withdraw from any search at any time and ask to be removed from our database. To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days and will not treat you differently for asking.
California residents. Under the CCPA/CPRA you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how it is used (this notice), to access and delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those permitted by the CPRA.
UK and EEA residents. You also have the right to data portability and to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office). We would rather you raised it with us first.
8. Cookies
ph3.bio does not set advertising or analytics cookies. Cloudflare Turnstile may set a strictly necessary cookie while it verifies that a form submission is not automated. The Libsyn player on the podcast page may set cookies of its own when you play an episode. There is no cookie banner because there is nothing to consent to.
9. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Form submissions are checked by Cloudflare Turnstile and a server-side spam filter before they are stored, and the database is accessible only to us. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we will tell you promptly if we learn of a breach affecting your information.
10. Children
This site and our services are for business use and are not directed to anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
11. Changes
We will update this notice when our practices change and show the date at the top. Material changes to how we use information already collected will be notified to the people affected.
12. Contact
Phase 3 Search LLC, San Diego, California. Questions, requests and complaints: [email protected].