Terms of Service

Welcome to Handshake!

Updated September 7, 2020

We are a career services platform that connects Students and Employers to democratize the job finding experience in college and beyond.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to your use of the joinhandshake.com website and the Handshake Service (collectively “the Handshake Service” or “the Service”), as well as your relationship with Stryder Corp. (“Handshake”).

In these Terms:

  • the definitions below apply;
  • any terms defined in Data Protection Requirements mean the same in these terms where applicable;
  • the singular includes the plural.

These Terms will change over time. If we make minor changes to the Terms without materially changing your rights, we will post the modified Terms on our website. We will notify you by email, through the Handshake Service, or by presenting you with a new Terms of Service to accept if we make a modification that materially changes your rights. When you use the Handshake Service after a modification is posted, you are telling us that you accept the modified terms.

If you have a written agreement with Handshake that states that it supersedes this Terms of Service (for example if you are a University or Employer Partner), then to the extent there is any conflict between the documents, the provisions in your separate agreement apply.

Handshake takes user privacy seriously. In particular:

  • Any personal information that you provide to us will be dealt with in line with our privacy policy, which explains what personal information we collect, how and why we collect, store, use and share such information, your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a query or complaint about the use of your personal information;
  • Handshake does not permit third parties to collect student data, employer data, job descriptions, or other marketplace information in bulk from our Services through the use of automated scripts (“scraping”), or similar or other technologies or methodologies.

For more information on our privacy practices, please read our Privacy Policy.

Account Creation

You need to have an account to use Handshake. You can create an account on Handshake as a Student seeking a job or career advice, as an Employer looking for exciting new talent, or as a university professional. You agree not to misrepresent any information about yourself in creating or using an account.

Creating a Student Account Associated With Your University:

To create a Student account, you must be at least 16 years old to use this Service. If you are not 16 years of age, please have a parent or legal guardian fill out this form and submit it here to use the Platform.

You may create your Student account because you are a Student at a Handshake University Partner (“University Partner”). University Partners use Handshake as a service provider to manage their internal and external university functions, such as scheduling meetings with Students, arranging events, and passing resumes to interested Employers. When University Partners signup for Handshake, they send us personal information about their Students so that Handshake can provide these services.

Your University will send you an email with information about how to enable your Student account. After you do so, and we confirm your association with our University Partner, we pre-populate some areas of your profile with information your University has provided. We encourage you to review this information for accuracy and completeness. Some of this information may be locked by your University and you cannot edit it using Handshake. If any inaccuracies are found, please update the information or contact your University accordingly.

Creating a Student Account Not Associated With a University Partner:

You may create an account on Handshake if your school is not a University Partner by using your .ac.uk or approved university email address.

Creating an Employer Account:

To create an Employer account you must either associate yourself with a current Handshake Employer Partner (“Employer Partner”) and be approved by that Employer or create a new Employer Account. Employer Partners do not have access to any student profiles unless they are approved by Handshake, or the student’s University, to access student information that the student chooses to share.

You have the option to provide additional information when creating your account, such as a profile picture or professional skills, and to upload documents, such as your resume or transcript. Any information or content you upload directly to the Handshake Service is governed by these Terms.

You agree that any information you provide through account registration is accurate, current, and complete, and you agree to update your information as necessary to maintain its truth and accuracy. Also, please note you are prohibited from creating an account for anyone other than yourself, unless you have received express authorization from an employer or client to do so on their behalf.

Student Account Guidelines

Your Handshake profile is your first impression for employers around the world. As a rule of thumb, keep your content and communications on Handshake professional. Specifically, you are not allowed to post any violent, nude, discriminatory, hateful, or sexually suggestive photos or other similar content via the Service. You are responsible for all content you upload to Handshake.

Handshake allows you to view profiles and send messages to other Students and Employers through the Service, including students at other Universities or institutions. You agree not to stalk, defame, bully, harass, abuse, threaten, intimidate, or impersonate other people or entities. You also agree not to use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, including spam, copyright infringement, identity theft, or fraud.

You agree you will not attempt to restrict another user from using or enjoying the Service and you must not encourage or facilitate violations of these Terms of Service or any other Handshake terms.

Making Your Profile “Public” or “Private”

Students are given the choice to set their profile as “private” or “public” when they first activate or create their Handshake account. When a Student sets their profile to “public”, they can also control the general audiences that can access and view their profile. For Student accounts initiated by University Partners, student information provided to Handshake by the University is private by default.

If a profile is set to “private,” Employers and other Students will not be able to see any information about you. Where available, all Career Center features, such as scheduling and appointments, are still accessible to private profiles. You may still apply for job opportunities when your profile is set to private. When you submit an application for a job with your profile set to private, limited information provided by you or directly by your University will become visible to that specific Employer—including your name, the University you attend, and your educational college (engineering, liberal arts, etc.)—but any other personal information in your profile will be hidden or masked, including your profile photo, grades, sponsorship status, professional skills, personal bio, and resume.

You can change your privacy settings at any time while your account is active by opening User Settings from the Account Dashboard. This includes changing your profile from public to private, or making your grades, which is private by default, public.

Recording of Handshake Communications

Wiretapping laws in some countries prohibit recording individuals without their awareness and consent. You may not initiate an audio or video recording of any third party in violation of the law. By initiating any audio or video recording through the Service, you represent and warrant that you have express permission from all persons appearing in the audio or video recording for all potential uses by Handshake of such audio or video recording where required by law. You agree that we are not responsible and we will not be liable for your failure to inform others that you are recording them and/or your failure to obtain their prior consent.

Continuing Support

Handshake is committed to helping you succeed in the professional world during school and beyond. After you graduate or leave your University, we encourage you to update your contact information with a personal email address, so you won’t lose access to your profile once your student email address expires, and to keep your profile current. Any information you share directly with Handshake is subject to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

Creating an Employer Account

When you create a Handshake Employer account, we request contact information, including email address and telephone number, to provide a point of contact for Universities and administrative staff and which will be made available on your public profile. You have the option to set your profile as “public” or “private” during account creation, and may change your account visibility at any time by opening User Settings from the Account Dashboard. We will not use your phone number to send any commercial or marketing messages to you from third parties. You agree to provide accurate and current information and to correct any misrepresentations immediately upon discovery.

When you create a Handshake Employer account, all Universities will have access to information used to create the account. Students will only have access to that information if you make your profile public. Once your account has been approved by participating Universities, you will receive Student data through our Service. You are prohibited from disclosing or sharing this information with other parties, and agree to keep student data confidential. You shall only use student data to provide the employer services to the student and not use, sell, or disclose Handshake Data for any purposes including data analytics, data monetization, advertising, marketing, or any other purpose even if such Handshake Data is aggregated, anonymised or de-identified.  You agree to handle and maintain collected student data with equivalent or superior standards to those described in our Privacy Policy, and as set out below. You also agree not to use the Service to send spam or other unauthorized communications, and you agree not to use any collected student data for purposes not authorized by Handshake.  These prohibitions are addressed in further detail below.

Employer Account Guidelines

Through the use of the Service, you will be able to search and filter Student results based on a wide range of criteria. You agree to maintain a fair and equitable recruitment process when selecting Student candidates. You also agree not to discriminate based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status as prohibited by law. You have the ability to contact students directly through the Service. By using this Service, you agree not to stalk, defame, bully, harass, abuse, threaten, intimidate, or impersonate any people or entities.

Employer accounts are administered by designated Employer account administrators. If the employer chooses to allow additional individual employees to access the Handshake Service through the Employer Account, you agree that the account administrators are responsible for the use of the Service by those individual employees, including requests related to personal data collected from those individual employees. You acknowledge and agree that Handshake is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of an administrator's organization, which may be different than these Terms or our Privacy Policy.

In relation to Student or University Personal Data you as an Employer agree:

  • only to use such personal data for Acceptable Use purposes;
  • strictly in compliance with Data Protection Requirements, these Terms and the Handshake privacy policy;
  • not to process, share, transfer, retain or otherwise use such personal data in any manner to which a Student or University has not given express and informed consent;
  • to indemnify us from and against all losses, damages, claims, penalties, fines, costs (including legal costs), expenses and judgments arising from any breach by you of any of your obligations above.

You acknowledge and agree, moreover, that, to ensure your compliance with these Terms, Handshake may review the application flow associated with any new post before it becomes available to applicants on the Handshake Service.

Third Party Recruiter Guidelines

Handshake is excited to offer as many career opportunities to Students as possible, including those offered by third party recruiters. However, we do not permit outside services to collect Student data, employer data, job descriptions, or other marketplace information in bulk through the use of automated scripts (“scraping”), or similar or other technologies or methodologies. To protect our users and their data privacy, moreover, you may not use the data of students or other users for the purpose of marketing any employment opportunities other than the opportunity the applicant applied to through the Handshake Service.  For the same reason, you may not store any student’s or other user’s data for the purpose of (1) marketing employment opportunities to the applicant in the future; or (2) allowing any third party to use the data for marketing or any other reason.  Third party recruiters are also prohibited from requiring Students to create an account on a third-party platform unaffiliated with the company or brand providing the employment role. Any violation of these or any other Terms, at our discretion, may result in suspension or termination of the account(s) associated with you or your recruitment service.

University Accounts

Universities retain access to data as part of their administrative duties. University employees are able to view any student profile associated with their University, including hidden data and private profiles.

No Spam

We want Handshake to be a platform where employers and recruiters can connect with students and other users in a way that is productive for all involved.  To that end, while we allow employers and recruiters to contact students and other users, we do not allow you to use the Service to send unsolicited marketing messages or broadcasts (i.e., spam).

Spam can take many forms, and our rules are meant to address a wide range of inappropriate content or messaging, including:

  • Unsolicited messages that aim to drive traffic or attention from the Handshake Service to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives not directly related to a job opportunity posted on the platform;
  • Bulk or repeated identical messages, or high-volume messages with a low student response rate;
  • Messages that fail to comply with applicable anti-spam laws and regulations.

If we determine that you have sent spam or other unauthorized content, we may take any action we deem necessary to protect our users’ experience or the Service, including demanding that you cease violating these Terms, suspending your student messaging privileges, or suspending or terminating your account(s).

General Guidelines for Students and Employers

The Content You Submit Belongs to You

Handshake does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. By making Your Content available on or through the Service you grant to Handshake a non-exclusive, perpetual, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute Your Content only in connection with operating and providing the Handshake Service.

You are responsible for Your Content. You represent and warrant that you own Your Content or that you have all rights necessary to grant us a license to use Your Content as described in these Terms. You also represent and warrant that Your Content and the use and provision of Your Content on the Handshake Service will not: (a) infringe a third party’s patent, copyright, trade mark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (b) violate, or encourage any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability; (c) be fraudulent, false, misleading or deceptive; (d) be defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive; (e) promote discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group; (f) be violent or threatening or promote violence or actions that are threatening to any person or entity; or (g) promote illegal or harmful activities or substances.

We respect other people’s rights, and expect you to do the same. If you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights, we will disable your account when appropriate.

Our Intellectual Property Belongs to Us

Handshake Content is protected by copyright, trade mark, patent, trade secret and other laws, and, as between you and Handshake, we own and retain all rights to the Handshake Content and the Service. You will not remove, alter or conceal any copyright, trade mark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Handshake Content and you will not reproduce, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works based on, perform, display, publish, distribute, transmit, broadcast, sell, license or otherwise exploit our Content.

The Handshake name and logo are our trade marks, and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons and scripts are service marks, trademarks and/or trade dress of Handshake, and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without prior written permission.

Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account(s) for any breach of these Terms of Service or any other policies associated with the Services.

Account and Website Security and Integrity

While we take steps to protect your data from unauthorized access, security is a team effort. You are responsible for keeping your password secret and secure, and we encourage you to update your password regularly.

By using this Service, you agree not to change or modify the Service to falsely imply that it is associated with another website. Creating accounts through unauthorized means, including scripts, bots, or automated crawlers is prohibited, as is collecting content through crawling, scraping, or caching of user profiles without our express consent.

You must not attempt to restrict another user from using or enjoying the Service and you must not encourage or facilitate violations of these Terms of Service or any other Handshake terms.

No Monitoring

You are solely responsible for your interaction with other users of the Service, whether online or offline. You agree that we are not responsible or liable for your conduct. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor or become involved in disputes between you and other users. Exercise common sense and your best judgment when interacting with others, including when you submit or post Content or any personal or other information.

Third Party Links

Our Service contains links to third-party websites, apps, services and resources (collectively “Third-Party Services”) that are not under Handshake’s control. We provide these links only as a convenience and are not responsible for the content, products or services that are available from Third-Party Services. You acknowledge sole responsibility and assume all risk arising from your use of any Third-Party Services.

Breach and Enforcement of These Terms

We reserve the right to refuse access to the Service to anyone for any reason at any time. We reserve the right to delete any username or account for any reason. We may, but have no obligation to, remove, edit, block, and/or monitor Content or accounts containing Content that we determine in our sole discretion violates these Terms of Service.

Controlling Terms

Handshake is continually improving its Service, and we may occasionally offer special features or functionality which include additional Terms of Service. If any of the additional Terms conflict with the Terms described below, the additional Terms control.

Warranties

Whilst we try to make sure that the website is accurate, up-to-date and free from bugs, we cannot promise that it will be. Furthermore, we cannot promise that the website will be fit or suitable for any purpose. Any reliance that you may place on the information on the website is at your own risk. Further, Handshake does not endorse third party Content and has no responsibility for third party Content.

We may suspend or terminate operation of the website at any time as we see fit.

Content is provided for your general information purposes only. It does not constitute technical, financial or legal advice or any other type of advice and should not be relied on for any such purposes.

Whilst we try to make sure that the website is available for your use, we do not promise that the website is available at all times nor do we promise the uninterrupted use of it.

By accessing or using the service you represent and warrant that your activities are lawful in every jurisdiction where you access or use the service.

Users hereby give any consents required by law for the services to operate as set forth in these Terms of Service.

Limitation of Liability

Except for any legal responsibility that we cannot exclude in law (such as for death or personal injury) or arising under applicable laws relating to the protection of your personal information, we are not legally responsible for any:

losses that:

  1. neither we nor you were able to predict or foresee when these Terms were formed should any part of them be breached by us; or
  2. were not caused by any breach by us of our agreement with you;
  3. business losses; and
  4. losses to non-consumers.

Handshake is not responsible for the actions, content, information, or data of third parties..

General

We shall have no liability to you for any breach of these Terms caused by any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control including, but not limited to, strikes, lock-outs or other industrial disputes; breakdown of systems or network access; pandemic or epidemic; or flood, fire, explosion or accident.

No one other than a party to these Terms has any right to enforce any of these Terms.

Governing Law

The Terms of Service and the resolution of any Disputes shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England.

Dispute Resolution

We want to address your concerns without needing a formal legal case. If you wish to make a complaint we will try to resolve any dispute. You should contact  us here. We'll then contact you through email.

If you want to take court proceedings, the relevant courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to these Terms.

Entire Agreement

If you are using the Service on behalf of a legal entity, you represent that you are authorized to enter into an agreement on behalf of that legal entity. These Terms of Service and any other policies referred to in them constitute the entire agreement between you and Handshake and governs your use of the Service, unless you have a separate signed agreement with Handshake that states it supersedes this Terms of Service.

You will not assign the Terms of Service or assign any rights or delegate any obligations hereunder, in whole or in part, whether voluntarily or by operation of law, without the prior written consent of Handshake. Any purported assignment or delegation by you without the appropriate prior written consent of Handshake will be null and void. Handshake may assign these Terms of Service or any rights hereunder without your consent.