Privacy notice

The Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, as part of the Ministry of Defence, are committed to protecting your privacy. When you contact us, visit our websites or share information with us, your personal information is stored securely and processed fairly as required by the Data Protection Act 2018, General Data Protection Regulation and Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations.

This privacy policy explains:

• What information the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force may collect about you.
• How we use this information – confirming both the purpose and legal basis for processing your personal data.
• Your legal rights and our responsibilities as data controller.
• Who will have access to your information. 
• How long your information may be held on our systems.
• The rights to access personal data or request the correction of inaccurate data.
• Who to contact if you have any questions about this policy or the information we hold about you. 
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner. 
• How cookies are used on our websites and the options available to reject these.
  
   

We may update our privacy policy from time to time, so you may want to check the latest version before providing personal data to the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force.

This version was last updated on 17/12/2025. 

We collect personal information when you:

• Register online, request information, or submit an application through our websites. 
• Provide information requested through the Candidate Portal in support of your application. 
• Complete a printed form or questionnaire. 
• Contact us by phone, post, email, or text message.
• Use web chat to talk to a recruiter.
• Participate in any assessment activity during the recruiting and selecting process, whether it is conducted via video, telephone or face to face.

In addition, information is automatically captured each time you visit our websites. We use cookies (as described above) and collect IP addresses (that can uniquely identify a specific computer or network device on the internet) to track visitors to our websites and prepare management reports.

We use the personal information you provide to answer your requests for information, to process your applications to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, and to make improvements to our websites and recruitment practises. 

Your legal rights, and our responsibilities as data controller, are dependent on the legal basis used to process your personal data. 

If you register online or contact us to express an interest in any part of the UK Armed Forces, or you submit an application to join the UK Armed Forces, your personal data will be processed using the following legal basis: Public task - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case it is necessary for the MOD to perform its official duties in relation to recruitment to the Armed Forces, including answering your requests for information, processing your application to join the UK Armed Forces, making improvements to our websites, and conducting data analytics studies to enable equal opportunities monitoring and the improvement of recruiting strategy and process. The right to erasure does not automatically apply to personal data processed under the legal basis of public task.
You may still object to direct marketing, or processing where it can be demonstrated that your rights and interests outweigh those of the MOD.

Regardless of your level of involvement and the legal basis used to process your personal data, you have a right to be informed about how your information will be used. You also have a right to access your personal data, to request the rectification of any inaccuracies, and to be told about the use of automated decision making and profiling. These rights are described in more detail below. 

Your personal information may be handled by the companies we use as data processors to provide marketing services and process your applications. These companies must comply strictly with our privacy policies that prohibit the use of personal data for their own business purposes. 

We will in some circumstances have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We will in some circumstances transfer your personal information outside the UK. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

If you apply to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, your personal data may be shared across the Royal Navy, Army and RAF (a) if you also apply to join these Services, (b) for the purpose of improving our recruitment practises on an aggregated and/or anonymised basis, and/or (c) in the event of an organisational, structural or administrative change within the Ministry of Defence. 

If you agree, the information contained in targeting cookies may be shared with other websites, so the advertising displayed on these sites is more relevant to you. No personal data will be shared with other websites – only IP addresses, which identify a specific computer or network device. 

Your information will be held on our systems for as long as is necessary to answer your requests and maintain a dialogue with those individuals who remain interested in the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force and jobs in the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force.

If you register an interest, but do not submit an application to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, we will keep your personal data for no more than 3 years. This period starts on the day you last contacted the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force and is reset each time you logon to our website or contact us to request further information.
If you apply to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, but do not enter, we will keep your personal data for up to 7 years. 

At the end of this period, we will remove your personal information from our systems or treat the data to remove any personal identifiers that could be used to identify you as an individual.

If you enter Service in the UK Armed Forces, some of your personal data will be retained for 100 years, as required under the Public Record Acts.

Your online account is required to manage your current applications for the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force.

You can ask us to disable your account, but we can only do this if you have no active applications to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force.

You may contact us to withdraw a submitted application at any time, but your personal data will continue to be held on our systems as described above. 

We will only contact or send information about the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force and jobs in the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force to those people who have given us explicit permission to do so.

We will only provide information that is relevant to you.  

If you choose to receive marketing communications, you can tell us whether you want to be contacted by post, phone, email, or text messages. You can change these preferences whenever you contact us or at any time by logging on to your account (if you have registered online).

If you submit an application to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force, we will contact you by the most appropriate means to follow-up and process your application. 

We may use the personal data you provide to make automated decisions that affect you – for example, to decide if you are eligible to join the UK Armed Forces or suitable for a particular role.

We will inform you whenever we use personal data processed solely by automated means to make a decision that has a significant effect on you as an individual. In these cases, we will take reasonable steps to safeguard your legitimate rights and give you the opportunity to challenge any decision taken by automated means.

Many young people are interested in information about the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force. The privacy and security of their personal data is very important to us.

We encourage all parents to supervise their children’s use of the internet and for young people to always seek permission from a parent/guardian before entering any personal data in any website.

We will not process or store personal data about children under 14 years and will not accept registrations or applications to join the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force from individuals under 14 years. 

We ask everyone under 18 years to confirm that they have spoken to a parent/guardian about their interest in the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force and obtained their permission before registering or applying to join.

We require anyone under 18 to provide a signed consent form from a parent/guardian before they attend a recruitment event – including meetings, briefings, information days and visits.

You can request a report detailing the personal information we hold about you. You may also ask us to rectify your personal data if this is incorrect. 

Write to the address below asking us to delete your details from our records.

You need to tell us what personal data you want us to remove, if you have registered an interest or applied to join more than one Service in the UK Armed Forces (British Army, Royal Navy or Royal Air Force).

You have a right to lodge a complaint with MOD information Rights Team or the Information Commissioner if you have a concern about how we are handling your information and your rights under the Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation.

MOD Information Rights Team
Ground floor, zone D
Main Building
Whitehall
London SW1A 2HB
Email: [email protected]

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Information Commissioner's Office website: ico.org.uk

Guidance and forms for requesting personal data held on yourself by the ministry of Defence can be found at Obtain information about yourself held by MOD - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

More information about data protection and your rights can be found on the Information Commissioner's Office website: Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

More information about the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the information made available to the public by the Ministry of Defence, can be found on the MOD pages on the GOV.UK website: www.foi.mod.uk

[1] As per the ICOs definition, Special category data is personal data that needs more protection because it is sensitive.