SilkExpats

Privacy Policy

Last updated 11 September 2026

SilkExpats (“we”, “us”) runs silkexpats.com and the SilkExpats apps: a job marketplace that connects people looking for work in China with the employers and agencies hiring them. This policy explains what we collect, who can see it, how long we keep it and what you can do about it. Questions: support@silkexpats.com.

What we collect

Your account

  • Your name, email address and whether you are a job seeker or an employer.
  • Your password — stored only as a one-way hash, never in a form anyone can read.
  • Optional details you add: phone number, preferred messenger, city and province, profile photo.
  • For employers: company name, description, address, your role at the company, company photos and the job listings you post.

Your resume (job seekers)

Everything in the resume is added by you, and most of it is optional: work history, education, languages, skills, certifications, references, portfolio links, job preferences, and contact details such as phone, email, WeChat, WhatsApp and Telegram. The resume also has optional fields some people consider sensitive — nationality, date of birth or age range, gender, visa and work-permit status, and whether you have a criminal-record or medical check. Leave out anything you do not want employers to see.

What you do on SilkExpats

  • Applications you send or receive, jobs you save, and messages between employers and applicants.
  • A record of account actions — for example that you signed in, published a listing or applied for a job — with the time, your IP address and the kind of device (iPhone, Android or web). This record does not contain the text of your resume or messages.

Purchases (employers)

Premium plans are bought through Apple’s App Store, and Apple handles the payment. Apple sends us a signed record of the purchase: which plan, when it started and ends, transaction numbers, and a random account code that links the purchase to your SilkExpats account. We never receive your card or bank details.

How we use it

  • To run the service: show listings, deliver applications, open chats, and apply your plan’s features.
  • To keep accounts safe: confirm email addresses, reset passwords, limit repeated attempts, and investigate fraud or abuse.
  • To send account emails — address confirmation, password reset, and a notice when your password changes. We do not send marketing email.
  • To meet legal obligations, such as keeping purchase records for accounting.

We do not sell personal information, we do not show advertising, and we do not use third-party advertising or tracking tools.

Who can see what

  • Everyone, including search engines: live job listings and the company pages of employers with live listings. An employer can hide the company name and the salary on a listing.
  • Employers you apply to: your application, your note, and your resume as it was when you applied. Your contact details are shown only to employers on a paid plan, and never the contact fields you switch off in the resume’s Contact section.
  • Employers searching resumes: if you publish your resume, employers on plans that include resume search can find it. Unpublish or delete it at any time.
  • Chats: only the employer and the applicant in the conversation. We look at messages only when needed to keep the service safe (for example, to investigate a report of fraud) or when the law requires it.
  • Service providers who run parts of SilkExpats for us: our hosting provider (servers and storage), our email delivery provider (account emails) and Apple (App Store purchases). They use the information only to provide those services.
  • Authorities, when the law requires it, or when necessary to protect people’s safety or our users against fraud.

Where it is stored

SilkExpats data is stored on servers run by our hosting provider. Because our users live in many countries, your information may be stored and processed in a country other than the one you live in. Connections to SilkExpats are encrypted.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is open. You can delete your account in the app under Settings → Delete account. When you do:

  • your name, email address, phone number and profile photo are removed;
  • your resume is erased, including the copies that went to employers with your applications, and your notes to them;
  • your job listings are taken down and your company photos removed;
  • you are signed out on every device.

Some things remain: messages you sent stay visible to the person you sent them to; the record of account actions is kept for security and fraud prevention; and purchase records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require. Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store subscription — cancel that in the App Store.

Your choices and rights

  • Edit your profile and resume at any time, and choose which contact details employers may see.
  • Unpublish your resume, or delete it, from the Resume tab.
  • Delete your account from Settings.
  • Ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct or delete it, by writing to support@silkexpats.com.

Depending on where you live, data-protection law (for example in the EU and UK, or China’s Personal Information Protection Law) may give you further rights, such as objecting to certain uses. Write to us and we will reply within 30 days.

Security

We encrypt connections, store passwords only as salted one-way hashes, end every session when a password is reset, and limit access to our systems. No service can promise perfect security; if we learn of a breach that affects you, we will tell you.

Children

SilkExpats is for adults looking for work or hiring. You must be at least 18 to use it.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and for significant changes we will tell you in the app or by email before they take effect.

Contact

Privacy questions and requests: support@silkexpats.com.