Terms of Use
The terms that govern use of the Public Service Lateral Network platform for professionals, agencies, and administrators.
PSLN security notice: PSLN is a pre-application connection platform. It does not perform background investigations, does not provide candidate rankings, does not verify suitability for employment, and does not make hiring decisions.
Role-based access control
Access is enforced by role: professionals, agency users, agency admins, and PSLN admins each see only the data and actions permitted to their role. Agency users cannot access candidate private identity, and professionals control all release decisions.
Authentication & multi-factor
Accounts require email verification at registration. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is available as an opt-in layer in your Security settings. We strongly recommend enabling MFA for agency admin accounts.
Strong password requirements
Passwords must be at least 12 characters and include uppercase, lowercase, a number, and a special character. Reused or commonly-breached passwords are discouraged.
Session timeout
For your protection, sessions expire automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity. You will be asked to sign in again to resume your session.
Audit & consent logs
Every significant action — profile views, interest requests, approvals, identity releases, blocks, and deletions — is recorded in immutable audit and consent logs. Professionals can review their consent history at any time.
Candidate-controlled data & deletion
Professionals can pause all agency contact, hide their profile, block specific agencies, preview exactly what agencies see, and request full deletion of their profile and associated data at any time.
Verified agency email & no shared accounts
Agency contact emails must be verified before a landing page is published. Shared agency accounts are not permitted — each team member uses an individual account, and an email cannot belong to more than one agency team.
Admin review of agency accounts
PSLN admins review and approve every agency landing page before it goes live, and oversee agency conduct, verified email status, and reported incidents.
Data export restrictions
Bulk export of candidate data is restricted. Professionals may request a copy of their own data for review; agency bulk export is not available. All export requests are logged and reviewed by PSLN.
What PSLN is — and is not
Platform scope and disclaimer
PSLN Does Not
- ✕Make hiring decisions
- ✕Conduct background investigations
- ✕Verify suitability for employment
- ✕Verify POST certification unless explicitly stated
- ✕Provide consumer reports
- ✕Rank candidates
- ✕Score character
- ✕Replace agency hiring processes
- ✕Contact current employers
- ✕Guarantee employment
- ✕Guarantee candidate quality
- ✕Guarantee agency hiring outcomes
- ✕Store criminal justice records
- ✕Store internal affairs (IA) files
- ✕Store polygraph results
- ✕Store psychological evaluation results
- ✕Store medical records
PSLN Does
- Provide a confidential pre-application connection platform
- Allow candidates to control identity disclosure
- Allow agencies to present career opportunities
- Facilitate candidate-approved communication
- Maintain consent and audit records
- Support ethical lateral recruiting
PSLN is a confidential pre-application connection platform, not a hiring agency, background investigation provider, or consumer reporting agency. All hiring decisions, background checks, employment verification, and suitability determinations remain the sole responsibility of the agency. Use of PSLN does not guarantee employment, candidate quality, or any hiring outcome.
Platform liability boundary
PSLN is a confidential pre-application connection platform — not a hiring agency, background investigation provider, consumer reporting agency, or records repository. PSLN does not make hiring decisions, conduct background investigations, verify suitability for employment, verify POST certification unless explicitly stated, provide consumer reports, rank candidates, score character, replace agency hiring processes, contact current employers, or guarantee employment, candidate quality, or any hiring outcome.
PSLN does not store criminal justice records, internal affairs (IA) files, polygraph results, psychological evaluation results, or medical records. All hiring decisions, background checks, employment verification, POST certification verification, and suitability determinations remain the sole responsibility of the hiring agency.
PSLN does provide a confidential pre-application connection platform, allows professionals to control identity disclosure, allows agencies to present career opportunities, facilitates candidate-approved communication, maintains consent and audit logs, and supports ethical lateral recruiting across law enforcement, fire service, EMS, and dispatch.
Data retention & deletion
Candidate data: Professionals can pause or hide their profile at any time. A candidate may request deletion; the profile is soft-deleted immediately (hidden from all agencies, identity vault locked) and permanently deleted after a 30-day window unless legally required to retain limited audit records. Identity release consent and audit records are retained for legal/audit purposes but do not expose unnecessary private data.
Agency data: Inactive agency accounts may be suspended, revoking candidate feature access. Expired subscriptions lose access to candidate features; the agency landing page remains inactive until renewed or deleted. Agency misuse records are retained for compliance.
Audit logs: Audit logs are retained for a defined retention period and are protected from modification or deletion by normal administrators. Only PSLN Super Admins may modify or delete audit records.
Export files: Secure export files expire after a set period (24 hours for sensitive exports, 7 days for standard exports). Sensitive exports are downloadable only by the requesting Super Admin. Every export generation and download is logged to the audit trail.
Acceptance of terms
Professionals and agencies must accept these Terms of Use before creating an account on PSLN. Account creation is blocked until acceptance is recorded. Acceptance is logged in the platform audit trail.
Agency code of conduct
Agencies must electronically sign the PSLN Agency Code of Conduct and Platform Participation Agreement before accessing candidate search, interest requests, messaging, analytics, or released candidate data. Agencies agree to respect candidate anonymity, honor consent, never contact candidates outside PSLN until identity is released, refrain from negative comparisons against other agencies, and re-sign annually. Acceptance is recorded with signer identity, timestamp, IP address, and agreement version in the PSLN audit trail.
Incident reporting
If you believe a security incident, privacy violation, or conduct breach has occurred, report it through our confidential incident reporting form. Reports are reviewed by PSLN administrators.
Last updated July 2026 · Public Service Lateral Network