Your privacy is important to us. We take great care in protecting your privacy and the information you provide whilst conducting research with us (whether hosted on our own website, other websites on our behalf or by any other means, including by telephone or face-to-face). We are committed to meeting the requirements of the following laws and codes:
- The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Data Protection Act 1998 and the new Data Protection Act which enacts GDPR requirements
- Market Research Society’s (MRS) Code of Conduct
- ICC/ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) International Code on Market and Social Research.
Clarity in Marketing is registered with the ICO, registration number ZA819478. It is not our aim to sell or promote anything. We conduct market research using scientific methods and we commit, in obtaining your cooperation, not to mislead you about the nature of the research or how the findings will be used. Your responses will be treated as confidential unless you consent to being identified. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely and in accordance with all applicable Data Protection legislation.
Our Research Invitations & Requests
We will not mislead you about the nature of the research or how the data will be used. If you are invited to take part in research, it will be because of one of the following reasons:
- You were selected due to owning a product, using a service, or a visit to, one of the organisations we work for
- You have given permission for a company to supply your details to a third party for research purposes
- You have taken part in previous research administered by Clarity in Marketing and given us your permission to contact you in the future for research purposes
- You have responded to an invitation to take part in an online survey shared by an organisation you have a relationship with.
If Clarity in Marketing has contacted you and you do not believe you have given your permission or wish your name to be removed from the database, let us know and we will remove you from the contact list for that particular research project and inform the relevant organisation who supplied your details. We never knowingly invite children under the age of 16 to participate in research studies without taking measures to ensure appropriate consent from a responsible adult.
Information We Collect
We will collect your information when you conduct research with us. When we contact you, we generally do so for one of the following purposes:
- To invite you to participate in research
- To confirm the details of the research you have agreed to take part in
- To conduct research with you
- To validate answers/views you gave in a recent research we conducted (if you have consented to us doing so)
- To update and to ensure that our records of your personal information are correct (applicable to those consenting to being part of an ongoing community or panel)
- To notify you if you have won a prize draw that we administered or to provide you with an incentive for taking part.
The information we collect can contain your personal opinions as well as personal identifiable information such as name, address, postcode, gender, occupation, age, date of birth, email address, telephone number etc. We may occasionally collect sensitive personal information such as political views. Where relevant to the research being undertaken, we may collect business contact information, such as, company name, job title, and department. In addition, for online surveys we will record your IP address, which type of browser you are using and other basic metrics. We do not do any invisible processing of data from your computer. We will only collect and use personal information in accordance with this policy to the extent deemed reasonably necessary to serve our legitimate business purposes, and we will maintain appropriate safeguards to ensure the security, integrity, accuracy and privacy of the information you have provided. Clarity in Marketing makes reasonable efforts to keep personal information in its possession or control, which is used on an ongoing basis, accurate, complete, current and relevant, based on the most recent information available to us. We rely on you to help us keep your personal information accurate, complete and current by answering our questions honestly. Personally identifiable information collected will be kept for no longer than 12 months from project commencement unless stated specifically at the time of taking part.
How We Use Your Information
The personal information we collect is:
- Combined with the responses/views/opinions of others who participated in the same research and reported back anonymously to the client that commissioned the study
- Used on an aggregated basis to determine which groups of people think certain things more than others
- Used to administer and operate prize draws/incentives (further details on this use of personal information can be found in the applicable Prize Draw/Incentivisation terms and conditions available on request or at the point of undertaking the research)
- Occasionally used to re-contact you to validate your responses (if you have consented to us doing so).
All of your survey responses are treated as confidential. We will never intentionally disclose your personal information or individual survey responses to the client that commissioned the study or any third parties unless:
- You request or consent to sharing your identifying information and individual responses
- In the rare but possible circumstance that the information is subject to disclosure under judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, orders or for similar legal or regulatory requirements.
Who We Share the Information With
We will not sell your personal information to third parties. From time to time we may employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. They will have access to the personal information needed to perform their functions, but will not use it for other purposes. They must also process the personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the UK’s Data Protection Act/laws. By conducting our research you consent to us transferring your personally identifiable data to other companies within the EEA only for the purposes mentioned above. We shall endeavour to ensure that your personal information is kept confidential and secure. Processing of prizes/incentives from the result may result in your contact details being passed onto a third party i.e. Amazon, M&S, John Lewis etc. This would purely be in order for the prize/incentive to be sent out to you electronically and would not result in any marketing or follow up.
Controller
Where we are conducting research with contacts of a client organisation, Clarity in Marketing act as data processors for that client and you should refer to their data and privacy policy. We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions about this Policy. If you have any questions about this Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below: Data Privacy Manager Clarity in Marketing Limited Hallmark House Downham Road Ramsden Heath Essex CM11 1PU Email address: [email protected]
Your Rights
Your rights concerning your personal data are listed below. To exercise any of these rights, please submit your request to our Data Privacy Manager and we will carry out any request to the extent required by applicable law.
- The right of access – you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you (along with certain other details) and we will show you free of charge (restrictions apply). We’ll need you to verify who you say you are.
- The right to rectification – if the information we have about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you’re entitled to have it rectified. If we’ve shared your information with others, we’ll let them know about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your information with.
- The right to erasure – you can ask us to delete or remove your information in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it or you withdraw your consent (where applicable). If we’ve shared your information with others, we’ll let them know about the erasure where possible.
- The right to restrict processing – you can ask us to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of your information in certain circumstances, such as where you contest the accuracy of that information or object to us processing it. It won’t stop us from storing your information but we’ll tell you before we lift any restriction. If we’ve shared your information with others, we’ll let them know about the restriction where possible.
- The right to data portability – you have the right, in certain circumstances, to obtain the information you’ve provided us with (in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format) and to reuse it elsewhere.
- The right to object – you can ask us to stop processing your information if we are: relying on our own or someone else’s legitimate interests to process your information; processing your information for direct marketing; or processing your information for research.
- The right to withdraw consent – if we rely on your consent (or explicit consent) as our legal basis for processing your information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
- The right to complain – You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please get in touch with us in the first instance.