This privacy policy sets out how Absolute Market Research Ltd (Us / We) uses and protects any information that you give Us when you participate in research. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you as a respondent to provide certain information by which you can be identified, it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement. 

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1. WHAT WE COLLECT
We may collect the following information:

• Name (title, first name, last name)

• Contact information (email and postal addresses and telephone number)

• Demographic information (postcode, life-stage, gender)

• Personal details and interests (collected when you respond to a focus group or on-line survey project including your age)

• Other information relevant to focus group or on-line survey projects.

We use different recruitment agencies, client databases as well as in-store recruitment to obtain respondent details. 

2. WHAT WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER 
We have a legitimate interest in obtaining and using the information detailed above for the purposes of market research. We operate under the Market Research Society Code of Conduct where respondents’ names will not be identified in the analysis/report. We require this information: 

• To analyse behaviour by different consumer groups. 

• For internal and HMRC record keeping.

• To call you to confirm attendance at the session in the case of a no-show.

• To conduct a prize draw linked to a survey

 

3. WHO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH

We may need to provide respondent information to our professional services partners to comply with our legal obligations. We will also cooperate with law enforcement requests from within or outside your country of residence.  Data is collected for the purposes of market research and output from the research will be shared with our clients and agencies where required in accordance with our agreement with them.

4. SECURITY

We are committed to ensuring that respondent data are kept secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. Our data is stored using two main servers; Dropbox and Survey Monkey.  Links to both organisations can be found below: https://www.dropbox.com/features/security  https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/

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5. CONTROLLING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

5.1Contact. Respondents may exercise any of the rights described in this section by sending an email to morwenna.ellis@absolute-research.com. Please note that we will ask respondents to verify their identity before taking further action on the request. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within 14 days. Occasionally it may take us longer if the request is particularly complex. In this case, we will notify the respondent and keep them updated.

5.2 Managing personal Information. Respondents can view the information we hold on them by requesting it via email. This includes; title, first name, last name, mobile no., email address, post code and date of birth; and the answers given in respect of focus group projects and on-line surveys taken part in from May 25 2018 onwards. If a respondent requires Us to amend or delete any information or unsubscribe their account and delete all the data we hold, they should contact Us in accordance with section 5.1 

5.3 Data Access and Portability. Respondents have the right to request copies of personal information held by us. They are entitled to request copies of personal information provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.

5.4 Compliance with obligations. We may retain and use personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, we may keep some information for tax, legal reporting and auditing obligations.

5.5 Withdrawing Consent and Restriction of Processing. Where consent has been provided for the processing of personal information as part of a research study, this consent may be withdrawn at any time by sending a communication to Us in accordance with section 5.1. The withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing activities based on such consent before its withdrawal. Respondents have the right to limit the ways in which personal information are used, (i) the accuracy of the information is contested; (ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the personal information; (iii) we no longer need the personal information for the purposes of the processing, but the respondent requires the information for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or (iv) the respondent has objected to the processing pursuant to paragraph 5.7 and pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of Absolute Market Research Ltd override the respondent’s.

5.6 Objection to Processing and Profiling. Respondents are entitled to require Us not to process personal information for certain specific purposes (including profiling) where such processing is based on legitimate interest. In these instances, We will no longer process the personal information for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing or such processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

5.7 Data Security. The security of respondent data is very important to us. With this in mind we will take all appropriate steps to protect respondent data and will treat it with the utmost care and attention. See Policy below.

5.8Lodging Complaints. Respondents can lodge complaints about the data processing activities carried out by Us before the Information Commissioner's Office. In the UK, please read: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/raising-concerns/ for details of how to do this. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with concerns before approaching the ICO so request respondents to contact us in the first instance.
 

5.9 We will not sell, distribute or lease personal information to third parties unless we have your permission, are required by law to do so or it is required for the provision of our services as detailed above.

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5.10 Absolute Market Research Ltd act as the Controllers of data when data collected via one of our data gathering methods; surveys, video interviews, face to face interviews.  On occasion Absolute Market Research Ltd also act as Processors when clients share their data with us for use in distributing surveys or other research opportunities.  All due care is taken in ensuring that this data has permissions to mail for appropriate contact.

 

Data Security policy
The below is in relation to data processed by Absolute Market Research Ltd.  

Digital Data Records: Data stored for the purposes of research and consultancy will be held on a secured computer or server for the duration of the project requirements.  12 months after project completion a full deletion of all contact details and identifiable information will be completed.  This applies to any records kept in project folders, archives, third-party platforms and e-mail correspondence. 

Hard Data Records: Data collected physically, included, but not limited to: Paper questionnaires, Addresses for product distribution, will be held at the company's operating premises for up to 12 months after the project completion.  After this time, they will be shredded and disposed of in a confidential manner.  This is with the exception of, Respondent Incentive Receipt Records which will be kept for up to 7 years after project completion, in accordance with HMRC requirements to hold accounting records for this period of time.

In accordance with "The right to be forgotten", if at any point prior to the outlined deletion periods detailed above, Absolute Market Research Ltd are contacted and requested to delete personal identifiable information from any project records, this will be done within 14 working days and no further contact will be made; this is applicable to both Digital and Hard data records, excluding HMRC records highlighted above.

 

 

This Policy is dated 5th September 2023