River Research Ltd: Privacy Policy

This privacy policy sets out who we are, how we use and protect any information that you give us when you use this website, if you are the subject of any of the personal data concerned, what rights you have and how to get in touch with us if you need to.

 

Who are we?

We are River Research Limited (River), a fully independent market research company registered in England (Company Number: 6604586).  We act on behalf of third parties in the collection and analysis of data for the purposes of market research. You are likely to be reading this Privacy Notice because you have either taken part in one of our market research surveys or are considering taking part. This Privacy Notice explains what personal data we will collect from you in relation to the survey and what we will do with it.

Please read this Notice in order to ensure that you are happy with how its contents affect you. Participation in our market research surveys is entirely voluntary, and if you have conducted a survey we will take it to mean that you agree with the terms of this Notice. However, if you are not happy with the terms of this Notice you should not participate in the survey, or if you have already participated, you are still entitled to ask that part or all of your interview and/or personal details be destroyed or deleted and we will carry out such a request.

 

River  is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

 

Contact details

The Data Protection Officer for River Research Ltd is Joe Brown, CEO who can be contacted via email at DPO@riverresearch.net

 

What we collect

We may process personal data relating to you if you fall into one of the following categories:

  • 1. You are one of our clients or business partners, or you use our products or services
  • 2. You have been asked to or have participated in one of our surveys (participant)

1.1 INFORMATION COLLECTED IN RELATION TO OUR CLIENTS AND BUSINESS PARTNERS

We may collect the following information during any correspondence, enquiry or communication as follows:

  • Your personal details
    • Your name
    • Your job function or department
    • Your contact details, such as address, phone number, mobile number and email address
  • Information we obtain from communications with you
    • Information about you via various communication channels such as phone, e-mail, via our website, via social media.
    • Information you give us or that we obtain when you use our website, obtain or subscribe to our products or services, supply us with products or services, enquire about a product or service, place an order, or contact us to report a problem, or do any of these things on behalf of the person that you work for.
  • Information we obtain when you use our of our websites:
    • Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.
  • Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number or social media handle used to connect with our customer service team.

1.2 What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • Internal record keeping
  • We may use the information to improve our products and services
  • We will send you our newsletter as per the preferences you submit
  • We may periodically send promotional emails about new services, events, publications and other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided
  • Anything we send you will be related to River. We won’t send you anything from third parties or sell, pass on or give up your information to them either
  • if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information, you may change your mind at any time by unsubscribing to our newsletter at the bottom of the mail you receive
  • We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we are required by law to do so.

1.3 Who do we share your personal data with?

We may where appropriate share your personal data with appropriate third parties including:

    • Our business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into or other dealings we have in the normal course of business with you or the person that you work for;
    • Our auditors, legal advisors and other professional advisors or service providers;
    • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site and subject to the cookie section of this policy.

1.4 When else might we disclose your details?

We may disclose your personal data to third parties:

  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets subject to the terms of this privacy policy
  • If we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our business, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction

1.5 What are the legal basis for our processing of your personal data?

  • Either by consent  – where it is required to have this, we will obtain and rely on your consent in relation to the processing concerned (in relation to any processing we are carrying out with your consent, see below for how to withdraw your consent).
  • Otherwise:
    • For the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into such a contract;
    • For legal obligation compliance or
    • For the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or another person, provided that this will only be in circumstances in which these interests aren’t overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms in relation to personal data

2.1 . INFORMATION WE COLLECT DURING A RESEARCH SURVEY WITH YOU AS A PARTICIPANT

In conducting market research, River will collect data such as demographic, financial, behavioural and attitudinal etc. All participants will have given consent to provision of personal data prior to taking part. No participants will be coerced or pressured into providing personal data to River. Information is given freely.

Use of video content Where River collects data using video recordings, for example, in ethnographic or qualitative studies, participants give prior consent for its use. This data is usually classified as PII (Personal Identifiable Information). River secures consent from participants to broadcast video internally ie for River’s clients and for no other use or purpose and for its original purpose ie for market research. Participants’ or subjects’ rights Prior to participation,

Personally identifiable information that is shared with us to complete the research project can include, but is not limited to, the following data

  • Your name
  • Your address
  • Your email address
  • Your telephone number
  • An audio or video recording of yourself

 

If River is using sample or lists provided by its clients, participants are informed of this source. Furthermore, participants are reassured that the end client has secured permission for the data to be used for market research purposes and that the sample or lists data may already contain pre-populated personal data.

 

2.2 Informed consent before taking part in market research

River informs all individuals of their rights under the EU GDPR legislation 2018. These include the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict or object to processing of personal data.

River  always gains consent from individuals (or subjects) to collect and process their data. When consent is given, River  ensures this is freely given, specific (to the topic being researched), informed (so participants have information on which to choose or decline to take part), with an unambiguous, indication with clear affirmative action made by the participant. Consent is obtained for each separate processing activity.

Separate consent is obtained for initial or preliminary market research or any re-contact or further data collection activity and processing.

 

2.3 Statutory data collection

River does not collect personal data as part of statutory requirements eg national census data.

 

2.4 Further obligations in relation to participating in market research surveys

River is obligated to provide additional information to participants as set out in Section 17 of the MRS Code of Conduct. Prior to taking part in market research, all participants are informed of:

i) The general topic of the data collection

ii) Whether data collection will be recorded and / or observed

iii) Who will have access to live or recorded information

iv) Length in minutes of the data collection duration

v) Any costs likely to be incurred by participants

vi) Anonymised reporting of aggregated data to end clients

 

2.4 Purpose of processing data

Data handled and processed by River will only be done so with the expressed commission and consent of its clients and participants (also known as subjects). Only classification, attitudinal and behavioural data will be collected from participants (consumers or the public, businesses and organisations). Data is reported back to clients to help direct business or organisational strategy and product or service development.

 

3. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR ALL SURVEY PARTICIPANTS AND BUSINESS PARTNERS

 

Where do we process personal data?

We generally store and process your data within the European Economic Area (EEA). Where this is not the case, for some support services or by staff situated outside the EEA who work for one of our suppliers, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that it is subject to appropriate safeguards, such as relying on a recognised legal adequacy mechanism.

How long do we process personal data for?

We process personal data only for so long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, after which it will be deleted or archived unless we need to process it for the purpose of compliance with legal obligations to which we are subject or for another legitimate and lawful purpose.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is 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.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

 

Your rights as an individual

The GDPR legislation provides you with the following rights, you can act on one or more of these rights by emailing the Data Protection Officer: Joe Brown, DPO@riverresearch.net

Your rights are :

  • The right to be informed: Being transparent on the use of your data, including e.g. providing fair processing information through our privacy notice
  • The right of access: Confirmation that we are processing your personal data, allowing you access to the data we process about you and providing you with additional relevant information you may ask us for in relation to such processing.
  • The right to rectification: Having your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete, and third-party processors should also be made to rectify your data if inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to erasure: Delete or remove your personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
  • The right to restrict processing: In certain circumstances, blocking or suppressing the processing of your personal data if requested and where so restricted, storing minimal personal data, and ceasing to otherwise process your personal data.
  • The right to data portability: Moving, copying or transferring your personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way and in an easily readable format.
  • The right to object: If you object to processing your data for certain purposes (including for scientific or historical research and statistics) on grounds relating to your particular situation, ceasing to process your data unless there are legitimate grounds for the continued processing.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling: you should not have decisions made about you if such decision-making was based on automated processing; and such decision has legal or other serious consequences for yourself.

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following way:

  • You may request details of personal information which we hold about you – contact details are at the end of this policy.
  • If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
  • In certain circumstances (normally where it is no longer necessary for us to continue to process it), you may be entitled to request that we erase the personal data concerned.
  • Where we are processing your personal data for marketing purposes or otherwise based on our legitimate interests, you may in certain circumstances have a right to object to that processing.  If you wish to object to any relevant processing, you can contact us in order to do so.
  • Where we are processing personal data relating to you on the basis of your prior consent to that processing, you may withdraw your consent, after which we shall stop the processing concerned.

If you have a complaint about any processing of your personal data being conducted by us, you can contact us or lodge a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Please note that we may be required to ask you for further information in order to confirm your identity before we provide the information requested.

Our contact details:

  • For the invoking of rights please contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO@riverresearch.net), all other enquiries via: Info@River Research.net

Date of this policy

River may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. The current date of this policy is effective from  May 2018.