Privacy Notice for Research Participants (2018)

Marketwise Strategies Limited is a market research and consultancy company, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. We collect information and data on a broad range of topics. We gather this from:

  • Primary sources – including from students, industry representatives, members of the public, education providers, and from businesses and other organisations); and
  • Secondary sources.

This information and data is used to develop research findings and inform market insight, on behalf of our clients.

In addition to the information stated in this Privacy Notice for Research Participants, Marketwise Strategies is bound by the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct (https://www.mrs.org.uk/standards/code-of-conduct) and is wholly committed to meeting the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation on data privacy. We have, therefore, stringent requirements for the management of data and for the confidentiality provided to research participants and to clients.

What information do we collect?

We will collect personal information about research participants (and potential participants) in order to conduct market research activities. Participants will be (for example) survey respondents, telephone and face-to-face interviewees, and those who take part in focus groups or in online discussions. The legal basis for collecting personal data is consent.

When conducting research activities, we may collect directly from participants, with their freely given consent, information such as:

  • Contact information (e.g. name, job title, email address and/or telephone number)
  • Characteristic information related to the research context, e.g. use of a particular product or service, attendance at an event, or involvement in a particular activity
  • And, demographic information such as gender/sex, ethnicity and age.

In order to invite potential participants to take part in research activities, we may also collect contact information that is freely available online. (For example, we may collect contact details of persons in particular job roles within certain types of organisations, so that we can invite them to take part in primary research activities.)

When taking part in research, participants are required to give their informed consent. All participants are made aware of the purpose of the research that they are taking part in. Participants also have the right to refuse to answer any questions, or take part at all, at any time during the research and without needing to provide a reason. There are no statutory or contractual requirements to provide your personal data.

How is your information used?

We will process information that is collected for legitimate business purposes, including:

  • To conduct market research activities, including conducting primary research (such as surveys, interviews and focus groups) and analysis
  • To invite potential participants to take part in research activities
  • To record who has taken part (or has been invited to take part) in research activities
  • And, to contact participants in relation to the administration of incentives (if applicable).

All research data is treated anonymously unless the respondent/participant has requested that they be identified. We will, in accordance with the MRS Code of Conduct, share anonymised survey/interview comments with clients, but any comments provided are not attributable to any individual or organisation.

Subject to participants’ agreement, we will audio-record telephone or face-to-face interviews and focus groups, so that these can be transcribed: thereby ensuring that we have an accurate record of the discussion for analysis purposes. Some transcription is delivered by a third party (either Transcript Services Ltd or All Typed Up), with whom we have a strict confidentiality agreement.

Research incentives are administered by our Office Manager, who will use participants’ contact details in order to ensure that incentives are delivered and recorded correctly.

Very occasionally, we will provide a client with personal data – such as contact details – relating to research participants but we will do this only with the participant’s formal consent. For example, a participant may request or agree to their contact details being provided to a client so that they can be contacted by the client with more information about their services. We do this only in accordance with the Market Research Society’s Regulation for Using Research Techniques for Non-Research Purposes

Some of our research projects involve working with a delivery partner, such as a consultancy company or a provider of fieldwork services. In those instances, we may share personal or identifying information with those partners. This is solely for the purpose of conducting the research project concerned. Each partner organisation is required to abide by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct when carrying out work on our behalf.

We do not share personal information with any third parties for any purpose other than those given in this Privacy Notice, unless this has been agreed with participants before they take part in research activities.

How is your information stored, and for how long?

All data is held securely on encrypted computers. Marketwise Strategies’ data is also backed up to an off-site data storage facility that is hosted within the UK. Data is never transferred outside of the EU, and is held in accordance with the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct, Data Protection Act 1998, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into effect in the UK and all EU Member States on 25 May 2018.

Personal data collected for research activities is not kept for any longer than three months after the project – for which the data was collected and held – has been completed. For many projects, personal data is deleted immediately after the project is completed.

Further Information

As a research participant, you have a right to request:

  • Access to your personal information that is be held by Marketwise Strategies
  • That your personal data is rectified (if you believe that the data is incorrect)
  • That your personal data is deleted (erased)
  • That processing of your personal data is restricted.

You also have the right:

  • To object to the processing of your personal data
  • To withdraw consent, at any time, to the processing of your data.

If you wish to view, amend, or delete your personal information that we hold, or to object to processing or to withdraw consent, then please email your request to our Data Protection Officer:

Jacquie Potts, Managing Director

[email protected]

(0191) 261 44 26

Should you wish to, you may contact the Market Research Society (//mrs.org.uk) in order to make a complaint or to enquire about your rights. You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who is the supervisory authority within the UK for data protection.

This policy was reviewed in April 2020 and will be reviewed again in April 2021.