Research Participant Privacy Policy
Monkey See is a UK based market research company. (Company registration 7487321)
The purpose of this privacy notice is to explain how we use and look after any personal data we may collect from you as part of being a participant in a research project.
Personal data is any information about you where you can be identified, such as your full name, contact details or recognisable images of you. Monkey See is what’s known as the ‘controller’ of the personal information you provide to us.
This policy explains how we collect, manage, use and protect your personal information. In it we cover:
- What personal information we collect and how we use it
- Sharing your information
- Retaining your information
- What are your rights
- Updating this notice
- How to contact us
What personal information we collect and how it is used
How we obtain your details
We collect your personal information in a number of ways:
- When you provide it to us directly with your written or verbal consent. You do not have to give us your consent, but if you don’t, we won’t be able to include you in the research project.
- When you have given it to a third party and you have provided permission to pass your information on to us. (e.g. via a panel provider, a market research recruiter, a company you are a customer of)
- From a company or a product/service you have registered with, where you have given permission to take part in market research to help them improve their products/services.
- When you contact us by any means (e.g. by email or our website)
What we collect
If you are a participant in a research project we will collect a variety of information as required to cover the objectives of that project, which will have been highlighted to you when you were recruited.
We will be very clear with you in the invite and introduction to the project as to our reason for collecting such information, what we will collect and how it will be used and we would only do so with your consent. Most of this will not be personal information from which you can be identified. Examples of personal information we may process include:
- Contact details (e.g.name, telephone number and address)
- Bank details so we can pay incentives/prize draws
- Video/audio recordings from research interviews
- Photographs/images
On other occasions, we may process personal information when we need to do this to fulfil a contract (for example, if you are conducting a research project with us and we need to pay the incentive/prize draw) or where we are required to do this by law or other regulations.
We will rarely collect any sensitive personal information. If we do, we will provide the reason why we need it and give you the option not to answer. Examples of sensitive personal information are race/ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, trade union membership, political opinions, criminal convictions.
How we will use your information
We will use your information:
- To communicate with you
- To transfer money to you (e.g. for an incentive/prize draw)
- To share the results with clients (although unless expressly agreed all data is anonymised and there will be nothing that can personally identify you)
- To bring the research to a wider audience (if you have consented to this)
- To carry out your instructions (e.g. to process a request)
Anything else?
All the personal information we process is processed within the EEA. However, for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance your information may be situated outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This will be done in accordance with guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
2. Sharing your information
We will only share the personal information you give us with the following third parties and for the following reasons:
- With our clients: We share information with our clients, so they use the results of our research. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to share information with our clients so that we can provide services to them.
Please note that unless you have agreed otherwise, we anonymise all the information we gather as part of the research (e.g. survey responses, comments). The only exception is where we use photographs/images that include your face or voice recordings and we will explicitly ask your permission to do this.
- With third parties who support us. We use reputable third parties to help us collect and analyse the data. (e.g. survey scripting, data processing and qualitative recruitment).
- With entities, companies or individuals for legal reasons, for purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigations.
- With entities, companies or individuals to obtain advice: We also share your personal information with external professional advisors such as lawyers or accountants in order to take advice and for the purposes of legal and tribunal proceedings. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests as a business to be able to obtain professional advice from our external advisors about issues that may arise within our business.
We will never sell or rent your personal information to other organisations.
3. Retaining your information
We hold your information only as long as necessary for each reason that we use it. We have provided some examples of the time we will keep your information in this paragraph but you can contact us for more information.
If you make a purchase from us or we pay you (e.g. an incentive for taking part in a project), we will keep the purchase/payment information for a period of seven years for accounting purposes.
If you have taken part in a market research interview (i.e. in-person/over the phone), any contact information we have on you will be deleted within 3 months of the research interview. Any recordings (audio/visual) will be kept for 2 years.
Any selected images, video or audio recording included in the final research report will be deleted no later than 7 years after the project is completed.
4. What are your rights?
You have a number of rights about how the personal information you provide can be used. These are:
- Transparency over how we use your personal information (right to be informed).
- The ability to request a copy of the information we hold about you, which will be provided to you within one month (right of access).
- Update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong (right of rectification).
- Ask us to stop using your information (right to restrict processing).
- Ask us to remove your personal information from our records (right to be ‘forgotten’).
- Object to the processing of your information for marketing purposes (right to object).
- Obtain and reuse your personal information for your own purposes (right to data portability).
- Not be subject to a decision when it is based on automated processing (automated decision making and profiling).
If you would like to know more about your rights under the data protection law, you can find out more at the Information Commissioners Office website.