PRIVACY



PRIVACY POLICY OF CONSUMER FLUENT GROUP LTD

WHO IS CONSUMER FLUENT AND HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?

When we refer to ‘Consumer Fluent’ in this Privacy Policy, we mean Consumer Fluent Group Ltd.  Consumer Fluent has its HQ in Maidenhead, UK. You can find out more about Consumer Fluent on our website at www.consumerfluent.com If there’s anything you’re unsure about in this Privacy Policy, feel free to contact us via the contact form on the site.

We are responsible for the processing of data that we collect from or about “you”. For example, we might collect your data in the course of your participation in a market research activity, during a business relationship or when you visit our website. Although the UK is no longer a member of the European Union, we process your personal data in compliance with all applicable European Union data protection laws (GDPR) and other statutory provisions. We also ensure that we are COPPA compliant for research purposes.  We are a market research and brand consultancy. We adhere to the professional standards which ESOMAR and the Market Research Society set out for research professionals.

DEFINITION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE DATA
What is personally identifiable data, ‘PID’? PID is data that directly or indirectly identifies you as an individual.  You may provide PID indirectly meaning that when data is combined with other information, for example, your name, postal address, email address and phone number, or a unique device identifier it becomes ‘personally identifiable’.  We do not gather or store PID without your consent.

WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Cookies, functionality and information about your visit to our website.  We collect certain data automatically from your visit to our website or if you use any of the functionality on our website (such as the chat function). On its own, this is not necessarily personally identifiable data. The data may include some or all of the following: how you connect to the internet and engage with our site (including device used, browser, IP location by city or region, device system software, pages visited and duration of visit).  To enable you to access our website, use the functionality available on it and to enquire about our services, we will use the data from your visit for reporting and analytical purposes (e.g. aggregated data on entry and exit points on the site, geography, repeat visits, source of traffic) to enable us to improve our products and services and provide appropriate levels of support to our customers.  We do not use cookies to re-target you with advertising in any way.

Contact Forms, Enquiries and Newsletters.  If you are a business, when you enquire about any Consumer Fluent services or download content from this website we will ask you to provide some contact information. Contact information may include some or all of the following: Full Name, Business Phone number, Mobile Phone number and Business Email address.  We will only retain this information for as long as is necessary to provide the requested product or service or unless you consent to our retaining it for longer. We may also request and store your marketing preferences on any contact form or newsletter sign up form so that we know whether or not you want to hear from us for marketing purposes and, if so, by what channels. Any information you receive from us in that manner comes with an unsubscribe option.

Research Participants.  If you are a research participant, we also collect the information which you have consented to give us when you agreed to participate in a Consumer Fluent research activity. This will vary according to the research objectives however you can opt out of giving any personal data at any time. We only collect the minimum information we need to conduct our research.  We aggregate the opinions and information you share with us with that of other participants and only use the data for market research purposes. Please also refer to the respective consent forms of the specific market research projects for more detailed information.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

Market Research
.  By gathering and analysing research and data, voluntarily given by consumers, the insight which this research and data provides helps businesses to improve the products and services they offer. We use various techniques to collect the candidate’s opinions and reactions in the research including the use of video or audio recordings which enable the researcher to analyse non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions in lieu of articulated answers.  We may use your details to contact you by email, SMS, on the phone or through the post to arrange your participation in the research. These details are usually provided by a recruiter who will also gain your consent for us to contact you. We will not use your contact information to send marketing communications.  We rely on consent for our market research activities described here. The consent given will be for very specific activities and will be fully and clearly explained when we ask for consent and it will have very clear consent option online or a physically signed document. For any children (under 18 years old) we always get consent from a parent or guardian.

We’ll keep your personal information for the periods set out in the section ‘What information we collect’ above, and where we were not able to give a specific period, we will keep it only as long as we need it to provide the Consumer Fluent’s products and services our clients have signed up to or which you, as research participants, have consented to. We may also keep it to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our rights. These reasons can vary from one piece of information to the next and depend on the type of engagement you’ve signed up to, so the amount of time we keep your personal information for may vary.

For additional guidance click here.

Provision of Services. We will use information collected from use of the website and inquiries to provide our services to our clients.

Legitimate interests – or purposes.  In the United Kingdom, we can also use personal information where the benefits of doing it are not outweighed by the interests or fundamental rights or freedoms of data subjects. The law calls this the “Legitimate Interests” condition for processing. For example, we may use data collected from our websites and clients for:

> Reporting and analytical purposes – to provide management information to improve our services.
> Website usage tracking actvity – to help us to improve our srvices.
> To maintain our records and other adminstrative puposes – to enable us to run our business.
> Complaint and dispute resolution – we will need to use customer data when investigating queries and complaints
> Keeping businesses informed about our business.

WHERE DO WE STORE OR SEND THE INFORMATION WE GATHER?
Consumer Fluent is based in the UK. Although the UK is no longer a member of the EU, Consumer Fluent continues to abide by the norms and regulations laid out according to European data protection standards, GDPR, a voluntary unilateral equivalence. We do not transfer any personal data overseas and always make sure that our suppliers comply with European data protection standards wherever they are located.

KEEPING DATA SECURE
Online privacy and security is the most important aspect of any customer service. We use a set of technologies and procedures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, destruction, use or disclosure.  We apply an appropriate level of security and have therefore implemented reasonable physical, electronic, and administrative procedures to safeguard the data we collect from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed. Access to your personal data is granted only to those personnel, service providers or Consumer Fluent’s affiliates with a business need-to-know or who require it in order to perform their duties.

YOUR RIGHTS
If our right to process or share your personal information is based on the fact that you’ve given us consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time using the “unsubscribe” option in any emailed correspondence or notifying us via the contact form on this website.  You can also ask for access to the personal information we hold about you and request that we correct any mistakes, restrict or stop processing or delete it. It’s worth noting that in some cases if you do ask us to correct, delete or stop processing it, we won’t always be required to do so. If that is the case, we will explain why.  Where we use your business information to keep in touch with you, you have the right to object to us using it for direct marketing. Please tell us using the contact form on this website or select the unsubscribe link in our correspondence with you and we will immediately remove your contact details from our distribution list.  

We will try to ensure that we deliver the best levels of customer service but if you think we are falling short of that commitment, please let us know by contacting us using the contact form on this website.  You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the supervisory authority that regulates the handling of personal information in the UK. You can contact them by:
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF

Whilst we will try to make sure that you are happy with the service we provide and do not feel the need to complain, if you do complain to us, we will use the information we have about you to help us manage your complaint and to bring it to a satisfactory close.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We can update this Privacy Policy at any time and ideally you should check it regularly for updates. We won’t alert you to every little change, but if there are any really important changes to the Policy or how we use your information we’ll let you know and where appropriate ask for your consent.