Privacy Policy
This privacy policy provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site www.theviewers.co.uk
The Viewers panel is owned by Inquisi Research Ltd (Company Number 0899939 and registered office address: 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX) who are the data controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
If you have any questions about our privacy policy please email help@theviewers.co.uk
By submitting an application to join The Viewers TV panel you warrant to us that you are over 16 years of age and accept our privacy policy but you can choose to leave the panel at any time and receive no further communications from The Viewers by emailing unsubscribe@theviewers.co.uk
It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing help@theviewers.co.uk
1a. What data we collect about members, for what purpose and on what ground we process it
When registering with us we only collect essential personal details for the purpose of assessing your suitability for research, contacting you about it and rewarding you for it after taking part. It is strictly not shared with anyone for sales and marketing purposes. If one of our clients are managing a project themselves and require your contact details to communicate with you purely about their project, this would be made clear to you before you chose whether to take part.
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymized data. When participating in a research project, any contributions you make are anonymized in reports and presentations that are written for or by our clients. However, to allow us to assess your suitability for research, contact you about it, analyze your contribution and reward you for it, we may process the following categories of personal data about you:
Member Profile Data: The details you provide when choosing to register as a member of The Viewers TV research panel. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to assess your suitability for research projects on behalf of our clients and to be able to contact you about them. We have provided additional justifications to help you understand exactly why we collect each piece of data below:
- Full name, email address and phone number: To contact you about research you may want to take part in. Forgive us for being old fashioned but we feel it’s a bit weird contacting you without using your name and we also need to ensure we’re speaking to the member who registered. We primarily use email to contact members but, for those choosing to take part in focus groups or larger online projects, a telephone number is also required for the selection interview and/or as a secondary contact source to overcome technology issues. If we ever needed to share these details (for example when a client is managing the research themselves) this would be made clear to you before you choose to take part.
- Gender and Date of birth: We’re always required to find members of certain gender(s) and/or age range(s) to take part in projects. An accurate record of the gender you associate yourself with and your month and year of birth is essential for calculating whether you fit into a required category at any given time. It ensures you are not contacted about projects you would be ineligible to take part in and also that you don’t miss out on something exciting you could have been suitable for. It needs to be a full date just so our computer doesn’t say no but if you’re uncomfortable with sharing your date of birth for security reasons and prefer to give a random day within the month by all means go ahead but please please please keep the rest accurate so you’re not the sole 20 year old boy in a group of 70 year old women or vice versa.
- County and post code: We’re an online based business and to be brutally honest we have no interest in knocking on your door however shiny your knocker but knowing your County allows us to ensure nationwide research has a balanced geographical spread. Post Codes are used to calculate proximity from research venues and ensure you are only contacted about group discussions within your local area or even to work out where the most convenient venue would be for everyone. The system ignores partial or fake post codes so by providing one you basically won’t hear from us regarding physical projects. You can also opt out from hearing about these sessions if you just want to take part online. For online projects, a post code also allows us to create nice map covered with pins to allow clients to pat themselves on the back for involving a world of viewers outside of London.
- Education, working status, job title & industry: We believe this is a less intrusive means of ensuring research is representative than asking for details of your income. This also allows us to meet briefs that may want to gauge the opinions of a certain employment sector that may be the focus of a TV programme. Knowing whether you have a media or marketing background is also useful for times when that is required for a project and equally when it isn’t.
- TV provider & packages: This is incredibly important for TV research as some TV channels/programmes are only available via certain providers and packages so often we would only contact viewers who at least have access to the channel/programme being researched. Think it’s better to say you have access to everything? Well not really as we probably get as many if not more projects from channels that focus their efforts on audiences that don’t have access to such a wide range of channels and services. It can swing either way so best to just be honest.
- TV channels viewed: We know not everyone pays attention to which channels they’re watching but for those that do it helps us select who is required and like the above, research is just as likely to be for viewers who don’t watch a channel as those who do so please just be honest.
- Favourite programme and reason why: It really doesn’t matter which programme you choose as the purpose of this question is to ensure all members can express an opinion about TV. We don’t need an essay but equally our clients don’t want to pay someone for 20 “don’t knows” in a survey!
- How you heard about us and if you’ve taken part in research before: Finally, we often get unexpected media coverage so this allows us to run to the newsagent and enjoy our moment of fame along with evaluating the success of any recruitment campaigns we run from time to time. We’re also interested in whether you’ve taken part in research before to balance newbies with the more experienced although all projects are pretty straightforward to take part in.
Note: Any additional data categories which members may have provided if signing up prior to May 2018 were very rarely needed and have since been erased from our secure streamlined database.
Participation Data: Data relating to your participation in past projects for us. We capture the date and time you initially registered with The Viewers and keep a record of each project you participated in. Our lawful ground for processing is our legitimate interests which in this case is to allow us to follow MRS guidelines to not place participants in focus groups more than once every six months and ensure there are no conflicts of interests between previous online projects completed.
Payment Data: The bank or PayPal account details you may choose to provide. We process this data to make the payments for the projects you have chosen to take part in and keep records of transactions for accounting purposes. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us. Bank and PayPal details are not stored for all members and instead are provided optionally at the time of taking part in an online project. It will always be made clear at the outset of a project which payment methods will be offered and often an e-voucher is offered as a payment method negating the need to additionally provide us with your payment details. Focus group discussions are typically paid in cash. Regardless of the payment method chosen, we keep a record of the transaction taking place for accounting records that HMRC require us to store for six years after the end of our financial year. Where we are required to collect personal data under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested or provide inaccurate data, we may not be able to perform the contract for example, to pay you for your participation in research projects.
Audio and Visual Recording Data: If you take part in a telephone interview or physical focus group discussion it is likely this will be recorded. Our lawful ground for this processing is our or the client’s legitimate interests in being able to analyse what was said during the discussion in order to then write up an anoymised report of key findings. You will always be informed before choosing to take part in a project if it will be recorded and all footage is destroyed on completion of the project (typically within 30 days).
Preferences Data: Data about your preferences in receiving research invitations and communications and the way in which this is delivered to you. By standard, members receive invitations for all types of TV research but our lawful ground for this additional and optional processing is our legitimate interests in ensuring we don’t notify you about types of research you have told us you would never be interested in for example you may only want to take part online and not hear about focus groups.
Sensitive Data: Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. As standard we do not collect and store any sensitive data about you and we also do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. If we received a client brief that required the collection of sensitive data as part of the project selection criteria, we would highlight this to you at the point you are choosing to apply to take part in the project and gain additional and explicit consent for processing this sensitive data which won’t be stored by ourselves beyond the end of the project.
With regards automated decision making and profiling, all applications to join The Viewers are initially reviewed by a researcher and for larger projects all those meeting the basic criteria are invited to apply to take part and applications are again reviewed by a researcher. For a shorter survey that just required 200 responses, it would not be feasible to invite over 60,000 members of the panel to take part each time and in this instance an automated randomized selection of those who meet the basic criteria would be invited to take part. We believe the consequences of not being selected via this method does not constitute a legal or similarly significant effect and is also of greater benefit for the member than constantly receiving invites for surveys which have already received the maximum number of responses.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we would contact you first and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
1b. What data we collect about anyone who uses our site or communicates with us, for what purpose and on what ground we process it
Whether a member or not, for anyone using our site or contacting us we may process the following:
Technical Data: Data about your use of our website such as your IP address, browser and device details, page views, length of visit and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website and time zone settings. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and understand its effectiveness. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and to grow our business and inform our marketing strategy.
Communication Data: Any communication that you send to us whether that be through email, text, WhatsApp, social media messaging, social media posting or any other means. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
2. How we collect your personal data
Whilst you may have initially heard about The Viewers panel from various sources, all member profile data is initially collected via the same encrypted sign up form hosted within the EEA that you have chosen to complete or via any communications you sent to us. We do not collect or buy personal details via any other means or third party. In addition, we may automatically collect certain data from you as you use our website by using cookies and similar technologies.
3. Marketing communications
Our business is set up to offer you paid research and we focus on sending you relevant research invites rather than marketing emails blowing our own trumpet. However, from time to time we may require the assistance of members to grow the panel for the benefit of all or to ask for your help in finding participants for specific projects. The latter would involve a finders fee allowing you to even be rewarded for research you have not necessarily taken part in yourself. The lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you these communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you joined The Viewers panel or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since.
We do not share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes and would not do so in the future without first gaining your express consent.
You can ask us to stop sending communications that are not directly related to a research project for yourself at any time by following the link to do so in most emails from ourselves or by emailing help@theviewers.co.uk
If you opt out of receiving additional communications, this opt-out does not apply to all personal data provided as a result of being a member of The Viewers. To leave the panel completely please email unsubscribe@theviewers.co.uk
4. Disclosures of your personal data
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
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Market research software platforms, email, IT and system administration services.
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Researchers at TV channels, production companies or research agencies at times when they are managing the research project themselves and are simply asking us to find relevant participants.
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Employees at venues where research is taking place and they are meeting and greeting you.
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Other recruiters within the research industry purely to verify your identity and ensure we are not allowing members to fraudulently over participate.
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Payment processors.
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Secure cloud based storage services.
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Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers.
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Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
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Third parties to whom we may sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.
We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
5. International transfers
Countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data, so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria.
Wherever possible we choose third party service providers who are based within the EEA but when a provider is based outside the EEA, their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is in place:
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We will only transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data by; or
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Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
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If we use US-based providers that are part of EU-US Privacy Shield, we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place.
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If none of the above safeguards are available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent and leave the panel.
6. Data security
Personal data is not stored on our own website and instead on a secure cloud based database hosted within the EEA. All files we work on which include personal data are password protected and stored on an encrypted secure cloud based server also hosted within the EEA. Whenever we need to share data with other researchers or agencies they receive a password protected link to this server so your details are not shared via email wherever possible.
We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.
7. Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about members who have been paid to take part in our projects (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years.
When your personal data has been anonymised for research or statistical purposes we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
8. Your legal rights
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at help@theviewers.co.uk
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.
If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.
9. Links to other websites
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
10. Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.