Your privacy is important to us. We take great care in protecting your privacy and the information you provide whilst participating in surveys hosted on our website.
We are committed to meeting the requirements of the following laws and codes:
It is not our aim to sell or promote anything. We conduct market research surveys on behalf of our clients and your responses will be treated as confidential unless you consent to being identified.
Our Research Invitations & Requests
We will not mislead you about the nature of the research or how the data will be used. If you are invited to take part in research, it will be because:
If you have been contacted by Cobalt Sky and you do not believe you have given your permission or just wish for your name to be removed from the database, let us know and we will remove you from the contact list for that particular research project and inform the relevant organisation who supplied your details.
We never knowingly invite children under the age of 16 to participate in research studies without taking measures to ensure appropriate consent from a responsible adult.
Information We Collect
We will collect your information when you conduct research with us.
The information we collect can contain your personal opinions as well as personal information such as name, address, postcode, gender, occupation, age, date of birth, email address, telephone number etc. though we aim to limit the collection of such data unless strictly necessary for the survey. We may occasionally collect sensitive personal information such as political views. You are not required to give any of the information asked for, though if you do not complete the whole survey you may not be eligible for any offered incentive or entry into a prize draw. Any personal information we hold is logged, separated and encrypted, and is deleted as soon as possible once the survey complete.
Where relevant to the research being undertaken, we may collect business contact information, such as company name, job title, and department.
In addition, we will record your IP address, which type of browser you are using, your screen size and other basic metrics.
We do not do any invisible processing of data from your computer. We will only collect and use personal information in accordance with this policy to the extent deemed reasonably necessary to serve our legitimate business purposes, and we will maintain appropriate safeguards to ensure the security, integrity, accuracy and privacy of the information you have provided.
Cobalt Sky makes reasonable efforts to keep personal information in its possession or control, which is used on an ongoing basis, accurate, complete, current and relevant, based on the most recent information available to us. We rely on you to help us keep your personal information accurate, complete and current by answering our questions honestly.
Information collected will be kept on our servers for no longer than two years from project completion. All projects are archived onto removable media e.g. DVD and stored indefinitely for record keeping purposes.
How We Use Your Information
The personal information we collect is combined with the responses/views/opinions of others who participated in the same research and reported back anonymously and in aggregate to the client that commissioned the study.
If you are a member of a survey panel we never receive your personal information and your data is held anonymously by us. Your personal information is held only by your panel company. They will have their own privacy policy and will inform you about how your personal information is controlled and processed.
All of your survey responses are treated as confidential. We will never intentionally disclose your personal information or individual survey responses to the client that commissioned the study or any third parties unless:
Who We Share the Information With
We will not sell your personal information to third parties. From time to time we may employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. They will have access to the personal information needed to perform their functions, but will not use it for other purposes. They must also process the personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the UK’s Data Protection Act/laws.
By conducting our research you consent to us transferring your personally identifiable data to other companies within the EEA only for the purposes mentioned above. We shall endeavour to ensure that your personal information is kept confidential and secure.
Processing of prizes/incentives from the result may result in your contact details being passed onto a third party i.e. Amazon, M&S, John Lewis etc. This would purely be in order for the prize/incentive to be sent out to you electronically and would not result in any marketing or follow up.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that may be placed on your device (computer, mobile phone, tablet) when you complete one of our surveys. To complete a survey with us we will use a session cookie. This is a temporary cookie and is removed when you close the browser. This session cookie allows us to give your visit to our website (or one of our third party partners’ websites) a unique identifier so you can complete the survey. You can configure your browser to notify you when cookies are being placed on your computer. You can also turn cookies off and delete those you do not want. Please see your web browsers help section for information on how to do this.
Security
Cobalt Sky maintains appropriate technical, administrative and physical safeguards to protect information, including, without limitation, personally identifiable information, received or collected by us. We review, monitor and evaluate our privacy practices and protection systems on a regular basis. Only certain employees have access to the personal information you provide us and are only granted access for data analysis and quality control purposes. Cobalt Sky is not responsible for any errors by individuals in submitting personally identifiable information to us.
Access Rights
Your co-operation in any Cobalt Sky survey is voluntary at all times, and we are always thankful for your help. You are entitled to access the personal information we hold about you (which is known as a Subject Access Request) and you have the right to update any incorrect information. Wherever reasonable and practical we will carry out such a request.
You also have the right to withdraw consent you gave for participation in one of our surveys at any time and have your personal details erased.
To do this, please submit your request in writing to info@cobalt-sky.com.
Queries
If you have any queries concerning this policy, our website or our research, or would like to make a subject access request, email us at info@cobalt-sky.com.
If you have concerns regarding how your personal information has been processed by Cobalt Sky or our clients you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via the following options:
Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113
Our policy may be updated periodically and the latest version will always be available here on the Cobalt Sky website and available at the point of taking part in online research.
Cobalt Sky Survey Respondent Privacy Policy last reviewed May 2020.
Respondent Privacy Policy