The Truth Doctors Ltd is an independent market research consultancy carrying out surveys on behalf of other organisations (our clients). We are registered in the United Kingdom under company number 12316403.
The aim of this Privacy Statement is to tell you how we collect and use your personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with all relevant data protection laws.
Information for survey participants
If you have been invited to participate in a survey conducted by The Truth Doctors, please read the following information.
What personal information do we collect and why?
You may receive an email inviting you to take part in a research survey. If you respond (thank you!) you’ll be directed through to an online research interview, conducted by our virtual research assistant, called Erica.
From a data protection perspective, The Truth Doctors should be regarded as a ‘data processor’ who conduct the research on behalf of our client, who is the ‘data controller’.
We don’t ask for your name or contact details. During the interview, we need to capture your facial image, expressions and voice onto video. We also transcribe verbal comments into text form and these transcripts are anonymously aggregated together with the transcripts of other participants. This enables us to generate valuable research insights and understanding for our client (the organisation who asked you to participate). This includes sentiment analysis, such as what sorts of things people like or dislike.
We also use technology to analyse facial expressions to gain an understanding of people’s emotions when responding to survey questions. All of this combined information really helps us to provide genuine, insightful research feedback to our clients. Thank you so much for your help!
At no point will any of the information you provide be attributed to you by name. The research outcomes cannot be used in public settings or for any public purposes, for example, advertising, public relations, publicity or promotion on any platform including social media.
With your consent
We want to be totally transparent. So before starting the online interview, we provide a link to this Privacy Statement and ask for your consent to proceed. Your participation is completely voluntary and you may decline or withdraw at any time.
Confidentiality
All feedback you give will be treated as confidential. We only divulge the outcomes of the research to the organisation who commissioned us to produce the research.
If you provide any sensitive information
We generally don’t ask you to provide any sensitive information. For example, we don’t ask you to reveal your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, religious or philosophical beliefs or sexual information. When answering the interview questions, please be aware you might perhaps tell us something personal which we didn’t ask for or need to know. It’s totally up to you how you answer and what you choose to reveal.
By the way, if you prefer not to answer any of the questions Erica asks, just say ‘Prefer not to answer’ and click the move on button.
The Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct
We always operate in accordance with the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct. If you have any complaints, you can complain to the Market Research Society (MRS). The Truth Doctors are bound by the MRS Code of Conduct.
We will not try to sell you anything, nor use your information for marketing purposes. Will never pass your information to any 3rd parties for their marketing or advertising purposes.
Keep your information secure
We take our responsibility to keep personal information secure very seriously. We take every reasonable precaution to ensure your information is protected from loss, theft or misuse.
The information you provide may be processed by The Truth Doctors staff directly involved in this research project, or those who need access to directly support the technology we use. This may include service providers who provide the technology we use. We have appropriate agreements in place with these service providers and any necessary sharing of information between us is conducted securely.
If a service provider is located outside the UK, we make sure any transfer or access to personal information is covered by an adequacy decision or other appropriate safeguards measures, in accordance with data protection laws.
How long do we store personal information?
We store videos and transcripts securely just for the duration of the research project, which is usually just 3 months (depending on our client’s requirements) at which point these are securely destroyed.
Your privacy rights
You have the right to request access to or erasure of any personal information we hold on behalf of our client, the ‘data controller’. If you wish to exercise these rights, please contact the data controller who asked you to take part in the survey. Please remember however we don’t hold your name, email address or other contact details – we only have the information you gave us via the video research interview.
How to contact us
If you have any questions or comments about data protection you can contact us by email: [email protected]
Updates to this Privacy Statement
We regularly review and update this Statement as and when our activities change, or when there are regulatory changes. We encourage you to review this page from time to time.
Last updated 30/03/2023