Leftfield respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE
PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Leftfield collects and processes your personal data.
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
CONTROLLER
For most of our work, Leftfield Associates Limited (company number 04467531) in the United Kingdom is the controller and responsible for your personal data.
For some of our work in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Leftfield Europe B.V. (company number 91116295) in the Netherlands is the controller and responsible for your personal data. Where we are dealing directly with you, we will explain in the communications you receive from us if Leftfield Europe B.V. is carrying out work.
In some cases, Leftfield Associates Ltd and Leftfield Europe B.V. will work together on a project and thus both be controllers and responsible for your personal data.
Both Leftfield Associates Ltd and Leftfield Europe B.V. are referred to as “Leftfield” (or “we, “us” and “our”) in this privacy notice.
We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.
CONTACT DETAILS
Our full details are:
Full name and address of legal entity:
Leftfield Associates Limited
1st Floor, 1-4 Pope Street
London SE1 3PP
United Kingdom
Leftfield Europe B.V.
KvK No 91116295
De Werkplek, Slijperweg 12A
1032 KV, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Name or title of data privacy manager: Daniel Farrell
Email address: daniel@leftfield.co.uk
Please contact us using the contact details above if you have Any concerns about the way we have processed your data. If we are unable to resolve your concerns, You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the relevant supervisory authority.
The supervisory authority for Leftfield Associates Ltd is the Information Commissioner. If you remain dissatisfied, then you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: -
The Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
Website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
ICO helpline: +44 (0) 303 123 1113
The supervisory authority for Leftfield Europe B.V. is the Dutch Personal Data Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens). If you remain dissatisfied, then you have the right to apply directly to the Dutch Personal Data Authority for a decision. The Dutch Personal Data Authority can be contacted at: -
Dutch Personal Data Authority
PO Box 93374
2509 AJ, The Hague
Website: https://www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/en
DDPA helpline: +31 (0)88 1805 250
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY NOTICE AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES
This version was last updated in April 2024.
We may modify this policy at any time, and it is reviewed on an [annual / bi-annual] basis.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where any identifying information has been removed, so long as the individual’s identity cannot be inferred from other information held by the data controller or available publicly.
In the United Kingdom, the processing of personal data is governed by the Data Protection Act 2018, the "UK GDPR", as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018, and other legislation relating to personal data and rights.
In the Netherlands, the processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (“EU GDPR”) together with the Dutch Implementation Act of the GDPR.
The type of data that we collect depends on the relationship that we have with you.
Our research activity
Because our services include the researching of potential participants in research projects, we may collate information about individuals using publicly available sources. These may include online sources such as LinkedIn.com or the websites of the businesses or institutions with which you are affiliated. We do this when requested to carry out a research exercise for a particular project and may also do so proactively. We may also be provided with your information by other people – for example, if they suggest to us that you might be interested in research exercises. Information collated in this way may include your name, profession, qualifications, work history and work contact details.
The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in being able to provide qualitative recruitment services.
When you contact us
If you contact us via email, phone or post, we collect relevant information you provide to us, which may include name, email address, phone number and postal address.
The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in responding to your enquiry and providing a service.
If you are being considered for a research project
If you are being considered for registration as a research participant, we may ask you to provide further information. This may include further detail of your circumstances, further contact information and (if an incentive is payable) financial data such as payment card details or details of an account with an online payment system. In some cases, we may also ask if you are happy to provide demographically relevant information, which may include special category data as set out in the UK GDPR or GDPR. We use this type of data to ensure that we recruit a representative sample. We may hold this data in order to maintain a register of potential participants.
The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in being able to provide qualitative recruitment services and to contact you about (and, where relevant, pay you for) your participation. However, the legal basis for our collection of special category data is consent – we will ask you if you are happy to provide us with this information and allow you the opportunity to decline. However, if you choose not to provide information required for screening purposes for a research study, you may not be able to proceed with the study.
You may withdraw your consent at any time in which case your special category data will be deleted. You may also ask us to remove you from our register of potential participants.
If you take part in a research exercise
Leftfield’s primary business is to recruit for and help to arrange research studies such as focus groups. The study itself may not be carried out by Leftfield but for another market research agency for whom we have provided recruitment services. A briefing will be provided to you beforehand. In this case, that agency will be the controller of any personal data recorded about you during the research study. We will not provide your name, address or financial details to the agency operating the study, but they may have access to audio or video recordings of any research study session.
Please ask the agency operating the study for more information about their processing of personal data.
If you apply for a role with Leftfield, whether as an employee or contractor
In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
The information you have provided to us as part of your application (such as your curriculum vitae, application form and covering letter)
Any information you provide to us during an interview.
We may also collect, store, and use the following types of more sensitive personal information:
Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and political opinions.
Information about your health, including any medical condition, health, and sickness records.
[Information about criminal convictions and offences]
We may also receive information about you from any recruitment agency we may use, together with background check providers or credit reference agencies and your referees. Where we propose to use any of these sources, we will let you know. We may also gather data from publicly available sources, such as LinkedIn.We will use the personal information we collect about you to:
Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
Keep records related to our hiring processes.
Communicate with you about the recruitment process.
Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.
Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.
The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in deciding whether to appoint you to a role. We also need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment or a contract for services with you and, if we do, to perform that contract.
If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully. For example, if we require a credit check or references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.
If we collect special category data, we will use this strictly for the purpose collected. We collect information about your disability status to consider whether we need to make appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process. We will use information relating to certain protected characteristics to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting. We will also process your nationality status as part of the right to work checks that we are required to carry out by law.
If you are appointed to a role with Leftfield
Please see our staff handbook for more information about processing of data in connection with employment.
Our website uses cookies stored on your browser. These cookies collect information about how you use the site, for example which pages you visit, and all user data is anonymous. They only collect data related to your use of this website. Please note that some of these cookies may be placed by third party service providers who perform a function for us. The third party service this site uses is Google Analytics. The data these services collect are anonymous. You can find out more about controlling, opting-out and deleting cookies, here.
3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise.
Interactions with contracted third parties. Information that you provide voluntarily, may be passed on to us as a result of direct contact with a third-party recruiter, commissioned by Leftfield.
Information which is publicly available. Information about you that has been published in publicly available sources, such as LinkedIn.com and professional or institutional websites.
4. AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING
Leftfield does not use automated decision-making in relation to personal data. We are sometimes required to check that potential participants meet the eligibility criteria for research studies, or to recruit an appropriately representative sample. However, these tasks are carried out by our professional colleagues, using computer systems as tools rather than as decision-makers.
5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Your personal data will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):
Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, we may ask a supplier to provide us with services.
Our clients, as described in section 2 above.
Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
6.1 Leftfield may transfer any personal data we hold to a country outside the United Kingdom (or, in the case of Leftfield Europe B.V., outside of the European Union), provided that one of the following conditions applies:
(a) the country to which the personal data is transferred to ensures an adequate level of protection for the data subjects' rights and freedoms;
(b) the data subject has given his/her consent;
(c) the transfer is necessary for one of the reasons set out in applicable law, including the performance of a contract between us and the data subject, or to protect the vital interests of the data subject;
(d) the transfer is legally required on important public interest grounds or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
(e) the transfer is authorised by data protection laws where we have taken adequate safeguards with respect to the protection of the data subjects' privacy, their fundamental rights and freedoms, and the exercise of their rights.
6.2 By way of example, Leftfield may use cloud storage and processing systems located in other jurisdictions in compliance with section 6.1 above.
6.3 Subject to the requirements in the section 6.1 above, personal data held by Leftfield may also be processed by staff operating outside the UK or EU who work for us or for one of our suppliers. That staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of contracts with the data subject, the processing of payment details and the provision of support services.
7. DATA SECURITY
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
8. DATA RETENTION
HOW LONG WILL YOU USE PERSONAL DATA FOR?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for (see paragraph 4 above), including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In general, and unless we consider it necessary to retain data for longer, our retention periods are:
Personal data where you are being considered for a research project – 2 years
Personal data where you take part in a research exercise – 2 years
There might be other circumstances where we will retain some personal data for longer than two years, including financial records, record of participation in previous studies and requests not the be contacted.
We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 8 years.
Where possible, we anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you and therefore is no longer “personal” data) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Data that is found to have passed the retention period will be destroyed in a secure manner.
9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at info@leftfield.co.uk or using the address given above. The law allows individuals to make requests in any format. You need not specifically refer to data protection law and staff should refer any matters that appears to be an exercise of a data subject right to Daniel Farrell.
NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED
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. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
WHAT WE MAY NEED FROM YOU
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.
TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND
We will 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 and keep you updated.
+44 20 7407 2546