Welcome to our Privacy Notice.

The GWI survey is conducted by Trendstream Limited. We are a research company that aims to understand the views of internet users.

Your privacy is our priority. So, on this page we’ve outlined what information we collect about you, how we use it and where we store it.

We’ve tried to make everything which follows as clear and as simple as possible, but if you have questions, you can contact us, and we’ll be happy to help. (See the “Contact Us” section below.)

Purposes of the policy

This Privacy Notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process information provided to us when you complete one of our surveys, as well as the information you choose to share with us or any third party sites that host our surveys. Any information that we collect is subject to our Privacy Notice in effect at the time that information is collected.

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.

What we do

Our aim is to help companies understand how and why people use the internet, and how they feel about various brands, products, services and marketing campaigns. As such, we conduct regular research across the world, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people each year to ask them what they do on the internet, which devices they own, and what their views are on a wide range of topics.

Using the results of our research, we help our clients to understand the anonymized characteristics and demographics of the people who visit their sites, use their products and services or see their advertising. Put simply, we help brands and organizations to understand online audiences.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may change this policy from time to time. Although we will strive to ensure that any such changes are small, and we will inform you and, if appropriate, seek your consent if we intend to materially change the way in which we use your data, we recommend that you consult this Privacy Notice regularly for updates.

The data we collect about you

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store and transfer different types of data about you:

  • Identity Data. As part of our research, we may assign a generic unique identifier (e.g. in the form of a string of numbers and/or letters) to the data we collect from you.
  • Survey Data. When you complete a survey, we collect your answers to the questions to the survey.
  • Technical Data. As part of our research, we might also collect your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, Operating system (type and version) and information about device (type and version) you use to access and complete the survey.
  • Cookies. Like many websites and surveys, we use “cookies” and similar analytics-driven technologies. See the “Cookies” section below and our Cookies policy (available here) for further information on our use of cookies.

Where we combine Identity Data with the other data we collect from you, we treat all of that combined data as personal data.

Certain of your survey responses may reveal information about you which is considered to be a “special category” of personal data (this may include details about your race or ethnicity, health, sexual orientation or political opinions). We will only ask questions which relate to special categories of data where we are permitted to do so by the laws of your jurisdiction. We will also give you an option to “prefer not to say” as a response to any questions which concern any special categories of data.

How is your data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You provide us with your Survey Data when you complete one of our surveys.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you complete the survey online, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.

How we use your data

When you register on a survey site, they will typically ask you to tell them various things about you, which might include your name or email address. We will never have access to your name or email address and we will never ask the survey site to provide such information to us.

Whilst our survey questions ask for information about you, your online behaviour and beliefs, we do not use this information to personally identify you.

We also aggregate your Survey Data with the Survey Data we receive from other individuals completing our survey to produce Aggregated Survey Data. We provide access to such Aggregated Survey Data to our clients as part of the service we provide to them. Aggregating data in this way enables us and our clients to analyze aggregated survey responses to understand internet user behaviour. While such Aggregated Survey Data may be derived from personal data, its aggregated nature means that it is not possible for our clients to identify an individual survey respondent from the information provided to them.

Although we do not have the ability to re-identify you personally, some of our clients may request access to your Survey Responses (also referred to as response level data (RLD) in raw format that hasn’t been anonymized that could result in them being able to re-identify you. Clients will only be able to re-identify you if they already have access to your personal data as a result of their relationship with you (because you are a consumer of theirs, for example), and where we’ve given you notice that we will be sharing your RLD with any client. Any processing of your RLD by the client will be done in accordance with the Client’s own privacy notice below. We currently share RLD with the following clients (including all companies in each client's group of companies):

 

Client Link to Client's Privacy Notice
Amazon Amazon Privacy Notice
Cash App Cash App Privacy Notice
Dentsu Dentsu Privacy Notice
Publicis Groupe Publicis Groupe Privacy Notice
Samsung Ads Samsung Ads Privacy Notice
The Interpublic Group of Companies IPG Privacy Notice

 

We use third-party partners (please see our Cookie Notice) who use cookies and other Technical Data to carry out their activities. For example we may use FLoC IDs (that uses your browsing history to assign you to a group of similar individuals) to establish a connection between Survey Data and your interaction with our clients, including their websites or ad campaigns. The connection is made to help our clients understand the profile of the audience interacting with their website or ad campaign, to evaluate effectiveness and targeting of their ad campaigns or to create so called “look-alike” audiences for ad targeting. Further information on how we use cookies with our partners is set out in the cookies section below. This tracking of online behaviour to understand personal preferences is commonly referred to as profiling.

If we establish a connection between Survey Data and your interaction with our client websites or ad campaigns, we may invite you to undertake an additional survey relating to our client website, ad campaign or brand. We use the additional Survey Data provided by you to provide further insights to our clients regarding the effectiveness of their campaign or website.

There are many reasons why the information we collect from you might be helpful to us and our clients. For our clients, it is used to understand the demographics of people who visit their sites, use their products/services or see their advertising. For us, it helps us to invite the correct people to take part in our research and also allows us to build up a picture of how people from similar groups are likely to answer a question or what things they might do on the internet. For example, if you tell us that you are a male aged 25-34, then we might combine your answer with those of hundreds or thousands of other males aged 25-34 to understand more about that particular group. 

Our basis for processing your data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. 

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Purpose/Activity

Type of data

Lawful basis for processing your data

Survey Activity

  • Your voluntary participation in Survey and additional Surveys to understand your views in response to Survey questions
  • Our collection of Survey Data 
  • Provision of Anonymized Survey Data to client
  • Provision of RLD to client in order for client to re-identify Panellists for follow up Surveys
  • Validation and analysis of Survey Responses
  • Collection of Special Category / Sensitive Data

to process Survey Data at the point of your registration, post-registration for Survey activity

(a) Survey responses

(b) unique identifier

(c) Browsing data

(d) Technical Data

(e) Cookie data

We have a Legitimate interest in carrying out our business operations as a data insights company by arranging to collect your RLD 

We will seek consent necessary when a Survey question requires you to provide special category data

We will give you notice when we provide your RLD to client for direct marketing purposes whereupon client’s Privacy Notice will apply to client’s direct marketing activities

To monitor the effectiveness and accuracy of our clients’ advertising campaigns

(a) unique identifier

(b) Browsing Data

(c) Technical Data

(d) Cookie Data

Legitimate interest necessary to assist:

  • Our clients in understanding how you interact with their advertising campaigns and websites
  • Advertisers in understanding the demographics of your interaction with advertisers’ advertising campaigns

Identify and resolve problems with provision of our services

To evaluate accuracy of online advertising.

(a) unique identifier

(b) Browsing Data

(c) Technical Data

(d) Cookie Data

Necessary for our legitimate interests (to assist advertisers in understanding the demographics of end users interacting with their advertising campaigns).

To model data

(a) FloC ID

(b) unique identifier

(c) Browsing Data

(d) Technical Data

(e) Cookie Data

Legitimate interest necessary, provided you have agreed to cookies in your Contact Preferences, to assist advertisers in understanding your demographics and how you interact with their advertising campaigns

To cookie sync (see section below headed:  “To sync our cookies with that of our third-party partners”) and / or sync data using online identifiers, FloC ID or similar identifiers

(a) cookies

(b) unique identifier

(c) FloCs

Necessary for our legitimate interests provided you have agreed to cookies in your Contact Preferences:

  • To assist advertisers in understanding your demographics
  • To understand how you are interacting with clients’ advertising campaigns)

 

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will ask the operator of the survey site used by you to complete our survey to notify you and will explain the legal basis which allows us to process personal data for such unrelated purpose.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your device when you visit a website. When you participate in our research, we and/or our third-party partners may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your device until you delete them or they expire – usually after 1 year).  Further detail in relation to the cookies that we and/or our third-party partners may use are set out in the cookie notice provided to you at the start of each survey and our cookies policy and our cookies policy here.

We and our partners use cookies to provide you with the best possible user experience, and also to track your online activity for the following purposes:

  • To invite you to participate in future surveys. If our cookie tells us that you have viewed an advertising campaign or visited a website that one of our clients is interested in, we might choose to invite you to take a survey where we ask you to give your views on it. Where we choose to invite you to take a survey, this is because we feel your response will help our client to understand how people feel about or use its website, and/or to determine whether its advertising has been effective. You will only be invited to complete a survey based on the tracking of your cookie where we have determined that your additional survey responses may be of particular interest to our clients.
  • To evaluate the accuracy of targeted advertising.  Many advertisers attempt to use technology and algorithms to deliver marketing communications to specific groups of consumers. This data is highly variable in its quality, and sometimes you may see ads that are not relevant to you at all. We help advertisers understand the accuracy of their targeting by matching your anonymous responses in a survey (such as age and gender) to a cookie that has been associated with an online ad.
  • To model data. As mentioned above, advertisers like to target their ads to specific types of people. By observing the behaviors of anonymous groups of cookies online, estimations can be made about how likely it is that those groups share the same characteristics – even if one group has declared a specific piece of information about themselves and the other hasn’t. We help advertisers understand the likely behaviors of large groups of people interacting with their campaign by using cookies to track the interaction of people who have completed one of our surveys with such campaign.
  • To sync our cookie with that of our partners. We assist partners in understanding who is interacting with their website or advertising campaign in a process known as cookie syncing by providing our unique identifiers to them to enable them to determine if they already hold information relating to the device on which our cookie is stored. Where a partner determines that they do hold information relating to our survey respondents, we may then share the survey responses of such respondents with them so they may connect it to other information they know about such respondents for the purposes of analytics or lookalike modelling. This transferred data will never be used to directly target advertising, messaging or services to you.

Important note about cookies: When you take one of our surveys, will ask you to consent to our and our third-party partners’ setting and reading cookies from your browser.

We always want you to be in control of the information you share with us, and there are a number of ways that you can remove or block cookies at any time, including by following the help file directions in your internet browser. But if you want to tell us right now that you don’t want us to use cookies, then you can opt-out of this process here.

If you want to opt out of our cookie syncing with our partners, you can also opt-out of our partners’ cookie policy by accessing the link available on our cookie notice here.

When you opt out, we delete the existing values in our cookie on your device and replace them with an “opt out” value which tells our server not to continue to track your behaviour, and we will ignore all subsequent requests coming from your browser. Please note that if you block cookies, our opt-out process may not function properly. Please also note that if you choose to opt-out now, but then at some point later you decide to delete, block, or otherwise restrict cookies, or if you use a different device or internet browser, you will need to renew your opt-out choice.

If you decide you want to opt-out of our cookie process at some point in the future rather than now, you can always visit the original survey site where you were first invited to take part in one of our surveys, and tell them. Alternatively, you can come back to this GWI opt-out page.

Disclosures of your personal data

We may disclose your data to third parties such as:

  • Other members of our group of companies;
  • Authorized third-party service providers who provide IT and administration services to us to help us to provide our services;
  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services; 
  • 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;
  • Our clients where we have agreed to provide access to our Survey Responses (this will only be shared with Publicis), or where we have agreed to undertake a survey on their behalf, or where we have agreed to assist them in monitoring the effectiveness of their advertising campaign, or where we have agreed to cookie sync or facilitate a similar sync using online or unique identifiers.

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. 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.

Please note that although we will not use the information that we receive, or any technical information that we collect (such as your browser type/settings and your IP address) to identify you, we can never fully know what other information a third party holds about you already, and it may be that third parties are able to link the information we provide to other information that you have previously shared directly with them. For example, third parties such as our clients (and our clients’ own clients) are likely to have databases of their own, and it may be that you have consented to them holding information about you that could allow them to match their records with the data we supply. Similarly, if we share data with social networks, it may be that they can match our data with the other information that you have permitted them to hold about you. Please note that third parties should only lawfully be able to undertake this “matching” if you have given them specific permission to hold and use your data in such a way. 

International transfers

We share your personal data with other companies within our group. This will involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Some of our external third-party service providers are based outside the European EEA so 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 ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data adequate protection.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized 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.

How long will you use my personal data for?

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.

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 unauthorized 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 some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

  • The right of access: your right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal data are being processed, and, where that is the case, access to the personal data along with details regarding the nature of processing.
  • The right of rectification: your right to obtain the rectification of inaccurate personal data.
  • The right of portability: your right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format..
  • The right to be forgotten: your right to erase 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..
  • The right to restrict processing: your right for your data to be effectively ‘frozen’; stored and not further processed.
  • The right to object: your right to object to how your personal data is processed where we are re relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party).

If you would like exercise one of your rights listed above please use the table below to send the relevant information we required for this purpose in an email to legal@gwi.com.

 

Your name / Panel ID Name of your Panel Provider The Right you'd like to exercise Why do you want to exercise this right? The personal data is subject to the right you want to exercise
         

Certain data protection laws also contain a right for you not to be subject to a decision made solely on automated processing, which includes profiling. As mentioned above, no decisions are made by us in relation to our use of your data which are based on automated processing without human intervention.

What we may need from you

Where you wish to exercise on of the rights listed above, 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.

Where we are not able to determine with any degree of certainty whether the information requested by you relates exclusively to you, our disclosure of such information to you may pose a privacy risk to a third party (for example, where a cookie is associated with a device used by more than one person). We will assess each request to exercise any of the rights listed above individually on its merits and will disclose the requested information where we are satisfied that such disclosure does not represent a privacy risk to any third party.

Other Things to Know

Within our surveys, we might ask you about your views or interactions with well-known websites, apps, social networks and so on. Often, we might include their logos in our survey so that you know which sites we are talking about. The fact that we use their name or logo is not an endorsement, authorization or representation that we are affiliated with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. Nor does it necessarily mean that we will be sharing any results with them directly, although some of them could be among our clients.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Notice. Unfortunately the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure, and although we will do our best to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us; and therefore any transmission is at your own risk.

Contact Us

If you want to ask us any questions, please get in touch with us at legal@gwi.com. Or you can write to us at the following address:

Trendstream Limited

Nexus Building

Floor 2

25 Farringdon Street

London

EC4A 4AB