Privacy policy

Research participants working with Grounded Solutions Ltd – privacy and ethical research

Each research study is different and collects different combinations of different types of information. Each study will therefore require its own system to inform and protect participants. For each research study, we will provide you with materials describing the study and ask for your consent to participate. Details of how we protect your confidentiality – your data and when that data will be purged from our systems will be provided. It is likely that Grounded Solutions Ltd will be the data controller for and sole user of your data. In some cases you may give consent for the commissioner of the research to be the data controller and for Grounded Solutions to process this data on their behalf. In all cases you will have the right to withdraw from the study at any time (before the completion of the study) and without explanation.

We comply with the Social Research Associations Ethical Guidelines (pdf file), the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct (pdf file).

Website users and clients

This website is owned by Grounded Solutions Ltd.

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and clients; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.

(1) What information do we collect?

We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views);
(b) information relating to any transactions carried out between you and us on or in relation to this website, including information relating to any purchases you make of our goods or services;
(c) information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us (including your email address and the nature of your enquiry);
(d) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our website services, email notifications and/or newsletters (including your email address);
(e) any other information that you choose to send to us; and
(f) information about your Grounded Theory research project.

(2) Cookies

A cookie consists of information sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.

We may use both “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies on the website. We will use the session cookies to: keep track of you whilst you navigate the website; We will use the persistent cookies to: enable our website to recognise you when you visit;

Session cookies will be deleted from your computer when you close your browser. Persistent cookies will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach a specified expiry date.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users’ computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html.

Our advertisers/payment services providers may also send you cookies.

We publish Google Adsense interest-based advertisements on our website. These are tailored by Google to reflect your interests. To determine your interests, Google will track your behaviour across the web using cookies. You can view, delete or add interest categories associated with your browser using Google’s Ads Preference Manager, available at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/. You can opt-out of the Adsense partner network cookie at: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html. However, this opt-out mechanism uses a cookie, and if you clear the cookies from your browser your opt-out will not be maintained. To ensure that an opt-out is maintained in respect of a particular browser, you should use the Google browser plug-in available at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin.

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third party cookies. For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector. Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.

(3) Using your personal data

Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.

We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer the website;
(b) improve your browsing experience by personalising the website;
(c) enable your use of the services available on the website;
(d) send to you goods purchased via the website, and supply to you services purchased via the website;
(e) send statements and invoices to you, and collect payments from you;
(f) send you general (non-marketing) commercial communications;
(g) send you email notifications which you have specifically requested;
(h) send to you our newsletter and other marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications) ;
(i) provide third parties with statistical information about our users – but this information will not be used to identify any individual user;
(j) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website; and

Where you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.

We will not without your express consent provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.

Some of our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Paypal. You should only provide your personal information to Paypal after reviewing the Paypal privacy policy (available at www.paypal.com). We will share information with Paypal only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website. Other payments are made direct to our bank and we record the payment reference that you enter and the amount paid.

Lawful basis

The lawful basis for collecting and using your information as a data controller will relate to one or more of the following:

  • Consent: you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.
  • Contract: the processing of your personal data is necessary for a contract you have with us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
  • Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
  • Vital interests: the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.
  • Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
  • Legitimate interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

Retaining your personal data

We will retain your personal information for as long as we have a working relationship plus 12 months, or as needed to fulfil the purposes described in this policy including for the purposes of satisfying any legal accounting or reporting purposes.  For example as a private limited company, we are required to keep records of your financial transactions with us for six years.

(4) Disclosures

We may disclose information about you to any of our consultants, employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy policy.

In addition, we may disclose information about you:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk); and
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.

Except as provided in this privacy policy, we will not provide your information to third parties.

(5) International data transfers

Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.

Information which you provide may be transferred to countries (including the United States and Japan) which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Areas (EEA).

In addition, personal information that you submit for publication on the website will be published on the internet and may be available, via the internet, around the world.

You expressly agree to such transfers of personal information.

(6) Security of your personal data

We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.

We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure password- and firewall- protected computers.

Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

(7) Policy amendments

We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time by posting a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.

(8) Your rights

  1. The right to be informed
  2. The right of access
  3. The right to rectification
  4. The right to erasure
  5. The right to restrict processing
  6. The right to object.

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you. Provision of such information may be subject to the payment of a fee (currently fixed at £10.00). You may instruct us to rectify erroneous data, or to not process your personal data for marketing purposes by email at any time. (In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal data for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal data for marketing purposes). In some cases you can ask us to erase your personal data, to further restrict its processing, or to object to its processing.

Where we have gained your consent to process your personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

(9) Third party websites

The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.

(10) Updating information

Please let us know if the personal information which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated

(11) Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please write to us by email to our data protection officer helen.scott[@]groundedtheoryonline.com (remove the square brackets from the email address) or by post to GTO, St. John’s House, St. John’s Street, Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.

(12) Complaints

If you fail to gain satisfaction from us as regards your rights regarding your personal data, you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

This privacy policy is based on the work of and provided as  courtesy of Employment Law Contracts and Website Law