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Privacy Policy

Your rights and our obligations

This privacy statement explains what personal data or information we collect from you and from people who visit our website, and how we use that data.

If you have any questions regarding this statement and our privacy practices, please contact us.

Who are we?

Vanson Bourne is a registered company in the United Kingdom under 03845096. Our registered office address is The Courtyard, 2 London Road, Newbury RG14 1AX.

For the purposes of data protection, Vanson Bourne is a data controller.

What personal data or information do we collect?

Personal data is defined by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, “the Data Protection Legislation”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

How do we collect data or information from you?

We collect data or information about you when you use our website, when you make an enquiry about our products or services, enquire about a job opportunity, or if you register to be sent an email news update.

How is your information used?

We collect your personal data or information to operate our business effectively and provide you with the best possible information on our products and services.

We may use your information to:

  • Carry out our obligations arising from any contract or contract negotiations entered into by you or us as a client or prospective client
  • Process an enquiry that you have made to us
  • Contact you to discuss business opportunities or products and services that we believe may be of interest to you
  • Process a job application
  • Send you communications that you have requested, or which we think you will find of interest, for example our email newsletter

We believe that all of these purposes are justified on the basis of our legitimate interest in running and promoting our business, our contractual requirements to deliver agreed products or services to you, and to fulfil our legal obligations.

For the purposes of completing surveys, we rely on consent.

Details of our processing

Type of data held Length of time held How data is held
Clients
  • Name and contact information
  • Information and documents relating to the services we are providing, including communications with you
  • Billing and payment information
We will retain information about you for the duration of our contractual relationship with you, then for an additional 10 years We retain financial records for 10 years, following the end of the current financial year Data is stored on secure UK-based servers

Data is stored on secure datacentres in Frankfurt, Germany

Prospective clients
  • Name and contact information
  • Information and documents relating to the services we are providing, including communications with you
We will retain information about you for the duration of the enquiry, then a further five years Data is stored on secure UK-based servers

Data is stored on secure datacentres in Frankfurt, Germany

Data is stored on secure datacentres in the US

Job applicants
  • Name and contact information
  • CV and application form
  • Interview notes (for those shortlisted)
We will retain information about you for the duration of the recruitment campaign, then one year Data is stored on secure UK-based servers
Vanson Bourne CommunITy members (privacy policy)
  • Contact details
  • Company details
  • Completed survey
  • Profiling information about your job role
We will retain information about you for the duration of the enquiry, then a further five years Data is stored on servers based within the EEA

Who has access to your information?

We will pass your information onto our third-party service providers, agents, or subcontractors (e.g. a researcher or academic for further research) for the purposes of completing a task or providing services to you on our behalf (for example, to process survey responses).

If any of your personal data is shared with a third party, as described above, we will take steps to ensure that your personal data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the third party’s obligations under the law.

If any personal data is transferred outside of the UK, we will take suitable steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the Data Protection Legislation.

If we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or assets, your personal data may be transferred to a third party. Any new owner of our business may continue to use your personal data in the same way(s) that we have used it, as specified in this Privacy Policy.

In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.

Transfers outside of the United Kingdom

We do store some of your personal data in countries outside of the UK. These are known as “third countries”. We will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the Data Protection Legislation as follows:

  • We will only store or transfer personal data in or to countries that are deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. For further information about adequacy decisions and adequacy regulations, please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
  • We will use specific approved contracts which ensure the same levels of personal data protection that apply under the Data Protection Legislation. For further information, please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Please contact us using the details at the end of the notice for further information about the particular data protection safeguard[s] used by us when transferring your personal data to a third country.

Your choices and rights

We understand that you trust us with your personal information and we are committed to ensuring you can manage the privacy and security of your personal information yourself.

With respect to the information relating to you that ends up in our possession, and recognising that it is your choice to provide us with your personally identifiable information, we commit to giving you the ability to do all of the following:

  • You can verify the details you have submitted to Vanson Bourne by contacting us Our security procedures mean that we may request proof of identity before we reveal information, including your e-mail address and possibly your address.
  • You can always feel free to update us on your details at any point by contacting us.
  • You can unsubscribe from receiving marketing emails from us by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email. Once you do this, you will no longer receive any emails from us.
  • You can request a readable copy of the personal data we hold on you at any time. To do this, please contacting us.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about our processing with the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

Keeping your data secure

The security of your personal data is essential to us, and to protect your data, we take a number of important measures, including the following:

  • limiting access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties with a legitimate need to know and ensuring that they are subject to duties of confidentiality.
  • procedures for dealing with data breaches (the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, your personal data) including notifying you and/or the Information Commissioner’s Office where we are legally required to do so.

Emailing us

We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic in line with government standards. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.

We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

Use of cookies by this website

See our cookie policy.

Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help us analyse how visitors use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for our website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 29th January 2021.