The Ipsos Healthcare Stakeholder Community

Privacy Policy

Healthcare Stakeholder Community - Privacy Policy

Last revised:

30th of June 2021

How we use your information

Ipsos Healthcare UK, commonly known as Ipsos Healthcare ("Ipsos Healthcare", "We" or "Us"), is a division of Ipsos UK Ltd a company registered in England under company number 01640855.

Ipsos is a specialist research agency based in the UK and part of the Ipsos worldwide group of companies.

This privacy notice explains how we use any personal information we collect about you (“Panelist”,”You” or “Your”), when you join our Healthcare Stakeholder Community online panel (“Panel”), take part in surveys, participate in the Community or use the Panelist website.

Topics:

  1. What information do we collect about you and what is our legal basis for processing your personal data?
  2. How will we use the information you provide?
  3. Children?
  4. Use of Cookies and similar code?
  5. Use of Digital fingerprinting?
  6. How long will we keep the information you provide?
  7. How you can get access to your information and/or correct it?
  8. I was offered a financial incentive for taking part. Why was this? Are there any ‘strings’ attached to this?
  9. How do you ensure my personal information is secure?
  10. How to contact us and Complaints
  11. Changes to our privacy policy
  12. Useful links

1. What information do we collect about you and what is our legal basis for processing your personal data?

Recruitment

In the majority of cases, you will become aware of our Panel and decide to join it without any prior contact with us. We collect the information you provide by email and by completing our recruitment questionnaire when you decide to join our Panel.  
In some instances Ipsos may approach you to see if you are interested in joining this Panel. When this happens, Ipsos requires a legal basis to process your personal data for the purpose of selection and recruitment for this Panel. Ipsos’ legal basis for collecting and processing your personal data in order to contact you to invite you to participate in this Panel is our legitimate interest. When Ipsos processes your personal information for our legitimate interests, we will consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights under data protection and any other relevant law. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you.
Ipsos processes the following categories of personal data about you in order to invite you to this Panel:

  • Your full name
  • Your professional affiliation
  • Your professional or personal telephone number
  • Your professional or personal email address
  • Name of institution/work place

This information is collected from publicly available sources, such as internet searches and social media (e.g. LinkedIn, institutional websites, publication records).

Sign-Up and Participation in our Panel

Once we have invited you to our Panel or you have decided to join it, we collect the information you provide by email and by completing our sign-up questionnaire. This includes providing contact details and some professional information about yourself, as well as confirmation whether you want to participate in our projects.
The primary purpose why we collect information from you is for us to conduct market research projects. When you decide to join our Panel, we enter into a contract with you, which is subject to this Privacy Notice as well as our Terms and Conditions.
In order to fulfil this contract by inviting you to appropriate surveys, we need to collect, process and profile the information requested from you during the sign-up phase or which you may subsequently add to your profile
We then also collect information from you based on your consent, in particular where you respond to any research invitations we might be sending you or information that you may otherwise voluntarily provide. Responding to such research invitations is at your choice. There might also be situations where we are seeking your further or even explicit consent where this might be appropriate or required.
For quality control purposes, e.g. to ensure that individuals cannot complete research more than once, Ipsos will also collect and process your IP address and digital fingerprint on the basis of its legitimate interest.

2. How will we use the information you provide?

We will use the information you provide to:

  • Fulfil our contract with you.
  • Keep a record of all Panelists.
  • Send you invitations to participate in surveys that are relevant to you based on the information you provided in response to our recruitment questionnaire(s).
  • Send you a SMS message to your mobile phone number containing a verification code, in order to verify your application and activate your Panelist account, when you sign up to our Panel.
  • Append personal information about you to your responses to any surveys you participate in, such as geographical location, ethnicity, occupation categories etc. for analysing the survey responses and producing anonymous, statistical research results.
  • Enter you into any prize draws that you are eligible to take part in or, where invited to do so, have asked to be entered.
  • With your explicit consent, which might be sought in a specific research project and limited thereto, to pass your individual research responses together with your personal information to the client who commissioned the survey. The client will use this information only for research purposes as explained in the relevant research project. If any other purposes are required, we will likewise ask for your consent to this.
  • Where you have explicitly consented separately and prior to your information being provided to the client for this, the client may also use this information to contact you to invite your participation in further research they conduct.
  • With your explicit prior consent, we may forward your personal information and individual research answers to another market research institute which is our business partner, for the following purpose: sending you research invitations by e-mail or by phone with links leading to surveys or information on how to participate in other types of projects (e.g. qualitative interviews) or using your personal information for prize/gift delivery or prize draws (if the case) related to participation in these market research institutes’ research projects. Nevertheless, such a third party will be required to observe the condition that the data can be used only for statistical, research and/or prize/gift delivery/prize draw organisation purposes and will be bound not to forward or further disclose personal data such as your name, postal address or other personal information that could serve to identify you.
  • To create anonymous, statistical profiles of Panel membership based on the information provided by Panelists.
  • To respond to legal requests, prevent harm or comply with regulations such as Adverse Event reporting or where applicable to comply with local legislation around reporting of incentives.
  • Send You by email newsletters, announcements and other communications as set out in the Terms and Conditions

We may also send your information to colleagues working in other Ipsos Group companies, and any sub-contractor companies who may be conducting some of the work we do on our behalf, and under our control and responsibility. Some of these sub-contractors may be based outside the UK and European Economic Area; however, they are required to abide by the same data privacy legal requirements and security arrangements as ourselves.

We may also store your Personal Information on systems hosted outside of the UK and the EEA, for example, on systems within the United States or Canada.

We will NEVER use your information for any purpose other than research. We will NOT try to sell you anything, nor use your information for marketing purposes. Nor will we ever pass your information to third parties for marketing purposes.

For more information about the community, please contact the Community Management Team. They can be contacted by email sent to Europe.online@ipsos.com, with "Healthcare Stakeholder Community" in the subject line.

Or by letter sent to:

Healthcare Stakeholder Community Management

Healthcare Online Operations
Ipsos UK
3 Thomas More Square
London
EW1 1YW

3. Children

This Community is only open to individuals aged 18 or over. Children under the age of 18 are not permitted to take part.

Where we conduct research aimed at children, we will always seek consent from a parent, legal guardian or other person legally responsible for the child before inviting them to join a Community or take part in the research.

4. Use of Cookies and similar code?

By joining our online research Panel and taking part in our online research, you agree to our use of cookies and similar technologies and the collection of information from your PC/Laptop or other computing device you may use whilst taking part in our online research activities as outlined below.

Our Panel website and online surveys collect information using 'cookies' and functionally similar technologies. Cookies are small files stored on your computer. Specifically, in respect of cookies, further details of what cookies are can be found by visiting www.aboutcookies.org

The emails we send to potential new Panelists will also place a cookie when images are downloaded and the email is opened. You can prevent this cookie being placed by simply opening the email as text only, closing the email before downloading any images or by changing your browser/email software to restrict cookies.

Standard Cookies

The cookies and similar technology that may be used in connection with this Panel are as follows:

Site/Domain/Host

Cookie Name

Purpose of cookie

cw8web.synovate.net

Cookies

This cookie is essential for our online studies on this platform to operate correctly. It is set only for those studies.

wbtst2web.synovate.net

BIGipServerpl-web-wbtst2webtest.synovate.net

This cookie is essential for our online studies on this platform to operate correctly. It is set only for those studies.

wbtst2web.synovate.net

cookies

This cookie is essential for our online studies on this platform to operate correctly. It is set only for those studies.

hcscommunity.com

dkp___id

This cookie is essential for the correct functioning of online studies hosted on this platform.

(other study domains used by Ipsos)

Session_ID

This cookie is essential for some of our online studies on other platforms to operate correctly. It is set only for those studies. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser


It is possible for you to delete 'cookies' or to prevent their use by adjusting the browser settings on your computer. However, if you do prevent our online surveys and Panelists' website from using cookies, our surveys and Panelists' website will not work properly and you will not be able to participate in this Panel.

Special Cookies

These files are used as sparingly as possible and only for quality control, validation and, more importantly, to prevent us sending you reminders for any on-line survey you have already completed. It is possible for you to delete 'cookies' or to prevent their use by adjusting the browser settings on your computer.

In addition to our use of cookies, our online surveys automatically capture information about your IP Address, operating system, screen display settings, browser type, use of Flash and Java and to detect whether your computer has a webcam. We use this information to:

  • ensure that the survey is delivered in a form suited to the software your computer is using.
  • assist in providing support to you, should you have difficulty accessing or completing a survey.
  • anonymised information is also used for research purposes, for example to determine the percentage of our Panelists in a specific country who use a certain type of browser.

5. Use of Digital fingerprinting?

We also use digital fingerprinting technology, also known as "Machine Identification" digital fingerprints, to gather certain information about your computer hardware and software, for example, your IP address, the display settings of your monitor, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using, to detect whether your device has a webcam etc. This information is sent to our trusted third-party partner who converts it into a unique serial number (the digital "fingerprint") and determines if it matches previous fingerprints. The data collected in this process and the digital fingerprint created are:

  • used to ensure that the survey is delivered in a form suited to the software your computer is using;
  • used to assist in providing support to you, should you have difficulty accessing or completing a survey;
  • not tied to any of your personal information and stored on secured servers, and
  • used for quality control purposes and to help prevent Panelists from completing the same survey many times.
Anonymised information is also used for research purposes, for example to determine the percentage of our Panelists in a specific country who use a certain type of browser.

6. How long will we keep the information you provide?

We will keep the profile information you provided for as long as you remain a Panelist. You can leave the Panel at any time you wish.
When you leave the Panel, or are removed, or the Panel is closed, we will delete your personal information within 31 days or as set out in this paragraph.
Before removing anyone from our Panel, we will try to contact them to let them know and provide details of how to remain a Panelist where appropriate. However, in the event we consider you breach the Healthcare Stakeholders Community' s Terms and Conditions, we may remove you from our Panel without any notice and your access to the Panelist website and to your points account will be closed.
If you are removed, we will retain only that information required to prevent you from re-joining. If you have requested not to be contacted, we will retain only that information required to honour your request.
When you leave the Panel, are removed, or the Panel is closed, we will delete all your contact details, together with any other information that could be used to identify you, keeping only your responses to research projects that you participated in.
In some instances, your individual responses to the research tasks or questions (including text, image and audio-visual content) may need to be retained by us for up to ten (10) years for the purpose of drug and device safety monitoring as instructed by the sponsoring client of the research.
The answers provided by you will be pseudonymised by us for security reasons and will only be shared with our clients in an anonymised form, unless you have given your explicit consent to you being identified. Such data will be maintained in accordance with GDPR Article 89 (1).
7. How can you get access to your information and/or correct it?

You have the right to request a copy of all the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please contact our Compliance Department. They can be contacted by

Email sent to : Europe.online@ipsos.com

Or by letter sent to:

Ref: Ipsos Healthcare Stakeholder Community,
Ipsos Healthcare
3 Thomas More Square
London
E1W 1YW
UK

Please quote your Panel membership number (if known) or your email address used for the Panel in your email or letter.

8. I was offered a financial incentive for taking part. Why was this? Are there any ‘strings’ attached to this?



We offer financial incentives (a ‘thank you payment’) for people taking part in some of our studies, and not for others. Sometimes payments are offered to you personally; sometimes in the form of a donation to a charity of your choice or as a prize draw. This all depends on the amount of time and effort involved in taking part, and on how our client feels about offering a payment. You will have been told about any thank-you payment when you were asked to take part.
There are no ‘strings’ attached to accepting this payment. It doesn’t affect any benefit or tax credit entitlements you have. Even if you have already been given a thank-you payment, you still have the right to drop out of the discussion or interview part-way through; or to ask for your answers to be changed or deleted afterwards (note that we will be able to meet this request only while we can identify who you are in our data; all data is eventually anonymised and at that point it becomes impossible for us to know who responses come from).
In some instances, incentives are subject to local laws and have to be reported to our clients and the regulatory authorities. If this is the case, we will tell you about any requirements when we invite you to take part in a particular research project.

9. How do you ensure my personal information is secure?

We take our responsibilities to keep your personal information secure very seriously. As such we take every reasonable precaution to ensure your information is protected from loss, theft or misuse. These precautions include appropriate physical security of our offices, controlled access to computer systems, and use of secure, encrypted internet connections when collecting personal information.

As part of our commitment to the security of your information, IIS has regular internal and external audits of its information security, and is certified to be compliant with the requirements of the International Standards for Information Security, ISO 27001, Market, Opinion and Social Research, ISO 20252, and Quality Management, ISO 9001.

10. How to contact us and Complaints

For more information about our Panels, Panel membership or information related to your membership of one of our Panels, please contact our Panel Support Team. They can be contacted by email sent to Europe.Online@ipsos.com, with "Healthcare Stakeholder Community" in the subject line.

Or by letter sent to:

Healthcare Stakeholder Community Management

Healthcare Online Operations
Ipsos UK
3 Thomas More Square
London
EW1 1YW

If you have any complaints, we will appreciate if you give us an opportunity to resolve any issue first, by contacting us as set out above. You are, however, always entitled to contact and lodge a complaint with the data protection supervisory authority in your country or our regulatory body, the UK’s Information Commissioner;s Office (ICO), at:

https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

or
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: UK 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or +44 1625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Fax: +44 1625 524 510
Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Your complaint will probably also be accepted by the data protection authorities in other countries.

11. Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage. We will also inform you of any changes via the news section of the Panelist website, via email or when you log-on after any change. Our privacy notice was last updated on 26/05/2021.

12. Useful Links

Information Commissioner's Office: www.ico.org.uk

World organisation for market research - ESOMAR: www.esomar.org

British Healthcare Business Insight Association - BHBIA: www.bhbia.org.uk

EphMRA - www.ephmra.org

Insights Association: www.insightsassociation.org
 
 
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