Privacy Policy

1. About RED C

We are RED C Research & Marketing Ltd, a company registered in Ireland with company registration number 371854 and having its registered address at Eastpoint Business Park, Block G, Alfie Byrne Rd, Clontarf, Dublin 3, D03 H2N1.

RED C collect certain information about you while operating our business. This privacy policy provides information regarding how RED C collects and processes your personal data when you interact with us. RED C provide additional privacy policies for specific research activities, for example for RED C’s online panel visit RED C Live.

RED C may review our privacy policy at any time and without notice

therefore we recommend that you review this privacy policy before interacting with RED C and prior to participation in research with us. This website is not intended for children under the age of 16 years.

It is important that the personal data that we hold about you is accurate and up to date therefore please let us know if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or the way that we use your personal information, please get in touch using the following details:

RED C DPO email address: [email protected]
Address: RED C Research & Marketing Ltd, Ground Floor, Block G, East Point Business Park, Alfie Byrne Road, Dublin 3, Ireland, D03 H2N1

Privacy Policy last updated 26th June 2024

2. How RED C use your personal data

Personal data means any information about you which can be used to identify you as an individual such as your name, email address, location data or physical characteristics and includes both online and physical data. This excludes information where your personal data has been removed and RED C do not have the ability to potentially identify you by the information in our possession (the data is anonymous).

RED C collect and process personal data as part of the services we provide. Processing means using personal data in any way i.e. collecting, storing, retrieving, consulting, disclosing or sharing with someone else, erasing, or destroying personal data. We limit the personal data that we process to what is required to undertake a particular function or service offering.

Function	Processing Activity
Employment Application Data	If you apply for a job, send your CV or make enquiries via telephone/letter/email, the information we process may include full name, date of birth, contact number, email address, home address, data concerning your professional life, CV, referees and educational or other relevant certifications.
Interactions with us	If you contact us we may record the details of this contact (i.e. name, phone number, email correspondence and hard copy correspondence) so that we can deal with your query. This includes personal data you provide when you: visit or create a user account on our website request/use our services enter into a contract with us are on our mailing lists for receiving information about marketing and events enter a prize draw or opt to receive an incentive payment have a query in relation to participation in research with us provide general feedback or contact us
Marketing Communication	RED C regularly sends marketing emails about our services, news and other content that is relevant to professionals and organisations working in areas such as marketing, market research and advertising. We provide the option to unsubscribe on every email that we send. To improve the content of our emails and make them more relevant we track the performance of them. For the purposes of marketing communication, we may process a full name, job title, telephone number, email address and organisation name. If we ever contact you via email, phone, post or text asking you to provide feedback or complete a survey on ways to improve our services we will always provide an option for you to unsubscribe or opt-out. To be removed from our direct mail marketing list at any time or to update your communication preferences please email [email protected].
Events and Live-Streaming	RED C host seminars, workshops and networking events on an ad-hoc basis. To attend an event we require those interested to register with us so that we can provide the practical details about the event. For this purpose we may process a full name, job title, email address, contact number and organisation name. To improve our events and make them more relevant we track the performance of them. As part of a service or event RED C may offer the option to live stream. To register for the live streaming we may process your full name, job title, email address, contact number, IP address and organisation name to ensure the service is delivered. To improve our live streaming service we track the performance of them.
Publicly available Information	RED C may process publicly available information about you (i.e. trade directories, websites and social media) where it is appropriate for us to use it, for example, to improve our service offerings. RED C will always provide an option for you to unsubscribe or opt out from receiving emails or communication from us.
Business Contact and Financial Data	RED C process the following information as part of setting up clients and suppliers on our system: first name, surname, company name, job title, email address, telephone number, company billing address, bank account and payment card details, details about payment transactions and products and services.
RED C Direct	For clients who purchase a RED C Direct product (RED Star Advertising Testing and Concept Testing) via our website, RED C will process the following information to set up your account – first name, last name, email and company name. If a client opts to pay by bank account RED C will also process company address, contact phone number, VAT number and PO number. For clients who opt for the ‘Pay As You Go’ option, RED C use Stripe Payments Europe Ltd to process the payment information that you submit. RED C require the payment information so that we can fulfil our sales contract with you and to ensure we are paid for the service you are availing of and will not use this information for any other purpose.
Data collected when you visit our website	RED C use Google Analytics who process the following data: IP address (this is anonymous), browser type & version, time zone setting & location, operating system, device type and device identifiers such as cookies. RED C will ask your consent to use cookies. You are prompted by a cookie banner when you first visit our website where you can choose to accept or decline our cookies. You can choose to decline cookies but if you turn off necessary cookies, some pages and functions on our website may not work properly. You can delete cookies directly with relevant third parties i.e. you can disable Google Analytics on their website.

3. How RED C use your personal data when you participate in research

RED C may process your personal data via your participation in research with us in online and telephone surveys, face-to-face surveys, qualitative discussions, Vox Pops, homework tasks/pre-tasks, or online communities. The information may include identification data (i.e. name, image or video), contact data (i.e. telephone number, email address or eircode), personal characteristics (i.e. gender or age) and social circumstances (i.e. household composition, income, dependents and occupation).

Typically, we combine the research data of numerous research participants and generate aggregated data such as statistical data. Aggregated data is data that has been collected and merged from numerous individuals and is expressed as an average, percentage or proportion of a population. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data, but it is not considered personal data in law as individuals are not directly or indirectly identified. If we link or merge aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, it then becomes personal data and will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

In some cases, we may analyse and report research data at an individual level by assigning a pseudonym (a number or code) to prevent the identification of individual participants. The assigned code or number is retained in a separate secure location to the survey data and can only be accessed by authorised personnel. This means individuals are not identified in the research data where pseudonyms have been assigned.

Children’s Personal Data

We will obtain prior consent of a legal guardian before processing the personal data of children under the age of 16 years. Full information about how RED C will use the child’s personal data will be provided to the legal guardian, and the child or legal guardian can opt to withdraw their consent at any time. RED C will only process children’s personal data to the extent permitted by law.

Clients Personal Data

We may receive your contact data from a client organisation who commissioned us to conduct research on their behalf i.e. a customer satisfaction survey or focus group with their customers. In this case our client is the data controller of both your contact data and the data that is collected via your participation in the research and RED C is a data processor. RED C will disclose to you the identity of the client organisation who provided your contact data to us. RED C’s client as data controller will solely determine the legal basis upon which they will rely on to conduct the research. For example our client may rely upon the legal basis of legitimate interest to conduct research with individuals with whom they have a direct relationship with i.e. customers.

Do Not Contact (DNC) List

We retain an individual’s telephone number if they inform us or indicate that they do not wish to take part in any further telephone surveys. It is only the telephone number that we retain and no other details. We also securely retain a list of email addresses of individuals who inform us or indicate that they do not want RED C to contact them again in relation to any online surveys. RED C is the data controller in respect of any personal data that we are holding on our DNC List. You can request to be removed from RED C’s DNC list at any time by contacting [email protected] or (01) 818 6316.

Incentives and Prize Draws

Incentives are issued by RED C on some research projects to participants following their participation. At the end of some of our surveys, participants can enter a free prize draw. To pay an incentive and issue a prize, RED C will require your contact data and may also require your financial data for this purpose. RED C maintain records of all transactions relating to incentives and prize draws.

Online Surveys

RED C provide an unsubscribe/opt out option at the bottom of each online survey invite and SMS that we send. RED C may send you a SMS text inviting you to participate in an online survey. The SMS text may state our client’s name as the sender.

When you conduct an online survey with RED C your IP address may be processed for the purposes of information security. RED C may also capture geolocation, device type, device used and operating system version number.

Special Category Data

Where RED C process special category data which can be attributed to an individual we will obtain explicit consent. Special category data is personal data that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health, a natural person’s sex life and sexual orientation.

Telephone Surveys

RED C use Random Digit Dialling (RDD) to conduct most of our telephone surveys. RDD is a method by which industry approved algorithms are used to generate numbers at random for selecting individuals for telephone statistical surveys. Therefore, we may call your number even if you did not make it publicly available. If you receive a phone call from RED C asking to participate in a survey about certain products, services and brands, this does not mean that we retain any of your personal data other than your telephone number. Typically your answers to telephone surveys will be treated anonymously and not stored together with your telephone number. If you are randomly selected to take part in a survey and receive a call from us but do not wish to participate and would like us to refrain from calling you in the future, please let us know, and we will add your number to our Do Not Contact List. Please contact [email protected] or (01) 818 6316.

RED C sometimes purchase contact data from Business-to-Business database providers to contact individuals within businesses asking them to participate in telephone or online surveys. We will disclose to you the identity of the provider when we contact you.

Quality Control

RED C process research participant contact data to conduct quality control checks for the purposes of our legitimate interests. RED C is the controller of any personal data processed for this purpose. Conducting quality control is a necessary business activity for RED C as we are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) UK and European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR), and we are therefore required to adhere to a set of benchmark research industry standards. These cover the recruitment, training and appraisal of the market research interviewers that work for us and the implementation of various administrative and validation procedures to maintain the quality and accuracy of data collected. To ensure we meet the required standards we contact a percentage of people who have participated in our research projects to ask them some questions.

To conduct a quality control check we require personal data such as your name, telephone number, address and email address so that a member of our quality control team can conduct this check. If you participate in a survey with a RED C market research interviewer, at the end of it they will ask you for your personal data for this purpose. You are not obligated to provide any personal data if you do not wish to do so. RED C use Geolocation to identify the location of the market research interviewer’s device for the purposes of data quality and reliability.

4. The Legal Grounds for processing your personal data

RED C 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 and if that processing does not unduly impact your rights. Under data protection law, RED C require a lawful basis for collecting, retaining and using your personal data. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law. Please contact the RED C DPO ([email protected]) to obtain information about the legal basis relied upon to process your personal data.

The following outlines the main legal reasons RED C rely on to process personal data:

Consent	We will obtain your consent to process your personal data if you choose to participate in research with us and you can withdraw your consent at any time.
Legitimate Interest	To operate our business effectively, provide services and improve on current offerings we may process personal data on the legal basis of legitimate interest (as long as that processing does not unduly impact your rights). We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
Contract	We will process your personal data where necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party i.e. an employee. Where you have engaged our services, we will process your personal data where necessary to perform the service i.e. a client.
Compliance with Legal Obligation	The processing is required to comply with a legal obligation such as retaining financial records for Revenue, Social Welfare and for requirements under employment relationships, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

5. What happens if you do not want to provide personal data?

Participation in market research with RED C is voluntary. You may stop participating and/or providing personal data at any time. RED C will inform you where relevant of any consequence that may arise by withdrawing your consent or cancelling any of our services. For example, if it affects our ability to issue you an incentive payment or in the event a client cancels a service the impact it may have on our ability to provide that service.

You can remove your consent at any time as follows:

Select the unsubscribe option in any survey invite or marketing email that you receive.

Follow opt out instruction in any SMS text that you receive.

Contacting the person you have been dealing with.

Emailing the RED C Data Protection Officer: [email protected]

Call us on (01) 818 6316.

Writing to us at: Data Protection Officer, RED C Research & Marketing Ltd,
Ground Floor, Block G, East Point Business Park, Alfie Byrne Road,
Dublin 3, Ireland, D03 H2N1.

6. Who Do We Share Your Personal Data With?

If necessary and compatible with the purposes, we share personal data with:

Service Providers

RED C rely on trusted third parties to help us run our business and to provide us with specialised services. These can include companies that provide Fieldwork services (i.e. recruitment, online panels, data analysis, transcription) IT services (i.e. cloud server provider, website hosting provider), document storage and destruction companies and marketing providers and consultants. Some providers may act as controllers in their own right or share responsibility for the personal data processing with us. Where our service providers have access to your personal data they are subject to confidentiality and data protection obligations and are contractually bound to use the data only for the purposes that we have instructed.

Professional Advisers

RED C may share your personal data with professional advisors who support our business in areas such as accounting, legal and insurance. For example, RED C may need to share personal data to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. The professional advisors who access your personal data are subject to professional confidentiality and will only use your personal data for the specific purpose required to provide the relevant services to RED C.

Regulators

In certain circumstances RED C may be required to provide information to a regulator (e.g. in the investigation of complaints).

Other third parties

RED C may share your information externally with other parties where you have provided your consent. We may be required to disclose personal information at the request of governmental or law enforcement agencies. We will only share this information when we have your consent or if we are legally obliged to do so.

RED C may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Or seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, your personal data will be treated in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

7. Links to Third Party Sites

There may be links provided to other websites, plug-ins and applications on RED C’s website. By clicking on these links or enabling a connection may allow third parties to collect or share information about you. We do not have any control over these third party websites and are not responsible for the security or privacy of any data they collect. We advise you to read the privacy policy of any website that you visit. Please note that this privacy policy only covers our own organisation and website.

8. Transfers Outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

Sometimes, it may be necessary that we transfer your personal data to countries outside the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA). If we transfer your personal data outside of the EEA we will ensure that appropriate measures are in place to protect your personal data and to comply with our obligations under applicable data protection law. This may mean that we enter into contracts in the form approved by the European Commission (EC), transfer to countries deemed by the EC to provide an adequate level of protection for processing personal data or putting additional measures and safeguards in place if we transfer data outside of the EEA to a country with no adequacy decision by the EC. If you would like further details about the measures we have taken in relation to the transfer of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer – [email protected].

9. How do we secure your data?

We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data. In assessing the appropriate level of measures RED C consider the risks that are presented by the processing, in particular from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised use or disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed. RED C also takes account of the type of personal data being processed as well as the volume.

RED C have in place functions, processes, controls, systems and procedures within our organisation to protect and secure the personal data we process. RED C have a Data Breach and Incident Reporting policy in place which sets out procedures for dealing with a personal data breach or suspected breach and the requirements for notification of data subjects (individuals whose personal data is affected) and where applicable the office of the Data Protection Commissioner or any other supervisory authority.

10. How long we retain your data

Where we are responsible for making decisions about how to collect and use your personal data, we will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for or as long as required to fulfil our legal obligations. RED C in establishing an appropriate retention period consider the type of data, its use, the volume, nature, sensitivity and the potential risk of harm to you if there was an incident affecting your personal data such as unauthorised use or disclosure. RED C have an established records retention policy in place.

11. Your Legal Rights

You have various rights under data protection law, subject to certain exemptions, in connection with our processing of your personal data:

Right to access the data – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.

Right to rectification – you have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.

Right to erasure – you have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. If we think there is a good reason to retain any of the information you have asked us to delete (i.e. to comply with regulatory requirements), we will inform you of this.

Right to restriction of processing or to object to processing – you have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for specific purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for a particular purpose. If we think there is a valid reason for us to use the personal data, we will inform you and explain our decision i.e. to pay an incentive.

Right to data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with an electronic copy of your personal data.

To exercise any of the above rights, please contact RED C’s Data Protection Officer using the contact details set out below. Exercising these rights are subject to the conditions and limits established by the GDPR and if we believe your request to be ineligible we shall inform you of this and our reasoning. You will not be required to pay a fee to exercise your rights unless we deem a request to be unfounded or excessive. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity as a security measure to ensure your data is not disclosed to anyone who does not have a right to access it. Please note our preferred method of contact is email.

Data Protection Officer Contact Details

Name: Janna Howard
Tel: (01) 818 6316
Email: [email protected]
Address: RED C Research & Marketing Ltd,
Ground Floor, Block G, East Point Business Park, Alfie Byrne Road,
Dublin 3, Ireland, D03 H2N1

12. Who to Contact In Relation To the Processing Of Your Data?

If you have any queries or requests in connection with our processing of your personal data, you can get in touch with us using the following contact details. Please note our preferred method of contact is email.

Data Protection Officer Contact Details

Complaints

If you are not happy with regards how we collect and use your personal data please note that members of the public have the right to lodge a complaint with the office of the Data Protection Commission (https://www.dataprotection.ie/) or another relevant supervisory body. We would like the opportunity to address and respond to your concerns before lodging a complaint so please reach out to us.