Research Participant Privacy Notice

1. Who is responsible for your information

Friday Promotions Limited is the controller for Friday-owned research unless a study tells you that another organisation is the controller or joint controller. Registered office: Trinity House, 6 Clements Court, Clements Lane, Ilford, England, IG1 2QY. Contact: hello@wearefriday.co.uk.

2. What information we may collect

• Recruitment and eligibility information, such as age, UK residence and whether you meet the study criteria.
• For direct recruitment, contact details such as your name and email where needed for recruitment, community participation, follow-up or incentive administration.
• For Prolific recruitment, we normally receive and store your Prolific participant ID and relevant study/session identifiers rather than your name or direct email address.
• Research responses, including opinions, behaviours, preferences and open-text answers.
• Demographic and cultural information relevant to the research, which may include religion or belief and racial or ethnic origin. These are special category personal data under UK data protection law.
• Participation metadata, such as recruitment source, study/session identifiers, timestamps and completion status.
• Prize or incentive administration information where relevant.

Where practicable, identity or contact information is stored separately from research responses and linked using a participant or study identifier rather than being embedded in the research dataset.

3. Why we use research information

We use research information to conduct audience and market research, understand behaviours and attitudes, identify patterns and differences, produce aggregated insights, develop Friday research and Friday Insights, improve our methods and services, and communicate research findings.

We may compare findings across studies or over time where this is compatible with what participants were told and appropriate safeguards are in place. We do not publish research in a way intended to identify individual participants.

4. Lawful basis

For ordinary personal information used in Friday-owned research, we generally rely on our legitimate interests in conducting audience and market research, producing useful aggregated insight, improving research methods and developing our services. We assess those interests against the rights and expectations of participants.

Where research involves special category information such as religion or ethnicity, we also need a separate condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR. For Friday-owned commercial audience research, our default approach is to obtain explicit consent for the special category elements unless a different lawful condition is identified, documented and explained for a particular study.

Agreeing to take part in a study is not always the same thing as GDPR consent for every part of the processing. The study information will explain any consent we rely upon and how you can withdraw it.

5. Voluntary participation, withdrawal and anonymisation

Taking part is voluntary. You can stop a survey before submitting it. Where we rely on explicit consent for special category data, you can withdraw that consent by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.

Each study will state any practical withdrawal or anonymisation deadline that applies, including the date or stage of the research by which a request should be made. Before that point, we will take reasonable steps to identify and remove your response where the applicable right requires us to do so. Once information has been irreversibly anonymised so that we can no longer identify you, it is no longer personal data and we cannot retrieve an individual response for deletion. We will not use a vague or undisclosed deadline to prevent a valid withdrawal request.

6. Friday Insights Community and future contact

Entering a prize draw, completing a study, requesting a report or participating through Prolific does not automatically add you to Friday marketing or the Friday Insights research community.

Where we invite you to hear about future research, Friday insights or events, those choices will be presented separately where appropriate. To leave the Friday Insights research community or stop receiving research invitations, use any unsubscribe option provided or contact hello@wearefriday.co.uk. We may retain a limited suppression record so that we can respect your request not to be contacted again. Leaving the community stops future invitations but does not automatically require deletion of research responses already collected where another lawful reason permits their retention; any applicable deletion or withdrawal rights remain available to you.

7. Prolific, Tally and other research providers

Friday may use third-party services to recruit participants, host questionnaires, administer incentives or store research information. These may include Prolific and Tally. The provider may process some information under its own privacy terms as well as processing information for Friday.

For direct recruitment, Friday may store the name and email address you provide. For Prolific recruitment, Friday normally stores only the Prolific participant ID and relevant study/session identifiers rather than your name or direct email. In both routes, we separate identity/contact information from research responses where practicable.

8. Sharing and processors

We may share research information with service providers that help us host surveys, store data, recruit participants, analyse research or administer incentives. We may also share aggregated or anonymised findings with clients, partners, audiences, the media or the public.

We do not sell identifiable participant responses to advertisers. Client-specific research may have different controller arrangements, which will be explained in the relevant study information.

9. International transfers

Some research and technology providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where this involves a restricted transfer of personal information, we use the safeguards required by UK data protection law.

10. Retention

• Research recruitment/contact details for a specific study: normally up to 12 months after the study closes, unless you separately join the Friday Insights research community.
• Friday Insights Community contact/profile data: while you participate, with a review at least every 24 months.
• Identifiable or pseudonymised research responses: normally up to 5 years after the study is completed where this remains necessary for research integrity, verification, compatible analysis or comparison across waves of the same or related research, such as successive Friday Pulse studies. Where we rely on consent and you validly withdraw it before anonymisation, we will deal with the affected information in accordance with that withdrawal and applicable law.
• Prize draw administration: normally up to 6 months after prize fulfilment, unless a longer period is required for legal, accounting or dispute-resolution purposes.
• Fully anonymised research datasets and published aggregated findings: may be retained indefinitely because they no longer identify an individual.

A particular client study, contractual requirement or research method may justify a different period. If it materially differs, we will tell participants.

11. Security and research safeguards

We use proportionate technical and organisational safeguards. These include limiting access, separating contact information from research responses where practical, minimising the special category data collected, using participant or study identifiers where appropriate, and reporting findings in aggregate or anonymised form.

If a personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of affected participants, we will inform those participants without undue delay as required by law. We also assess whether a breach must be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office.

12. Automated decisions

Friday research may use statistical analysis, segmentation or AI-assisted analysis to help identify patterns. We do not use research responses to make solely automated decisions about an individual that have legal or similarly significant effects unless a particular study expressly explains otherwise and the legal requirements are met.

13. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability and objection. Where processing relies on consent, you can withdraw that consent. Some rights can be limited in particular research circumstances or may no longer be applicable after information has been irreversibly anonymised.

To exercise a right, withdraw consent where applicable, leave the research community or ask a research privacy question, contact hello@wearefriday.co.uk.

14. Complaints

Please contact Friday first if you have a concern so that we can try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

15. Changes

We may update this notice as our research programme, technology or legal obligations develop. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.