Good to Know

At COG we are aware we work in a world where trust in our standards is incredibly important. People who visit our site and take part in our studies need to be confident that we protect their privacy and work to the highest ethical standards. Our clients and our suppliers also need to be confident in our commitment to integrity and data quality.

We are committed to diversity, equality of opportunity and access, and to ensure that all our respondents stories are told accurately and fully. That is why we support initiatives such as the MRS commitment to diversity, the modern slavery initiative and of course uphold all relevant data privacy standards.

We are an MRS Company Partner, and our directors are members of ESOMAR: we also serve on industry bodies to uphold standards, improve diversity and access and reward excellence.

The specific sections below detail our privacy, modern slavery and cookie policies

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Privacy Policy

This website is provided by COG Research Limited. Registered Address: Willowhayne, Wonersh GU5 0RU. We take very seriously the privacy of our website users and the security of their personal information.

The purpose of this privacy policy is to set out the principles governing our use of the personal information that we may obtain about you. By using the website, you agree to this use so we ask you to read this privacy policy carefully.

We may change our privacy policy from time to time. We therefore ask you to check it occasionally to ensure that you are aware of the most recent version that will apply each time you access this website.

PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

We gather various types of information, including information that identifies or may identify you as an individual (“Personal Information”) as explained in more detail below.

Information You Provide to Us:

From Websites or Events: We may collect any Personal Information that you choose to send to us or provide to us, for example, on our “Request a Demo” (or similar) online form or if you register for a Hall & Partners webinar. If you contact us through the Websites, we will keep a record of our correspondence.

Information We Automatically Collect:

When you use the Websites: When you visit the Websites, we collect certain information related to your device, such as your device’s IP address, referring website, what pages your device visited, and the time that your device visited our Website.

For further information, please read the section below headed “Cookies and other Tracking Technologies” and/or read our Cookie Notice.

How do we use the information?

Websites or Events:

We will use the information we collect via our Websites:

To administer our Website, our events and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, statistical and survey purposes;
To improve our Website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
For trend monitoring, marketing and advertising;
For purposes made clear to you at the time you submit your information – for example, to fulfil your request for a demo, to provide you with access to one of our webinar’s or whitepaper’s or to provide you with information you have requested about our Services; and
As part of our efforts to keep our Website secure.

Our use of your Personal Information may be based on our legitimate interest to ensure network and information security, and for our direct marketing purposes, or you consenting to it (e.g. when you request a demo). For our customers, the use of personal data will be based on the contract we have in place.

JOB APPLICANTS

All of the information you provide during an enquiry or application process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements, if necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes, or store any of your information outside the European Economic Area. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors, whether this information is in electronic or physical format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

If you are unsuccessful in your job application we will retain your information for 5 years after your application. If you are successful in your job application we will retain your information in line with our staff employment data protection policy.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but it might affect your application if you don’t.

EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS

You have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you:

Your right of access. If you ask us, we’ll confirm whether we’re processing your personal information and, if so, provide you with a copy of that personal information (along with certain other details). If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.
Your right to rectification. If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you’re entitled to have it rectified. If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
Your right to erasure. You can ask us to delete or remove your personal information in some circumstances such as where we no longer need it or if you withdraw your consent (where applicable). If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the erasure where possible. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
Your right to restrict processing. You can ask us to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances such as where you contest the accuracy of that personal information or you object to us processing it. It won’t stop us from storing your personal information though. We’ll tell you before we lift any restriction. If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the restriction where it is possible for us to do so. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
Your right to data portability. With effect from 25 May 2018, you have the right, in certain circumstances, to obtain personal information you’ve provided us with (in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format) and to reuse it elsewhere or to ask us to transfer this to a third party of your choice.
Your right to object. You can ask us to stop processing your personal information, and we will do so, if we are:
- relying on our own or someone else’s legitimate interests to process your personal information, except if we can demonstrate compelling legal grounds for the processing; or
- processing your personal information for direct marketing.
Your rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling. You have the right not to be subject to a decision when it’s based on automatic processing, including profiling, if it produces a legal effect or similarly significantly affects you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us.
Your right to withdraw consent. If we rely on your consent (or explicit consent) as our legal basis for processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
Your right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. If you have a concern about any aspect of our privacy practices, including the way we’ve handled your personal information, you can report it to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find details about how to do this on the ICO website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

If you would like to access, review, update, rectify, and delete any Personal Information we hold about you, or exercise any other data subject right available to you under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), email info@cogresearch.com with the heading Personal Information. Our privacy team will examine your request and respond to you as quickly as possible.

Please note that we may still use any aggregated and de-identified Personal Information that does not identify any individual, and may also retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

SECURITY

We have a commitment to taking reasonable steps to ensure the security of your information. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we use appropriate technical, organizational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Protecting the privacy of the young, i.e. children under the age of 13, is especially important. For that reason, we never collect or maintain information at our site from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our site is structured to attract anyone under 13. If a child has provided us with personal information, we ask that a parent or guardian of the child contact us at info@cogresearch.com if they would like the information submitted by the child deleted from our database. We will use all reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.

PRIVACY PRECAUTIONARY WARNING

Please note that no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of the information that you transmit via our online services. Please note that we reserve the right to access and/or disclose the user information discussed herein (including personal information) as required by courts and/or administrative agencies and to the extent required to permit us to investigate suspected fraud, harassment or other violations of law or our Site Terms of Use or policies.

COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING ACTIVITIES

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts.

More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Assisting you in navigation;
Assisting in registration to our events, login, and your ability to provide feedback;
Analysing your use of our products, services or applications;
Assisting with our promotional and marketing efforts (including behavioural advertising).

Our Website is scanned with our cookie scanning tool regularly to maintain a list as accurate as possible. We classify cookies in the following categories:

Strictly Necessary Cookies
Performance Cookies
Functional Cookies
Targeting Cookies

You can opt-out of each cookie category (except strictly necessary cookies) by clicking on the “cookie settings” button at the bottom of the page or in our Cookie Notice.

Google Analytics:

We also utilize Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google, to better understand your use of our Websites and Services. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit the Websites, what pages they visit and what other sites they used prior to visiting. Google uses the data collected to track and examine the use of the Websites, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services. Google may use the data collected on the Websites to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Websites is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

Google offers an opt-out mechanism for the web available here.

Please consult our Cookie Notice for more information about the type of cookies and tracking technologies that we use on this Website and why, and how to accept and reject them.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about our privacy policy, please contact privacy@cogresearch.com

Our Data Protection Officer:

Pat Wade

Email Address: DPO@cogresearch.com

Address: COG Research Limited, WIllowhayne, Wonersh GU5 0RU

Attention: Privacy - DPO

This document was last updated on September 7th, 2018.

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Survey Policy

This policy is provided by COG Research Limited, WIllowhayne, Wonersh GU5 0RU. We take the privacy of any personal information we collect from you very seriously.

The purpose of this privacy policy is to set out the principles governing our use of the personal information that we may obtain about you when you take part in a COG Research survey. By taking part in our surveys, you agree to this use so we ask you to read this privacy policy carefully.

PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

We may gather various types of information, including information that identifies or may identify you as an individual (“Personal Information”) as explained in more detail below.

Information You Provide to Us:

We may collect Personal Data when you participate in a market research survey from COG Research. Such information includes a unique respondent identification number we assign to you and the responses you provide when completing the survey. In this context, you may choose to provide sensitive Personal Data about you, such as Personal Data that discloses or reveals health and medical conditions, sexual orientation or sexual life, political opinions/views, race/ethnic origin, religious and philosophical beliefs and trade-union membership. Where required by law, we obtain your explicit consent to the processing of your sensitive Personal Data. We may also collect content that you submit, upload or transmit when using the Service, such as photos and videos.

Information We Automatically Collect:

We may collect certain information related to your device, such as your device’s IP address, operating system and browser type for the purpose of optimising your experience, data for authentication and quality purposes.

How do we use the information collected?

Any data that we collect during COG Research surveys will be used solely for the research purpose agreed with our clients. Under GDPR the legal basis for processing of this data is ‘legitimate business interest’.

Any Personal Information or Sensitive Personal Data collected during COG Research surveys will be used solely for the research purpose agreed with our clients, but we will obtain consent before collecting and these questions can be refused. Under GDPR the legal basis for processing of this data is ‘consent’

Automated Decision Making / Profiling

Based on the information you may give in our survey, we may carry out automated decision making or profiling about you. In most of cases this will not result in any legally significant decisions being made about you and will be used in a market research context only. Under GDPR the legal basis for processing of this data is ‘legitimate business interest’.

EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS

You have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you:

Your right of access. If you ask us, we’ll confirm whether we’re processing your personal information and, if so, provide you with a copy of that personal information (along with certain other details). If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.

Your right to rectification. If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you’re entitled to have it rectified. If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.

Your right to erasure. You can ask us to delete or remove your personal information in some circumstances such as where we no longer need it or if you withdraw your consent (where applicable). If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the erasure where possible. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.

Your right to restrict processing. You can ask us to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances such as where you contest the accuracy of that personal information or you object to us processing it. It won’t stop us from storing your personal information though. We’ll tell you before we lift any restriction. If we’ve shared your personal information with others, we’ll let them know about the restriction where it is possible for us to do so. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.

Your right to data portability. With effect from 25 May 2018, you have the right, in certain circumstances, to obtain personal information you’ve provided us with (in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format) and to reuse it elsewhere or to ask us to transfer this to a third party of your choice.

Your right to object. You can ask us to stop processing your personal information, and we will do so, if we are:
- relying on our own or someone else’s legitimate interests to process your personal information, except if we can demonstrate compelling legal grounds for the processing; or
- processing your personal information for direct marketing.

Your rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling. You have the right not to be subject to a decision when it’s based on automatic processing, including profiling, if it produces a legal effect or similarly significantly affects you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us.

Your right to withdraw consent. If we rely on your consent (or explicit consent) as our legal basis for processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Your right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. If you have a concern about any aspect of our privacy practices, including the way we’ve handled your personal information, you can report it to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find details about how to do this on the ICO website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

If you would like to access, review, update, rectify, and delete any Personal Information we hold about you, or exercise any other data subject right available to you under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), contact us at info@cogresearch.com with the heading Personal Information. Our privacy team will examine your request and respond to you as quickly as possible.

WHERE WE STORE DATA

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, stored at and processed at a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. If we transfer data for processing to a country outside of the EEA, we will put in additional safeguards to protect your personal data based on standard contractual clauses and data protection laws.

SECURITY

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Protecting the privacy of the young, i.e. children under the age of 16, is especially important. For that reason, we never knowingly invite children under the age of 16 years to participate in research studies without consent. If it is necessary and appropriate, we will take measures to gain permission by the responsible adult. If a child has provided us with personal information, we ask that a parent or guardian of the child contact us at info@cogresearch.com if they would like the information submitted by the child deleted from our database. We will use all reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.

PRIVACY PRECAUTIONARY WARNING

COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING ACTIVITIES

Please consult our Cookie Notice for more information about the type of cookies and tracking technologies that we use on this Website and why, and how to accept and reject them.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about our privacy policy, please contact privacy@cogresearch.com

Our Data Protection Officer:

Pat Wade

Email Address: DPO@cogresearch.com

Address: COG Research Limited, WIllowhayne, Wonersh GU5 0RU

Attention: Privacy - DPO

This document was last updated on September 7th, 2018.

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Modern Slavery Policy

COG Research Limited Statement on the Modern Slavery Act

September 2018

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our modern slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 April 2019.

This statement is made on behalf of COG Research Limited. We foster a culture of collaboration and focus on investing in our people, protecting the environment and giving back to the communities in which we operate. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery and are committed to establishing effective systems and controls to safeguard against any form of modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain.

Our Business

We are a strategic insight consultancy powered by data and insight, and our services provide the best talent, creativity, technology and innovation to some of the world's most well known and successful brands. We always strive to work to the highest professional standards and comply with all laws, regulations and rules relevant to our business.

Our Supply Chain

We have commenced mapping our supply chains to analyse the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Our key suppliers are panel companies, technology service providers and software service providers. Modern forms of slavery and human trafficking are not prevalent in the industries in which these suppliers operate. We expect the same high standards as those to which we hold ourselves from those businesses with which we work.

We believe the nature of our work, our supply chains and their industries to be low risk in terms of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Policies

Our corporate responsibility strategy, codified in the COG Research Limited Code of Business Conduct, aims to improve the impact of our business on society and we are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our supply chains or in any part of our business.

Our new Supplier Code of Conduct reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains. A copy of our new supplier new Supplier Code of Conduct can be supplied upon request.

Our steps to implement this new Supplier Code of Conduct are ongoing and are as follows:

communicating the new Supplier Code of Conduct to our suppliers;
aiming for our new supplier contracts to contain express warranties and indemnities regarding compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and our new Supplier Code of Conduct; and
taking a zero-tolerance approach to suppliers who fail to comply with our new Supplier Code of Conduct, other relevant policies and procedures and with applicable laws.

We continue to review our policies and processes in an effort to go beyond basic social and environmental regulations and to ensure the highest standards in our supply chain, as expected by our customers and the companies with which we work.

We understand that this is a continual process in our efforts to ensure that no form of forced labour or slavery is present in our business or our supply chain. We continue to work on:

identifying relevant members of staff who would benefit from anti-modern slavery and anti-human trafficking training and guidance, so that training and guidance may be provided; and
identifying the risks and level of exposure within our supply chain, and managing such risks responsibly.

This statement constitutes the modern slavery and human trafficking statement for COG Research Limited

Rob Ellis

Founder and COO

For and on behalf of COG Research Limited

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Cookies

Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.hallandpartners.com (our site). This includes information provided at the time of making any general enquiry, registering to leave comments on our blog, or enquiring about career opportunities with us. The information collected includes name, email, password, security question and answer.
We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site. This information is your name, email, phone number and your enquiry.

COOKIES

Please refer to our document which explains the types of cookies we use on our site below.

WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by our staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, assisting in responding to any enquiry you make and/or the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

USES MADE OF THE INFORMATION

We use information held about you in the following ways:

To respond to any general enquiry.
To allow you to participate in interactive features of our website (for example on our blog) when you choose to do so.
To respond to any enquiry regarding a career opportunity with us.
To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to anyone.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may disclose your personal information to any member of our team where necessary to allow that member of the group to process your information or respond to any enquiry you make and/or the provision of support services. We may transfer the personal information we collect about you to recipients in countries other than the country in which the information originally was collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. When we transfer your information to recipients in other countries (such as the U.S.), we will protect that information as described herein.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), we will comply with applicable legal requirements providing adequate protection for the transfer of personal information to recipients in countries outside of the EEA.

YOUR RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the data controller is COG Research Limited, Willowhayne, Wonersh GU50RU

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. If you would like a copy of some, or all of your personal data, please contact us at info@cogresearch.com

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks or other third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page.

CONTACT

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to info@cogresearch.com

Our Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

By using our website, you agree that we can place the cookies we have described below on your device.

WHAT IS A COOKIE?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device.

You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu for a video about cookies visit www.google.co.uk/safetycenter/resources. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience.

COOKIES WE USE ON THIS WEBSITE

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which we have no control.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site, or certain aspects of the site may operate with reduced functionality resulting in a degraded user experience.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies are session cookies or will expire after 29 days.